Formerly of Bonners Ferry,  Jenny Ripatti-Taylor just had her first book published  “When Love and Culture Collide.”

Jenny was raised in Bonners Ferry and graduated in 2002 from Bonners Ferry High School.  She said she always had a vivid imagination as a child and wrote poems and short stories in her journal.

Jenny gained confidence with her writing  when her fourth grade teacher, Dottie Gray gave her an A plus on a story she turned in.

“She said that my descriptions were like Laura Ingalls Wilder,” Jenny said. “It was at the exact moment I wanted to become a writer.”

In high school Jenny was discouraged by those who told her English skills weren’t up to high enough standards to pursue her writing career.  She maintained keeping journals and writing and kept it to herself.

Jenny soon found herself living in Manchester, England. She said she had a struggle with learning a new culture and way of life in particularly so far from family and friends.

“You would think because it is the same language it wouldn’t be so hard but the English wasn’t the same it is so different,” said Jenny.  “The joking and the lifestyles weren’t the same at all.”

Jenny met her husband, Paul, in England. He also helped inspire her book.  She started writing it after living in England for two years. Her husband encouraged her to write after she had been laid off from a second job. He thought with the time she had it would be a great time to start her book.

“So I created a fictional story outlined and based on my own,” Jenny said.  “A love story where the couple has an amazing bond of love but cultural differences threaten to break them apart.

The book is an easy read, funny, sad, heart felt and adventurous full of emotions and drama, according to Jenny. 

Jenny took her laptop to Starbucks and would watch people all day and create characters.

“It came easy and natural for me to float off into fancy lands and far away places,” she said.

Jenny plans on this book being the first of a series. The next one she is working on is “When Babies and Career Collide.”

Jenny’s book can be purchased at Borders Books, Barnes and Noble, Authorhouse.com and soon back in stock at Amazon.com and ordered from Bonners Books.