Clark and Anna Richards are getting settled in as newlyweds
and making good progress on the Inn at Shining Waters. Clark
is completing several new cabins and Anna is ready for her
first season as proprietor or this rustic inn on the Siuslaw
River. A phone call from her daughter, Lauren, changes the
peacefulness of their lives.
Lauren is pregnant by an older college boy that she began
dating the preceding summer. Her first reaction is to have
an abortion. Anna does not want her to do this and tries to
give her several options: staying on the river until the
baby is born, putting the baby up for adoption, or letting
Anna and Clark raise the child. Lauren's mental and
emotional states are not stable.
Anna wants to let her daughter make the decision herself,
but Lauren's grandmother, Anna's ex-mother-in-law, insists
Lauren marry Donald, the baby's father. Grandma Eunice gets
Donald's mother, Adelle, to agree on this and together they
formulate a plan for getting them married, getting Donald a
job at Eunice's mill and setting them up to live with
Eunice. The plan, and the promises that come with it, are
more enticing to Lauren than marrying for love.
When Sarah Pearl is born, Lauren doesn't want to be a
mother. She only wants her college life and friends back.
Anna takes her home and tries to teach her how to be a good
mother and a good housekeeper and wife to Donald. Lauren
doesn't follow through when she returns to Pine Ridge and
the marriage starts to fall apart. Eunice comes to the
rescue again and hires both a housekeeper and a nanny so
that Lauren won't be so stressed and can spend her days as
she likes.
Anna sees very little of her granddaughter over the first
five years of her life. But when Lauren needs some place to
send Sarah for the summer so she can go to Europe with
Eunice, she turns to her mother. Anna is delighted to keep
Sarah, and they form a very special bond that lasts for many
years. Through those years Lauren becomes dependent on
prescription drugs and alcohol to cope with life. And Sarah
is beginning to follow in the steps of her mother with the
charmed life she has lived and lack of motherly supervision.
As Lauren comes back to the river to heal, will history
repeat itself, or will Sarah make some better choices?
Set in the late 1950s, 60s and early 70s, RIVER'S CALL picks
up where the first book in the series, River's Song
ended. It's an enchanting story about letting go of those
you love the most and praying that they will make their way
back. As Anna's Siuslaw Indian grandmother always said, "You
have to paddle your own canoe." This inspirational series
about healing your mind and spirit promises a third and
final book that will end Anna's story. You won't be
disappointed in any of them.
Anna Larson's daughter, Lauren, is confused, brokenhearted,
and misguided. It's the turbulent 1960s and feeling
alienated from her mother, Lauren chooses to stay with her
paternal grandmother. However, repelled by the woman's
manipulative and spiteful ways, Lauren returns to her
mother, the river, and the Inn at Shining Waters.
There, Lauren begins to appreciate the person her mother is
becoming - and she loves the river. However, her mother's
romantic interest throws a wrench into the works and Lauren,
jealous and angry, returns to her grandmother yet again.
But as time passes, and Lauren,
now a mother to her own defiant teenager, faces a new
crisis, one that puts the entire family at risk.