by Karen Fisher
First published 2005
Lucy Mitchell stands beside her wagon on the banks of the Missouri River in Iowa, watching her second husband make the decision that will uproot their lives. She married Israel Mitchell despite her grief for her first husband, and now he drags the family toward Oregon Territory in 1847. Her eleven-year-old daughter Emma watches it all unfold. James McLaren tracks through the wilderness carrying his own losses. The Scottish trapper lost his children to smallpox and his Nez Perce wife to another man. When he follows that man to Lucy's wagon train, their meeting changes everything. McLaren signs on as their guide for the trek from Missouri to the Columbia River. Lucy discovers something in herself as they cross the continent. McLaren finds what he never knew he needed. The journey strips away everything familiar and forces them to build new lives from the collision of household routines and untamed land.
Genres: romance, american-fiction, historical-fiction, adventure, 19th-century
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, found-family
Setting: Columbia River, Iowa, Missouri River, Oregon Territory
Period: 1847
552 pages · Hardcover · RB Large Print