April showers us with love

One of the perks of reviewing is the sneak peek factor. Sometimes the "peek" comes even before the book is written, as was the case when best-selling author Debbie Macomber came to our state to research her North Dakota-based trilogy.

REVIEWS BY SANDY HUSEBY

Dakota reviewers and readers alike expect writers to "walk the canyons" as North Dakota-born author Louis L'Amour once described his research process. So Macomber and I talked for hours about everything from crops and big sky sunsets to hometown heroes before she continued on her way.

The first book in the series is Dakota Born. The story takes place in Buffalo Valley, a rural community linked to North Dakota's landscape and the agricultural economy. As the ranchers and farmers struggle to survive, so does the town. The community desperately needs a teacher to keep its school alive, and newcomer Lindsay Snyder is looking for some purpose in her life. Returning to see her grandparents' home, Lindsay decides to stay and teach in the local high school. In the process, she learns about herself and her heritage.

Rancher Gage Sinclair distrusts her motives and his own attraction to her. Like the townspeople, Lindsay and Gage must learn to trust each other if they are to build a thriving relationship.

Macomber's heartwarming stories of ordinary people struggling against extraordinary challenges live up to the formidable task of "walking the canyons."


War and peace

In war-torn Kosovo, a barrage of bullets shatters the life of photojournalist Tony Hampton and destroys everything Valentine Denning has believed about him and their relationship. It's just the beginning in Barbara Taylor Bradford's Where You Belong.

Val and their colleague, Jake Newberg, are wounded in an attack that kills Tony, and the scars of that trauma are emotional as well as physical. Forced to re-evaluate what she expected her life to be, Val returns to her home territory of New York to explore her own strengths and discover more about Jake, who has been by her side all along.

Bradford's story ranges from the broad international issues of war and peace to the internal struggles of hearts at war.


Love and loyalty

Can there be a greater test of the human heart than to risk losing the one you love in order to save her? That poignant question is faced by Liam Campbell in Kristin Hannah's compelling new contemporary novel Angel Falls.

His wife Mikaela is in a coma, clinging to life after being kicked by one of her horses. When Liam discovers that Mikaela has kept her first marriage a secret, he makes a fateful choice and gambles on rousing her from the coma by seeking out her first husband, Julian.

Meanwhile Mikaela awakens and is swept up in her past as amnesia wipes away the memory of her marriage to Liam and the existence of their children.

Hannah weaves an intimate and powerful tapestry from the threads of their lives, revealing that beneath the colorful and alluring surface, the hidden strands of emotion are the resolute fibers hold a family together.


Treasure hunt

A beguiling woman steals the treasures of two families in Antoinette Stockenberg's Safe Harbor. Sam Steadman's ex-wife, Eden, connives to obtain an Albrecht Durer engraving from his parents. He tracks her to Martha's Vineyard, where Eden has been busy seducing Holly Anderson's married father. Strong-willed and independent, Holly and Sam must decide whether they'll have more success in bringing Eden to justice if they team up.


Perchance to dream

Dreams come in many guises. In Impossible Dreams by Patricia Rice, school teacher Maya Alyssum's dream is an alternative school where students can blossom. But the town council opposes Maya's goal, and she believes Axell Holm personifies the nightmare stymieing her dream. In reality, Axell needs her more than he dares to admit -- for his motherless child and for himself.

Rice's colorful characters and gifted storytelling make Impossible Dreams as ethereal and sparkling as Maya herself.


Victoria's detectives

A seduction buried deep in the memories of Lady Anne Whitehaven and Lord Patrick Glengramach makes them mortal enemies. But they are forced to work together in Jillian Hunter's zesty Indiscretion when both are selected by Queen Victoria to investigate a murder in Patrick's Scottish homeland.

After what he did to her, Anne considers Lord Patrick to be a worthless seducer of innocents. As the testy twosome tracks down the murderer, the reader wonders: Will the unlikely pair solve the crime, or kill each other first?


Under observation

In the turbulent aftermath of a family tragedy, identical twin sisters who lead startlingly different lives must face the conflicts of their shared past in Emily Grayson's The Observatory. Astronomer David Fields helps one of the sisters, Liz, discover the cosmic forces that bring people together, if only for brief passages.


Sandy Huseby writes from her homes in Fargo, North Dakota, and Nevis, Minnesota. She is online at SHuseby@aol.com.

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