Grounded by Angela Correll

New York City flight attendant Annie Taylor is grounded, putting a halt to weekends in Rome and her jet-setting lifestyle. Soon her noncommittal boyfriend’s true nature is revealed, and to top it all off, she loses her apartment.

With nowhere else to go, Annie leaves the city for the family farm in Kentucky, a place she’s avoided for years. She finds a shotgun-wielding grandmother, a farm in disrepair, and a suspicious stranger renting the old stone house.

The country quiet haunts Annie with reminders of a past that can’t be changed. She tries persuading her grandmother to sell the farm, but is met with stubborn refusal? Yet in the midst of her crashing life, Annie sees a glimmer of hope for a second chance.

 Jake Wilder is contemplating jumping off the corporate ladder to follow his passion for sustainable farming. He’s almost ready to propose to Camille, a girl who wants more, not less. Annie believes Jake is about to make a terrible mistake, but does she have the right to tell him?

As the summer heats up, so do Annie’s unexpected feelings for Jake and her interest in the land. When a sudden phone call comes from New York, Annie is forced to choose between coming to terms with her past or leaving it all behind.

Grounded is a lovely novel that I highly enjoyed.  It's all about going back to your roots.  From country girl to the city back to the country, Annie is finding out what her heart really wants.  She's a flight attendant who not only gets grounded, but she loses her apartment and finds out her boyfriend is a creep.  She has no where else left to go, so she goes back home to the farm.

There, she finds her grandmother, the farm is deep disrepair, a stranger living in the stone house and her ex, Jake Wilder, wanting to marry a girl who Annie doesn't think is right for him.  She also realizes that the feelings she thought were gone for Jake are still there.  Jake's been climbing the corporate ladder and his fiance, Camille, wants him to go into their family hotel business.  Jake knows his passion is farming though, he just needs to work some things out.

Annie urges her grandmother to sell the farm, but it falls on deaf ears.  She and Jake are amicable and he doesn't realize how her feelings have changed.  She wants to tell him that Camille is the wrong girl for him but she doesn't want to overstep her bounds.  But will she stay or will she return to the big city when a new company takes over? 

Grounded is a clean, entertaining novel about memorable characters and a slice of time in their lives.  Annie's grandma was my favorite - she's so bossy and she does carry a gun! But Annie and Jake are also wonderful characters and I quite enjoyed their time together.  Grounded is a charming debut with a solid storyline and the pages just fly by.  Highly recommend!

*I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.