Off My Bookshelf

I read on the weekends. The weekdays are reserved for writing, researching, and plotting, so I love it when the weekend winds around and I can bury myself in a good book!

Off my bookshelf this weekend, was an advanced read from my buddy Karen Barnett, "Where the Fire Falls".

Anyone who knows me very well, knows my husband and I spent the first ten years of our marriage traversing the country going to National Parks. We love to camp, fly fish, kayak, rock climb, and I personally love to add reading books in the wilderness to that list.

Karen has come out with a new series of novels featuring National Parks in the early days of their conception. "Where the Fire Falls" is the second novel, although it is totally a stand-a-lone and is set in Yosemite. Which both saddened me and made me happy at the same time. Sad, because it's one park my dude and I never visited, and happy because, I was able to visit it along with Karen's heroine Olivia Rutherford (who has a rather sketch relationship with the park).

My review gives it 5 coffee cups out of 5.

There's a very thick flavor of the early 1920's interlaced with the fresh, crisp air of the park. Olivia Rutherford is an artist attempting to break-out in to the big time and Clark Johnson is a washed-up preacher who's finding his solace in the park instead of the pulpit. There's a definitively thick thread of romance through the book, which I enjoyed because, while thick, a lot of other stuff is happening too, so romance isn't the primary plot of the book. (That's a coffee cup in and of itself for me. I personally need more than romance to propel a book forward--but that's just me).

Without giving away too much of the story, in Where the Fire Falls you'll meet a lonesome hobo who lives in the park's wilderness, you'll have a dalliance with a Vanderbilt, you'll encounter a bear, see fire fall over the falls, and fall in love with secondary characters, John and Melba.

EVEN IF you're not a wilderness person, you'll enjoy the richness of these historical romances laced with stories of faith. Where the Fire Falls comes out in June and you can pre-order your copy here:

Christianbook.com

Barnes and Noble

Amazon

And after you order your copy, you need to know what Karen Barnett already knows about me:  I have a MAD CRUSH on Ranger Bear  (follow RB on Instagram)!!

He is Karen's little friend who journeys all over the wilderness. I'm probably his most squealy fan-girlie fan on the Internet. In Fact, RB will probably block me soon, as I keep sending him kisses. Ahh well, there's worse celebrities I could be crushing on.