Totally and Completely Fine

Finished August 25

Totally and Completely Fine by Elissa Sussman

This contemporary romance novel follows Lauren Parker, who grew up and lives in the small town of Cooper, Montana. In the present, Lauren runs a craft and book store with her mother, a retired school teacher. Her younger brother Gabe is a famous actor and has helped all the family out financially. Three years ago, Lauren's husband Spencer died in a car accident, something she and her teen daughter Lena are still struggling with. She also has a difficult relationship with Lena as Lena is a moody teen. When the two go to visit Gabe on set, Lauren meets actor Ben Walsh, and there is instant chemistry. Ben is younger than Lauren and she struggles with her attraction, her worries about the age gap and their different trajectories. 

We see Lauren's younger years, after her own father died when she was eleven and she herself was a rebellious teen. Living in a small town, she earned a certain reputation that some locals still paint her as. She knows how reputation can affect her life and doesn't want to go through that again, or bring attention on her own daughter in a negative way.

This is a romance, but also a story of struggling with grief and moving forward after loss. It is about family and intimacy, and how we all long to be seen, even though it can be scary to be vulnerable.

I enjoyed this novel and found it a real page-turner. 

A Bramble House Christmas

Finished March 4

A Bramble House Christmas by C.J. Carmichael

This is the sixth book in the series, Carrigans of the Circle C, but the first I've read. The main female character is Willa Fairchild. As the book opens, she and her six-year-old son Scout are travelling to Marietta, Montana for a much-anticipated winter vacation. The trip is a gift from her most recent client, Mr. Conrad. Willa has worked as a private nurse since Scout's cancer diagnosis, which also marked the end of her marriage. Scout is now cancer-free and looking forward to engaging in normal activities for his age. Conrad learned enough of Willa's story to also include her in his will, something his family is surprised at, and suspicious of. 

Finn Conrad, his son, has given in to pressure from his family to find out more, and has booked into the Bramble House B&B under his professional name, Finn Knightly. He is a successful children's book illustrator. As he spends time with Willa and Scout, he learns more about them, and finds himself drawn to both of them. He also finds himself curious about his father's focus on Marietta, and begins to look more closely at the secrets in his own family history.

I liked both the main characters and found the plot believable. The setting is a real town, and is brought to life here, giving a cosy Christmas vibe. A light and enjoyable read. 

The Fervor

Finished March 10

The Fervor by Alma Katsu

This novel combines historical fiction with horror. 

The story begin in 1944, and Meiko Briggs and her daughter Aiko are in Minidoka, a Japanese internment camp in Idaho. Meiko's husband Jamie is a pilot, currently serving in the Pacific. Through the novel we learn how they came to be where they are now after his deployment. 

We also see Archie, one of Jamie's friends, as he and his wife Elsie take a group of children to a fishing area in the mountains near them. When an explosion happens and people are hurt, Archie begins questioning why. 

We also see Fran, a journalist in Nebraska, as she witnesses an explosion and discovers something interesting in the aftermath when she is in a remote area on a tryst with her lover. 

Along with these three stories, that gradually converge, are excerpts from a Japanese diary from seventeen years earlier, when a scientist studying winds comes across another discovery. 

This historical narrative becomes horror when people at the camp, in Nebraska, and in other places start to die from a strange disease. With a group of men in suits and expensive cars recently arrived at the camp, Meiko catches one of them in the kitchen at night and begins to suspect that they are using the Japanese there to conduct some kind of experiment. 

This novel is gripping and scary as you follow the clues to figure out who is doing what and whether anyone can be trusted. 

Justice

Finished August 9

Justice by Larry Watson

This novel is a prequel to Watson's bestseller Montana 1948. It covers earlier years of the Hayden family and events that led to the events in the earlier novel. There are seven sections in the novel, each dealing with a specific event in the family's history. These are mostly in chronological order, except the first section. 

The first section, titled Outside the Jurisdiction and set in the winter of 1924, involves teenagers Frank and Wesley Hayden and two of Frank's friends, Tommy Salter, and Lester Hoenig. The group is travelling in a Model T from their home in Bentrock, Montana to the Dakota Badlands on an annual hunting trip. This is the first year the young men haven't gone with the Hayden boy's father. It is snowing hard, and the weather leads them to stop in a small North Dakota town that some of them visited to play baseball in the summer. Frank and Wesley, as the sons of the sheriff in their region feel that they can's escape that connection at home. But in a different state, they might be any young men, and their and their friends' actions lead them to a difficult situation and a learning experience. 

The second section, Julian Hayden is set in 1899 and involves Julian's move west to Montana at the age of sixteen from his childhood home in Iowa after his father's sudden death. His mother had accompanied him, but his sister Lorna stayed behind, taking a job looking after the children of the local Methodist minister. Julian worked hard to homestead his land, but the increasingly plaintive letters from his sister lead him to make a short trip back to Iowa to deal with things. This section gives a real sense of his character and his ruthlessness that also showed in the first section. 

The third section, Enid Garling is set in 1906, and tells the method and circumstances in which Enid escaped a controlling father in her home in North Dakota to marry young Julian Hayden for a different, yet still controlled life, in Montana. This shows more of Julian's character, but also Enid's and explains the weak role she played in the raising of her own sons. 

The fourth section, Thanksgiving, takes place in 1927 when Wesley returns home from his North Dakota university for the holiday. His mother has included a local girl, Iris Heil, that Wesley had dated in high school, expecting that someday this woman would be her son's wife. The thoughts of Wesley take us back to their courtship, but the conversation at the table after Enid has taken the plates and leftover food to the kitchen is enlightening for Wesley and us. He gets a different view of Iris, and one he doesn't entirely like of his father and brother. 

The fifth section, Len McAuley, is set in 1935, but has history about Len's earlier days in the community that give us a sense of who he is and what is important to him. Len is Julian's deputy and to stay within the bounds of term limits, he takes the position of sheriff every few terms. Len came to town with his family at the age of twelve. That was in 1898, the same year that Julian arrived. A traumatic event soon after they arrive has Len making his own way, and he finds companionship with his neighbour Julian. When Julian stopped serving as sheriff and Wesley took the position, Len tried to guide him to do as his father would have done, but found himself unable to express himself properly. Len married soon after Julian did, as he felt it was expected, but never felt towards her the way other men expressed themselves about the women in their lives. He thinks he is incapable of these feelings until a woman finally awakens them, but she is already taken and he can only admire her and be offended by the way some other men disrespect her. What we see here is very informative as to both his character and his interaction with the community. 

The sixth section, The Sheriff's Wife, takes place just a couple years later in early 1937, and is centered on Wesley's wife, Gail Hayden, a very capable woman who works as a secretary in a local government office, her commute just across the street from her home. As she watches her father-in-law and judges his behaviour, she sees her own husband taking on some of his father's mannerisms as he takes on the role of sheriff, and begins to question whether she has made a bad choice. 

The last section, The Visit, also takes place in 1937 and is also centered on Gail. She has a baby now, and is visiting her own parents in North Dakota, showing the child to her relatives there. Back in her childhood room, she finds herself mulling her marriage again, wondering about Wesley's behaviour, and considering whether she should allow the urges she is having to stay with her parents and not go home to become a real choice. These last two bring us back to Wesley, who was the main character in the first and fourth sections. We see how he has different feelings than the other men in his family, and struggles between wanting to please his father and wanting to be different from him, true to his own morals. It also shows how this struggle sometimes appears to others and makes him harder to understand, even with those close to him. I have the novel Montana 1948, but haven't read it yet. This novel intrigued me enough to want to continue reading about these characters. 

Girl from Nowhere

Finished August 21
The Girl from Nowhere by Tiffany Rosenhan

This debut novel for teens is fast moving. Sophia Hepworth has grown up with loving parents, but constantly on the move and not really making any friends along the way. Her parents appear to be diplomats, but they are definitely more than that. Her father's public job is facilitating NGOs in developing countries, working for the State Department. He is a spy and many of the skills needed to survive in that world have also been taught to Sophia. She can handle a gun, a knife, and many other tools of defense. She is in good physical shape and can hold her breath underwater for long periods of time. She can get her bearings quickly in places she hasn't been before. She speaks quite a few languages fluently, and knows a decent amount of even more. She has been trained to survive many dangerous situations.
When her family lived in Istanbul, something bad happened to her, and she's been running ever since, and not really recovering from that incident.
Now, her family is finally back in the United States and her parents have retired. They've moved to a small town in Montana, called Waterford. Furniture and smaller items she hasn't seen in years are coming into their new home. Sophia is attending the regular town school and making friends with other girls her age. And there's a boy who she finds compelling.
Of course she stands out. In her first class, French, the discovery that she is fluent has the teacher moving to move her to a different language class, but all the ones on offer are ones that she is fluent in, so she stays. And now her classmates know this about her. They are friendly, but have lots of questions. She answers as truthfully as she feels she can. She has been told that she is no longer in danger, that the men hunting her since Istanbul are all dead, but she still can't be completely honest about her unconventional life.
The boy saves her from a dangerous situation, and only later did she learn his name, Aksel Fredericksen. Then he rescues her again. She notices that he has some of the same skills that she's learned, and that he doesn't seem fazed by her. She likes that. As their relationship grows, the situations that they find themselves up again grow more dangerous. She begins to wonder if she is really as safe as her parents have led her to believe.
This novel is fast-moving and has an edge of the seat plot interspersed with bits of normal love and some romance. It kept me engrossed.

Don't Let My Baby Do Rodeo

Finished January 10
Don't Let My Baby Do Rodeo by Boris Fishman

This is totally different than what I expected going solely from the title. A middle-aged Jewish couple, both of whom immigrated from Russia, decides to adopt a baby when they are unable to have one of their own. The couple, Maya Shulman and Alex Rubin, live in close contact with Alex's parents. Maya came to the United Sates as an exchange student, while Alex came as a child with his family. Maya always had a dream of owning her own restaurant, but instead she took the more practical route, and works in a local hospital as a technician. Alex works in his father's canning business.
As the book starts, it has been eight years since the adoption of their son, Max. It was a difficult decision to adopt, and when Max first runs away, and then is found to have some quirks unlike anyone the family knows, Maya decides they must hunt down his young birth parents and learn more about his background. There is no particular aim in Maya's quest exactly, it is just something that she feels she must do to make Max fully their own. The title comes from the one request the young parents gave Maya and Alex when they met at the time of adoption.
The book has an interesting dynamic between Maya and Alex, not always a good one, and between Maya and Alex's parents.
There is some inward looking at first for Maya and her son, but when she decides to hunt down Max's birth parents, the young family goes on a cross-country trek from their home in New Jersey to Montana. Along the way they encounter landscapes new to them, and people that captivate them in different ways. One begins to wonder what Maya's plan really is.
This was a very hard book to pin down, and one that took me to places I didn't expect.

The Flood Girls

Finished February 24
The Flood Girls by Richard Fifield

This novel is one that had me laughing and crying. The setting is Quinn, a small town in Montana, and we see things from the point of view of several characters. Rachel is a young woman who left town years before after a series of notorious behaviour climaxed with one causing her mother to throw her out. She's turned her life around, joined AA and is now in the process of making amends. Coming back to town is part of that transition for her. The recent death of her father Frank, has given her a place to live during this time. Jake is twelve and lives next door to Rachel with his mother and her boyfriend and their baby. Jake is a precocious child, with a passion for fashion, pulpy novels, rosaries, and Madonna. Frank was one of the people he related well to. Rachel's mom, Laverna, is a tough woman who owns one of the two bars in town. She also sponsors a women's baseball team, the notorious Flood Girls. Rachel is compelled to be on the team despite her lack of sports experience.
The book is rich with wonderful characters from Martha Man Hands to the two Mabels (Red and Black) to Buley, who owns the local thrift store.
Quinn is also a mining town, and a group of the regulars at Laverna's bar, the Dirty Shame, is a group of rough and rowdy lesbian miners. They are peripheral to the story, but offer an interesting background to the action.
This is a story of friendship and families, of acceptance and prejudice. A book that shows the wonder and tragedy of life.
I loved it.

Mortal Fall

Finished September 4
Mortal Fall by Christine Carbo

This is the second novel in the series set in Glacier National Park. Here the main character is GNP's police officer Monty Harris, who also appeared in the first book, The Wild Inside. As the book begins, Harris is investigating the death of a man who is found at the bottom of a cliff near the Going to the Sun Road. At first, it appears to be a horrible accident, but soon Harris finds anomalies that don't fit. With the victim being an experienced park worker, and the fall site not an overly dangerous place, Harris starts looking harder at the victim's life.
The victim, Paul Sedgewick, known as Wolfie for his research on wolverines, was a family man, with a passion for the animal he researched. When another body is found nearby, the case grows more confusing. Is it a coincidence or not?
As Harris digs, he finds links to his own past and the correctional school his older brother Adam attended. He hasn't talked to his brother in years and doesn't have good feelings towards him. Will this influence his decisions on the case.
Harris is aware that leading his first major case is something he wants to do to prove himself to his superiors, and with his personal life falling apart, he must rely on others to assist him in the case despite his natural independence.
We see deep into Harris' personal issues here and that makes his character really come alive. The story also makes the park a big part of the story as the setting for the events.

The Wild Inside

Finished December 5
The Wild Inside by Christine Carbo

This mystery novel is set in Glacier National Park. Ted Systead is an agent for the Department of the Interior, working out of Denver. Ted is assigned to investigate a disturbing killing in the park, where a man was killed by a grizzly. While a bear killing would not be within Ted's purview, the victim was tied to a tree before the bear killed him. The case is unusual and disturbing, but it also takes Ted back to the horrific event that happened when he was fourteen. He and his father were camping at Oldman Lake in the southeast end of the park, when a grizzly attacked them in the night, dragging Ted's father from the tent and killing him. Ted's boss doesn't seem to have connected the current case with Ted's past, so Ted flies in and begins to tackle the case.
The local park police assign an officer to assist him, and Ted both resents and depends upon Monty, finding that he has good instincts. As the case leads them to old girlfriends, relatives, and the drug trade, they discover that the victim wasn't very likeable, and while a lot of people may have wanted him dead, no one seems likely to have gone to the level of planning that seems to have been done. Ted is forced to confront his issues with his past, and rely on his experience and intuition to draw out the real story behind this crime.
I love Glacier National Park and love to read a mystery where I am familiar with the landscape and geography. I also liked the depth of character shown here. Ted is a good officer, but he has never really dealt with the nightmare of what happened to him and the aftermath. That avoidance has affected his relationships and not allowed him to move forward in his personal life. We see what is going through his mind, his good instincts and his bad ones. He is real and likeable. The story is interesting and complex with a victim that is easy to find deserving of a bad end. But we see his history as well, and find that it is also complex. This is definitely an author to look for more by.

Die Trying

Finished March 14
Die Trying by Lee Child

This Jack Reacher novels begins in Chicago and takes Jack to a remote valley in northern Montana. As Reacher is walking along a sidewalk in Chicago, a woman steps out of a dry cleaner with her arms full and drops her cane. He steps in to assist and ends up being taken along as she is kidnapped. The journey to their destiny takes some time, enough time for the two to get to know each other somewhat.
The search that begins for the woman in Chicago escalates quickly and becomes a matter of politics and personal relationships.
Themes here include the right-wing militia movement, conspiracy theories, and megalomania. Reacher, of course, is more than capable of dealing with what is thrown at him most of the time, and finds necessary assistance when the time is right.
A great read.