Regina Scott has once again invited readers to journey with her to the early days of the national parks. This time it's the Geyser Gateway hotel, lead by the widowed Kate Tremaine who serves as the readers (and Calvary's) guide to Yellowstone.
As far as lead characters go, I enjoyed Kate as a main character. Scott gives readers a well balanced character in Kate between her determination, her humour, and even her trauma. Scott gives a character who is both quick wittedly able and equally capable of evoking empathy as readers are drawn in to root for Kate, Danny and the hotel.
Scott provides an equally capable counter in the character of Lt. Prescott. I appreciated how Scott teased out his backstory and how completely the character felt to act within his motives.
One thing that can't be overlooked in this series is the setting Scott paints an amazing picture of the beauty of Yellowstone on every page. There are few authors I can think of that capture the wonder and awe of creation like Scott consistently has and this national park series is the perfect vehicle for her skill.
Plot wise, I was engaged with the story of Kate, Will, and the Geyser Gateway. The romance was fairly straightforward and I was pleased that the characters trauma was acknowledged in the plot allowing for richer interactions amid the heart and adventure.
I did have two points that detracted slightly from my overall perception of the story.
First. Private Smith was definitely written as a well balanced contrast to Lt. Prescott but his story left me feeling unsatisfied. Scott does an excellent job building up his past and dropping hints without giving a full picture as to his motivation or a satisfying conclusion. After all the build up I was eager to find out what was driving this character only to be left dangling. Now, I do realize this is part of a series and Private Smith's story may come out in a different section of the American Wonders series, one of the tensions in an ongoing series.
Secondly, and this is completely personal preference, but the book felt more romance first historical fiction second which was a reverse of what I expected. The book is well written it just felt the historical aspect was more to build up the romantic tension. Readers going in for a more historical story should be aware of this.
Regina Scott has provided a unique series with her exploration of love and life against the backdrop of the beauty of the national parks in their early days.
4 out of 5 stars
This book was provided as part of the #RevellReadsBookTour, all thoughts are my own.
