November 1, 2017
Judd Markley and his brother Joe work in the mines in 1950s West Virginia. When a cave collapses and Joe is killed, Judd quits mining and takes a job with a timber company in Myrtle Beach, SC. Larkin Hayward dreams of working with the poor in Appalachia. Her brother Ben is a missionary there, and she longs to follow in his footsteps. Her initial meeting with Judd doesn't go well after she expresses a desire to go to Appalachia, stirring up painful memories of his brother. But the longer the two are together the more Judd realizes Larkin means more to him than hanging onto memories of the past. VERDICT Thomas's (A Tapestry of Secrets) easy prose, flavored with Appalachian dialect, light tone, and steady pace as the relationship between Larkin and Judd slowly blooms, make this an enjoyable historical romance.
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