The Ojai

About the Book

The simplicity of Ojai farm girl Meggie Baxter's life is shattered when she must choose between loyalty to her rough-hewn friend, Rusty, and the dashing Charles. As the decades of her life unfold, she faces the elemental dangers of floods and fire as well as the colorful high-jinks radiating from Pop Soper's Fight Camp, the steam baths at Matilija Hot Springs, a leaning post office tower, a corrupt councilman and Libbey's plans to modernize the town.

Amid tragedy and loss, Meggie clings to the one constant in her life, the promise of God's love. It is the "pink moment", the evening sunset casting a rosy hue like a prayer across the Topa Topa Mountains, that points her again and again to faith and courage. Midst the idyllic beauty of the Ojai Valley and the crushing forces of change, will Meggie and her beloved Ojai stay true to their rural roots of faith and family? Will the ultimate sacrifice that spares Rusty's life be enough? Or will the winds of destiny destroy both the people and the indomitable spirit of the Ojai?

About the Author

Patricia Hartmann has made Ojai, California her home for 37 years. She loves Ojai?s colorful history and lives with her husband in a 145-year-old farmhouse on a nine-acre farm where they grow Pixie Tangerines. They have a his/mine/and ours family of eight children and fourteen grandchildren.