Last night I was thinking about the Rocky Start books and thought– this is kind of like the nice Rambo. A veteran is out walking around, in this case the Appalachian Trail. He comes into town, this time for new boots. And runs into trouble and, eventually, love.

Rocky Road is Max, the hero of the series, finally trying to finish the last section of the Trail so he can complete a “through hike”.

Max Reddy has spent his career as a covert operative doing what he does best: completing missions, avoiding emotions, and treating every human interaction like a tactical operation. It’s worked great—until he met Rose Malone in Rocky Start. She stole his wallet and his heart and made him almost human; but he’s still basically a well-trained robot with minimal social skills.

He’s helping her renovate the old cottage in the woods across the river from Rocky Start when days of rain combined with the remnants of a storm flood the town and they are forced to evacuate. The only roads into it are shut for weeks before they can rebuild.

Rose suggests that Max finally finish his through-hike on the Appalachian Trail. Max agrees. What could go wrong?