The Long Way Around

By Jan Hart

Eleven days. Three countries. One unexpected beginning.

Two years after losing her husband, Nell Ashby does the one thing everyone tells her not to: she flies to Chamonix, alone, to walk the Tour du Mont Blanc. It was David's dream trip, planned down to the last mountain hut for their thirtieth anniversary. He never got to take it. But he left her his trail map, its margins filled with handwritten notes for every stage of the journey. There are jokes, warnings, and small instructions to slow down and look at the flowers.

Her guide, Luca Ferrand, has spent twenty-six years leading strangers around the mountain and letting them go at the end of the trail. He's calm, careful, and very good at keeping his distance. He knows every pass and every refuge. What he doesn't know is how to stop being afraid of coming second.

From fog-covered snowfields in France to the warm, noisy kitchens of an Italian village, from a lightning storm on the Swiss border to a hidden ledge where edelweiss still grows, the miles draw Nell and Luca closer than either intended. As the loop bends back toward Chamonix, Nell must decide whether loving again means letting go of the life she had. And Luca must decide whether he is brave enough to be the one who comes next.

The Long Way Around is a warm, heartfelt second-chance romance about grief, courage, and the quiet ways love finds us again. It's a story of good friends met on the trail, a mother who feeds everyone, and a husband whose love still speaks from the margins of a map.

Perfect for readers who love:

Second-chance romance with mature heroinesBreathtaking European travel settingsClean, closed-door romance with emotional depthHallmark-style happy endings

Some paths lead us back to ourselves. Others lead us to each other.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0HMH9SLMY
• ISBN13: 9798998429736
• Release Date: October 2026
• Publisher: Acute Care Atlas
• Length: 202 Pages
• Weight: 0.61 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 6.0" x 9.0"