About the Book

Book: Meet Me in the Yorkshire Dales

Author: Valerie Massey Goree

Genre: Romantic Suspense

Release Date: February, 2025

To inherit her grandfather’s estate, Roxanne Clarke has to prove the identity of her birth mother. Considering all the ancestry help online, that shouldn’t be a problem. However, the only clues Roxanne has are an old photograph and hints provided by a member of her grandfather’s household that her mother was born in Yorkshire.

Accompanied by her best friend, Avery, and Avery’s twin brother, Lucas, Roxanne travels to England. Their attempts to identify Roxanne’s mother send them from one village to another. To add to their frustration, a fellow Texan is following them, threatening them, trying to locate the woman first.

Lucas has been in love with Roxanne since high school, but botched their relationship two years ago. While helping her find her mother, can he salvage their once-blossoming romance, build a new beginning, and keep her safe when the Texan’s actions intensify?

Click here to get your copy!

Author Interview

1.Do you consider yourself a plotter or a pantser (or a hybrid)?

I’m a hybrid. I create a tentative plot that includes major events to enhance the romance and the
suspense. However, as I write, the characters sometimes determine what will happen next, or
what important events I need to add or revise. I’ve learned to ‘listen’ to my characters.

2.Do you have a way to keep track of your story ideas?

I’m old-fashioned and use paper and pen instead of a computer program to keep track of my
story ideas. Recently, I plotted a series about three sisters, and jotted down their careers,
incidents that might occur, and how they relate to each other. For Meet Me In the Yorkshire
Dales, book two in my series From England with Love and…Treachery, I plotted a basic outline,
developed my hero and heroine, but had to wait until I visited villages in the Yorkshire Dales to
be able to use them as the setting and as a character, too.

3.Do you have a way to keep track of your story ideas?

Two events during my school years dampened any creative writing inclinations I might have had.
In elementary school, we were assigned to write a story about the birth of Jesus. Well…I
followed the Bible account and was told that it showed no creativity or originality. Then, in
middle school, we were tasked with writing about items we collected and encouraged to describe
more than one. (Remember, this was long ago when kids were kids.) I inherited my brother’s
stamp collection, so obviously I wrote about it. and then added that I loved to add buttons to my
Mother’s button box. I’d sort them into sizes or colors. (Early hints of mild OCD characteristics.)
Students had to read their essays in front of the class, and fellow students could offer feedback.
To introvert me, that was bad enough, but then the teacher would add her critique. She said
collecting buttons was very immature for an eleven-year-old. What did she say about my stamps?
I have no idea because I only remember her criticism. I didn’t try creative writing until I was
forty.

4.Where do you get your ideas for your books?

Ideas for my stories come from many sources. For instance, I was walking my dogs in our rural
neighborhood, noted the dogs in the corner property didn’t announce our passing as they usually
did. Ooh, what if I started a story with “The dogs didn’t bark.” I’ve used that idea as the basic
plot in the second book in my Sisters in Perils series.

5.Do bits of yourself/friends show up in your characters?

Yes, but I don’t use too many because I never want people to recognize themselves.

About the Author

American Christian Fiction Writers Genesis Award winner Valerie Massey Goree resides in San Antonio, Texas.

She was born in South Africa and grew up in Rhodesia—now Zimbabwe. Valerie met her husband, Glenn, at a Christian university in the USA. After they married, they served as missionaries in Rhodesia. When the family returned to Texas, Valerie began her teaching career. She served 25 years in the public school arena, focusing on children with special needs.

Her writing journey only began when their children were in high school. Attending workshops and ACFW conferences helped propel her toward publication. She has eleven romantic suspense novels published.

Valerie and her family traveled extensively throughout North America, Africa, Europe, the Middle East, Australia, New Zealand, and the UK. Now retired and widowed, she spends her time writing, reading, traveling, and spoiling her grandchildren.

Valerie loves to hear from her readers.

More from Valerie

Meet Me in the Yorkshire Dales is the second book in my series From England with Love and…Treachery. The three standalone stories feature American characters who are visiting or working in England. When they meet, romance blossoms, but is hindered by misfortune, menacing strangers, betrayal, and dead-end clues. Book One, Meet Me Where the Windrush Flows, is set in the Cotswolds. Book Three, which I’m writing now, takes place in the City of Bath during the Jane Austen Festival.

As an author, my goal is to set stories in places I’ve lived or visited. What a hardship it was for me to travel to England to research the Cotswolds area for Book One, and the next year to visit the Yorkshire Dales and Bath!

During my two-week sojourn in the Yorkshire Dales, I stayed in a cottage in each of the villages featured in the story. When I walked down the ‘Snake Path’ in Grassington, I knew I had to include it in the story.

Roxanne, my heroine, has never been to England and is enthralled by the villages’ narrow roads, cobblestone streets, and the ancient cottages, some built in the seventeenth century.

When I made the reservation for the cottage in Grassington, I didn’t know that the TV show All Creatures Great and Small is filmed there. They usually film in April, but alas, I was there in September. I did recognize many places used in the show, such as the village center, featured in the photo.

Needless to say, I loved visiting these places. Roxanne did, too.