Since her parents' death six months ago, Jessie Hart has been trying to make her dream come true: making the family dude ranch into an equine rescue facility. Unfortunately, her project has been steadily losing money; she owns one-third of the Heart Fire Ranch with her siblings, and her brother Justin asked his former college best friend, Nathan Kerrington, to help out without telling her. What Justin doesn't know is that Jessie and Nathan had a summer romance before Nathan left for college.

HEART'S DESIRE is not a quiet, little romance. Jessie's anger and resentment knows no bound upon seeing Nathan after eight years, and Ms. Kline conveys Jessie's emotions so powerfully that I almost felt as much pain as our heroine. Jessie learned early in life that she must appear tough: she's a horse trainer and has worked all her life alongside men. But she has let her icy façade creep right into her very soul: she is furious that the man who broke her heart intends to tell her how to manage her business and she is not even civil towards Nathan. Nathan had never quite realised how deeply he had hurt Jessie, and he bends over backwards trying to placate her and fix her business, and while doing so he realises that he had behaved like a coward in the past and sets out to right several wrongs.

Watching Jessie at work is where Ms. Kline shines at her brightest: Jessie is a horse whisperer and those scenes are truly awe-inspiring. The author's obvious knowledge of this particular gift is astounding; time stops as we are privy to some of the most vivid and extraordinary scenes. Ms. Kline is also a master at creating characters that appear so very real and engaging, if not always lovable that we really care what happens to them. This is true of Nathan and Jessie, but the same can be said for the secondary characters as well; I particularly liked Bailey, who is somewhat the voice of reason in the middle of what is a difficult situation, and I hope to see much more of her in the future.

HEART'S DESIRE is also filled with passion as Nathan and Jessie rekindle the love that was still smouldering, in spite of mostly Nathan's reluctance to admit it. I love that Ms. Kline paints a realistic romance and that nothing ever looks set in stone.

HEART'S DESIRE is a book that grabs you from the opening chapter and does not let go until the last page is turned because of a tightly-knit plot, unexpected turns of events, terrific writing, and superlative characters. HEART'S DESIRE is a tremendous debut to the new Healing Harts series, and I will be waiting with bated breath for the future instalments in what promises to be yet another brilliant series by the brilliant T. J. Kline.