Zoe Lawton has moved with her six-year-old son Jonah to
take a summer posting as fisheries biologist in Idaho. Her
stay doesn't start too well when Jonah scrapes a brand-new
pickup belonging to Tanner Buhlman - and then Tanner turns
out to be a colleague who has to show her the ropes.
The Bingham River is home to steelhead, bull trout and
Chinook salmon, with some sockeye. But the river
environment is constantly under threat, Zoe discovers.
With the taciturn Tanner along, she confronts farmers whose
sole concern is for their crops and legally use all but
seven percent of the water for irrigation. Next she catches
out a timber firm whose logging activities are causing a
debris build-up of loose branches, and whose earth movers
have dammed the river. After that the mine tailings
washing out contain not only copper but a caustic substance
that gives Zoe chemical burns. In all of this Zoe's
priority has to remain her child, so even when she finds
herself FALLING FOR THE FOREST RANGER she knows there is no
future in a relationship. This is only a summer posting
after all, and soon she'll be back in Portland.
Tanner, for his part, can't believe how easily Jonah gets
under his skin. This boy without a dad just wants to be
taken fishing and hiking on a Sunday school outing, like
the other kids. Tanner agrees to play 'big brother' on the
outing and enjoys it more than he'd expected. A local
lothario has his eye on Zoe but considers her child
as 'baggage' and Tanner resents this more than he should,
for a man with no involvement. Finally he starts to turn
his lonely life around - but has he left it too late?
This tale by inspirational writer Leigh Bale is an old-
fashioned, gently simmering romance with frequent Christian
references. But the book contains a very pleasant ethos
and a message of hoping for better around the corner.
The topic is one that we
can't afford to ignore.
Working for the Forest Service, Tanner Bohlman knows the dangers of Idaho's untamed lands and rivers. It's certainly no place for a dainty woman like widowed mother Zoe Lawton, even if she is a capable marine biologist. But Zoe is new in town and could use a guide. When Tanner discovers her young son has never been fishing, he quickly becomes a father figure. Suddenly one sweet child and a woman with more grit than he gave her credit for are tugging on this man's heartstrings. And before long, he's questioning his vow never to love again.
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