Spotlight & Giveaway: The Lost Book of First Loves by RaeAnne Thayne

Today it is my pleasure to Welcome author RaeAnne Thayne to HJ!

Hi RaeAnne and welcome to HJ! We’re so excited to chat with you about your new release, The Lost Book of First Loves!

Thanks so much for having me.
 

Please summarize the book for the readers here:

After her famous literary icon father’s unexpected death, Alison Wells uncovers a shocking truth when a DNA test reveals a half-sister she never knew about. Determined to meet high-powered tech executive Juniper Connolly and untangle the past, Ali takes a job as her sister’s intern. But when June suffers a cardiac arrest from a congenital condition she never knew about, Ali’s quick thinking saves her life. Ali persuades her half-sister to recover at their father’s ranch in his writing cabin, hoping she will find a better opportunity to reveal all to her. Under the Wyoming summer sun, the two women will uncover a lost manuscript, untangle family secrets, and discover the true meaning of sisterhood. And of course there are a couple of romances that feature two of my favorite tropes, friends to lovers and enemies to lovers.
 

Please share your favorite line(s) or quote from this book:

The day she died, Juniper Connolly had just finished firing her latest intern.

Please share a few Fun facts about this book…

This book is set in one of my favorite places, about an hour outside of Jackson Hole, Wyoming and Grand Teton National Park. When I was in college, I spent a summer working at the Jackson Lake Lodge inside the park and grew to love that area for the spectacular scenery, endless adventures and fascinating wildlife. I never get tired of the wildness of the area.

What first attracts your Hero to the Heroine and vice versa?

I actually have two different storylines, between Juniper and Beck and also Alison and Xander. June has every reason to dislike Beck but she is drawn, almost against her will, to his artistic skill with wood as well as his devotion to his dog. Ali and Xander have been best friends since they were in elementary school so their story is really a friends-to-lovers trope. They haven’t been together in their hometown for years. Spending time with Xander makes Ali realize her feelings for him have deepened over the years and she has decide if she’s willing to risk losing their friendship to take a chance on love.

Did any scene have you blushing, crying or laughing while writing it? And Why?

I love the scene where Ali finds a photo album hidden in a drawer of Xander’s childhood bedroom containing photos of her he has taken over the years. For the first time, she begins to wonder if his feelings for her might be deeper than she ever knew.

“She wondered what photos he had cherished so much that he kept an album of them in his dresser drawer.

Curious, she turned the page and was astonished to find her own younger face looking back at her, in profile, turned away from the camera.

She turned the second page and found two more pictures of her, one where she was dancing with the guy who had taken her to the junior prom, another where she was sitting on the bleachers at the football field, wrapped in a blanket against the chilly Wyoming autumn evening, her features animated as she cheered something happening in the game.

She turned the page and found more photographs of herself, some at school, some in the mountains where they used to hike, some here in his family room.

A few she had vague memories of posing for, with goofy expressions or exaggerated smoldering model poses like Ben Stiller in Zoolander.

Others looked like candid photographs, shot when she was unaware he was even taking her picture.

Why had he printed these? She could see him keeping a folder on his phone, maybe, an album to help remember the fun they used to have.

Photos that he could look through when he was feeling nostalgic for the good old days. She had an album of him and her other friends from home on her own phone, and looking at it invariably cheered her up when she was having a bad day.

But Xander had gone to the trouble to print these photos of her and to put them in a photo album. Who even did that anymore?

And why had he then tucked it away here in his drawer?”

Readers should read this book….

… if they love reading about family secrets, found sisters and the healing power of story.

What are you currently working on? What other releases do you have in the works?

I’m excited about the next installment in my Shelter Springs series. When sexy wounded helicopter pilot Ryan Caldwell comes to Shelter Springs for the holidays to help out in the midst of a family crisis, he never expects to fall hard for lovely florist Holly Moore … or for her adorable five year old daughter Lydia. SNOW KISSED hits stores October 7, 2025.

I’m currently working on next year’s summer book, set on the glorious Oregon Coast. The book has a working title of THE WOOD BRIAR BOOKSHOP and I’m having so much fun getting to know my characters.
 

Thanks for blogging at HJ!

Giveaway: 1 finished hardcopy to a winner located in the US.

To enter Giveaway: Please complete the Rafflecopter form and Post a comment to this Q: If you had a second chance at life after a medical emergency, what would be some of the things on your bucket list?

 
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Excerpt from The Lost Book of First Loves:

Funny how a person’s life could change in an instant.

Only days ago, she was in her office trying to fire her latest intern. Now she sat in one of the plush chairs in the smaller of the Move Inc corporate jets, heading for a town in Wyoming she had never heard of, with that same intern sitting in the seat next to her.

She touched the fingers of one hand to the steady pulse beating in her other wrist. She found it both comfort and curse that she was so aware of her heartbeat now. For thirty-four years, she had taken that beat for granted, never expecting she had a congenital heart condition that could have ended her life at any second.

Everything she had achieved—her work at Move Inc, her prestigious penthouse condo, the healthy portfolio, her charitable contributions—could have disappeared in a blink.

The fragile nature of life had never been so apparent to her.

“We should be there soon.” Alison peered down at the landscape passing quickly beneath them. “I think that’s Jackson Hole. I recognize the Grand Teton below us and to the right.”

Glen Little, one of the Move Inc pilots who had flown June around the country several times before, chimed in over the intercom. “We’re beginning our descent. Another ten minutes or so and we will be on the ground. It might get bumpy as we head over these mountains but I will do my best to keep things nice and easy for you.”

“It’s kind of fun to fly on a private jet,” Alison said, looking around the comfortable surroundings with interest. “This is my first time. It’s so weird that we didn’t have to go through security or anything.”

Though Alison was at least in her midtwenties if she had already earned a law degree, she had the fresh-faced excitement of a child discovering how to skateboard for the first time.

“That is definitely an advantage,” June said, feeling ancient at her advanced age of thirty-four.

“If we were flying commercial, we would probably have to go to Jackson Hole, which is never a direct flight from anywhere. And then we would have to find somebody willing to drive more than an hour to pick us up. The county airport near Bridger Peak is only a fifteen-minute drive to our house.”

June would have been fine flying commercial to Wyoming but Adam had insisted they take one of the corporate planes. He had been overly solicitous since returning from his overseas trip, telling her several times that she needed to stay healthy since the company would collapse without her.

She didn’t quite buy that. Her role as head of marketing was definitely important to their bottom line, but they had a deep bench of excellent people who could step up and take over her responsibilities, even if she needed to be here longer than a few weeks.

“Will we need to hire a car to take us to your ranch?”

Alison gave her a reassuring smile. “It’s all taken care of. My grandma is working today and neither our housekeeper Jo Bailey or her husband, Patrick, who is our ranch foreman, could pick us up as they had other appointments.”

“Do they have Uber or Lyft in rural Wyoming?”

“Not really, though there is a couple who runs a business taking tourists into Jackson Hole or dropping them off at various trailheads in the area. But I’ve asked a good friend to pick us up.”

“Oh. That’s nice.”

“Doctor Singh said you should not drive for another week so I’m happy to take you anywhere you want to go. Anybody at the ranch would do the same. After you can drive again, I’m sure we will be able to find a ranch vehicle for you to use. It’s nice to have the freedom to explore or run into town when you want without having to wait for someone to give you a ride.”

“Thank you.”

She couldn’t quite figure out why Alison Wells was being so kind to her. Inviting someone who was a virtual stranger to recover from surgery in your guesthouse in Wyoming seemed an extreme offer, simply for a good letter of recommendation.

More to the point, why had June agreed to the plan? It was completely unlike her to take off with a woman she had known less than a month to travel to some isolated ranch in Wyoming, simply because June’s mother had adored literary icon Carson Wells.

She had never been so impulsive.

Then again, she had never died and been brought back to life before. Maybe something central inside her had changed, more than the implantable cardioverter device underneath her skin.

As the plane began to descend, June looked out the window at the small town surrounded by huge mountains on all sides. Scattered ranch houses dotted the landscape, patches of color in a sea of green.

The plane landed smoothly and Glen came on the intercom. “Everybody okay back there? Hang tight for a minute while I finish things up here in the cockpit and put down the steps for you.”

The door to the jet opened a few moments later and he reached up to take her hand as she walked down the steps to the tarmac.

June’s immediate impression as she looked around the Bridger Peak airport was one of space and grandeur. On all sides, mountains reached up to the sky.

The air seemed fresh and clean, with a hint of sage and pine. She inhaled deeply, already feeling some of the strain seeping away.

She wanted to stand in this spot all day and simply inhale.

“Hey, Beck!” Alison Wells sounded happier than June had ever heard her. “Thanks so much for coming to pick us up at the last minute.”

“Not a problem,” a deep, laconic voice echoed. “You know I’m always happy to help.”

“Right. You might even say you’re at our beck and call,” Alison said with a grin, which made the man groan, though he reached out to hug her with clear affection.

When he released her, the man turned toward her with an open, welcoming expression and June froze.

Beck, the neighbor and friend Alison had greeted fondly, was none other than Beckett Hunter.

She knew this man. Well, she amended, she didn’t really know him so much as she knew of him. Beckett Hunter was famous in some circles. Infamous, really.

She couldn’t quite reconcile that the hard-nosed prosecutor she had read about in the papers when she worked in Silicon Valley—and heard about from those with firsthand knowledge—was this man in jeans, boots and a T-shirt that hugged a well-muscled chest.

What was he doing here, at a tiny airstrip outside a small town in Wyoming? Besides picking them up, obviously.

“Good to have you back,” he said to Alison. “How was the big city?”

“About what I expected. Noisy, busy, crowded. A lot like Salt Lake, though I’m not sure the traffic was as bad.”

“Did you find what you were looking for?”

“In a manner of speaking,” she said in a rather oblique tone that June didn’t understand.

For the first time, he seemed to become aware of her. He stepped away from Alison and gave a welcoming smile.

“Hello. I’m Beckett Hunter. Alison’s neighbor.”

“I know who you are.”

Her voice came out more clipped than she intended and he frowned slightly, looking off balance at her sudden hostility.

“Okay, then.”

Alison seemed oblivious to the undercurrents. “This is Juniper Connelly, Beck. My boss. Well, my former boss, anyway. She sort of fired me.”

For some reason, Alison seemed to emphasize the word boss.

“So you decided to bring her home with you?”

“It’s a long story.”

She seemed uncomfortable suddenly, as if she didn’t want to get into the details of their situation, and she quickly rushed on before he could respond.

“Thanks for giving us a ride back to The Painted Sky. Ms. Connelly is going to be staying at Dad’s cabin.”

“Is that right?”

“Yes. I’ll explain everything later,” she said as Glen handed their bags to them from the cargo area of the jet.

“Is that everything?” the pilot asked.

“That’s all for me,” June said.

“Same for me. Thanks so much for the ride,” Ali said warmly. “It was really fun to fly in style.”

“You’re welcome. Maybe when I head back to pick you up, I’ll be able to come in a day early and do some flyfishing around here. I’ve heard it’s amazing.”

“It’s great,” Beck said. “If you come, let me know and I can point you to a few good places.”

“Deal.”

Glen seemed to have no idea who Beckett Hunter was. Why should he? Glen was a native of Seattle and wouldn’t have had any reason to read about a San Jose attorney.

Beck had been a much-celebrated assistant prosecutor in San Jose, on his way to becoming the district attorney someday. He had a reputation as hard charging, ruthless, relentless.

She had nothing against prosecutors. She had watched plenty of Law & Order in her day and knew all about the important role they played in the criminal justice system. But Beckett Hunter had been ambitious and driven, completely focused on winning. If a case didn’t meet his personal criteria for being successfully litigated, chances were it wouldn’t go to trial.

June had always made a point of not holding a grudge against people. She had seen enough vindictive, petty personalities throughout her career in the Big Tech world to know they always paid a price in the long run. Karma drove a big bus.

June was willing to make an exception for Beckett Hunter. She found it impossible not to dislike a man who had—at least once that she knew about—put the interests of the prosecutor’s office above those of a crime victim.

What were the odds that she would find him here, in this place she had come to for refuge and healing?

Juniper could feel her pulse begin to accelerate, throbbing in her neck. She filled her lungs with mountain air, willing herself to relax and breathe.

Wyoming was a big country. Surely, their paths would seldom cross. She would simply have to do her best to avoid the man.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
 
 

Book Info:

From New York Times bestselling author RaeAnne Thayne comes a brand-new story about two women, a family secret and a lost manuscript that changes everything…

Raised by her literary icon father Carson Wells, Alison Wells always felt loved, even though her mother died when she was a teen. But when she takes a DNA test on a whim and discovers she has a sister she never knew about, it’s clear there are things her father didn’t tell her before he died. Determined to meet Juniper—her half sister—and unravel the truth of what happened all those years ago, Ali finds herself taking a job as Juniper’s intern. She’ll eventually figure out a way to tell Juniper the truth of their relationship. But she never could have imagined what would happen next…

Juniper Connolly has always been incredibly healthy…until she wakes up in the hospital after experiencing cardiac arrest, with her new—and recently fired—intern to thank for saving her life. It’s clear June needs to de-stress her life a little, so when Ali offers her the use of her family’s cabin in a small Wyoming town, June has no reason not to go. But when she arrives, her life will never be the same.

Under the wide-open spaces of the Wyoming summer sun, Ali and June will untangle the secrets and lies their lives were built on to discover who they really are and what family really means. But even more than that, they’ll build a real relationship with one another and finally become sisters.
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Meet the Author:

#1 Publishers Weekly, New York Times and USA Today bestselling author RaeAnne Thayne finds inspiration in the beautiful northern Utah mountains where she lives with her family. Her books have won numerous honors, including seven RITA Award nominations from Romance Writers of America and a Career Achievement Award from RT Book Reviews magazine. RaeAnne loves to hear from readers and can be reached through her website at raeannethayne.com.
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