
Welcome to Barren Hillâwhere the rolling Hill Country hides more than just breathtaking views. In this small town full of big hearts, grumpy yet irresistible men find unexpected love with spunky heroines in stories brimming with warmth, healing, and second chances. From wounded warriors to everyday heroes, each contemporary romantic short by Willow Sanders delivers swoony moments, small-town charm, and emotional depth. These bite-sized reads are perfect for devouring in a single sitting.

Read Beard on Tap for $0.99â https://books2read.com/beardontap
Read Codename Dustoff for $0.99â http://books2read.com/codenamedustoff
Read Whiskey Business for $0.99â https://books2read.com/whiskeybusiness

She fell into a ravine. He caught herâand never let go. Set against the rugged charm of Baren Hill, this heartfelt romance delivers a swoony grumpy sunshine dynamic, a heroine rediscovering herself after divorce, and a cinnamon roll mountain man with a beardâand a barâto fall for.
Read Beard on Tap Hereâ https://books2read.com/beardontap
Excerpt
Copyright 2025, Willow Sanders
âFuck. Hello? Ouch! Motherfucking dick waffle!â
Usually it was songbirds and toads that greeted me, not a foul-mouthed woman.
âHello?â she called again. âPlease tell me those are human footsteps crunching on the gravel. Though it would totally be my luck if I met my demise being some bearâs post-hibernation meal.â
âDo you always talk to yourself?â I called into the air.
âOh, thank god. Hi! I honestly thought I was going to die down here.â
Down. As in the ravine. Hellâs fire, she was in the ravine.
âDo I need to call an ambulance?â
âNo, Iâm okay. I think I twisted my ankle though. I tried to stand on it a second ago and it was not having it.â
I shot a text off to Emmett to keep him on standby, then climbed down.
Her smile when I got to her exploded in relief.
âYoga pants and flip flops?â I helped pull her to a stand. âDid you get dropped on your head? What makes you think that is acceptable attire for these trails?â
âExcuse me?â she shoved away, nearly losing her balance until I caught her. âWas I dropped on my head?â
âThere are snakes out here,â I pointed at her toes. âYou startle them, theyâll be revoking your birth certificate.â
She was already pretty pale, but at the mention of critters her face blanched to near white.
âYou miss the mountain signs all over town? Ski in the winter, hike in the summer? What part of the word âmountainâ implies you can skip around here in those?â
âWe gotta get some ice on that.â
âAfter you just insulted my intelligence, do you honestly think I would have any inclination to accept help from you?â
I extended my hand. She stood there like a damn flamingo. I lost the last shred of patience I had and scooped her up.
âWhat the hell are you doing?â
She kicked in my arms like a wet cat. My palm had strict directives from my brain to stay right the fuck where it was tucked beneath her knees. The yoga pants she wore had to have been painted on her body, because every curve brushed against me like she wore nothing at all.
âAre you insane? What kind of a person just picks someone up without their permission?â
She pitched her fit all the way to the top. Thankfully, The Old Lady was less than fifty meters from the ravine. Sheâd get over it real quick.

She’s a battle-scarred veteran, he’s an amputee together they build something from the broken pieces. When insecurities surface, will the pair be able to heal and find the love they both so desperately seek? Can two people who have seemingly given up on themselves, find purpose once again?
Read Codename Dustoff Here â http://books2read.com/codenamedustoff
Excerpt
Copyright 2025, Willow Sanders
With the exception of the seasons, not much changed in Barren Hill. The same people who lived there when I was a kid, still did. Most of them lived in the same houses, or on the same plot of land. We all shopped at the local Pack nâ Sack, got our cars serviced by Jared and his pop, Larry Flynn. Flynn was their last name. I donât know why everyone called him Larry Flynn as if we were in Georgia and that was his first and middle name. Thatâs just how we did it up here, I guess.
If you werenât a mining family, you were a rail family. That is, unless you lived in the Abilene portion of Barren Hill. Thatâs where the fancy gated community folk hailed from. The ones whose parents were suit and tie people who drove fancy cars to whatever job they had.
Abilene was the place you rode your secondhand bike past their gates on your way to school. They were the people you fantasized about being.Their Christmases surely were a parade of new suits and dresses, patent leather shoes and fur lined jackets, and oversized boxes wrapped up in gorgeous gold and silver wrapping paper containing video game systems or Cabbage Patch dolls.
My pop and I were rail folk. He was a foreman for the rail yard. As soon as I graduated high school, he lined me up to start my career path at the good old BNSF. Finnâs dad owned the townâs watering hole, so like the rest of us, he too was born into his role. College? No one talked to any of us about that.
When I lost my arm, I just had to deal. Thatâs what we did. We dealt with the hands we were given. We figured shit out. Adapted. Found ways to continue spinning on the hamster wheel.

Sometimes the best solution for rain clouds, is the sun demanding to be seen.
He wants silence, she wants his signature. Their battle of wills turns into a dance neither one saw coming. When traumas are uncovered, and feelings unearthed, will these opposites finally give in to their attraction?
Read Whiskey Business Hereâ https://books2read.com/whiskeybusiness
Excerpt
Copyright 2025, Willow Sanders
âWhat on earth is all of that?â
We hadnât even made it out of the city limits yet. I stopped to top off my gas after picking Remle up from the Inn. Sheâd said she wanted to grab a few things from the gas stationâbut a few things apparently were the entire snack aisle.
âIâm pretty sure the rules of a good road trip state regardless of time or distance, if you are driving with friends for an extended amount of time, you must grab all the things from the gas station like youâre a kid with a twenty-dollar bill and no supervision.â
She proudly displayed the chips, Twizzlers, water bottles, Red Bull, and Reeseâs Pieces she purchased.
âDo you have any idea what food like this does to your insides?â
âCount on Doctor Raj to come swinging with the Debbie Downer health facts.â
Every molecule of my insides which had been feeling pretty relaxed hardened in the frozen tundra of flashbacks to my past life.
âWow, in a matter of three days, youâve done your due diligence on ferreting out all the details about me. Interesting sales tactic.â
I watched her face go from beaming with excitement to chastened in a millisecond. Shit. While I didnât mean to make her feel uncomfortable, she had no right digging into my past. It was mine to tell her. Something I planned on touching on in the simplest terms when we arrived in Barren Hill.
âIt wasnât a sales tactic,â she replied, wrapping her arms around herself. âPeople in this town are super chatty. A few of them have mentioned you used to be a doctor, thatâs all.â
âWhich is neither up for discussion nor examination.â
I felt exposed. Seen in a way which made my skin crawl and sent panic exploding through my nervous system. The people of Sycamore Mountain knew nothing about how Iâd come by their tiny town. Hundreds of thousands of dollars had scrubbed my past life from the search engines, guaranteeing no one would find out.
She didnât respond. Instead, she turned toward the window and watched the landscape change. It worked just fine for me, too. The last thing I needed was to engage in a dialogue with someone I barely knew, recounting the worst days of my life.

About Willow Sanders
A marketer by day, and author by night, Willow Sanders is a best-selling author of sweet with heat Contemporary Romance and Romantic Suspense. She loves to write spunky, take no shit women, and understanding men with a strong side of sarcasm and an extra helping of BDE. When not writing you can find her torn between her loyalty to the Fighting Illini and her husbandâs loyalty to Michigan State, bemoaning traffic, feeding her caffeine addiction, and trying to find the connection between her and the Gilmore Girlsâbecause she is certain she is a long-lost family member.
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