Lee Tucker is in disbelief after her husband commits suicide. The disbelief doesn’t just come from his death, but also what comes after the funeral. Turns out her husband had made a few deals, worth one million dollars in loans, and now the loan shark is after Lee to pay that money back. After Lee discovers she is pregnant, and in no way able to repay her husband’s debts right away, she flees to her mother’s house in a small Oregon town. Her hometown is filled with ugly memories, including an alcoholic mother who never seemed to care for Lee. Since her mother succumbed to the alcoholism, and her house was left Lee, she decides to fix it up and sell it to pay the remaining debt. After a wonderful neighbor helps Lee get settled back into her childhood home, she finds a job as a business consultant at a struggling restaurant. While there, she is met with cold shoulders and hostility by the owner’s son, but pushes on with determination to make the restaurant succeed- and hoping her life will finally turn around.
The heroine in Riversong by Tess Hardwick can be described as resilient and determined. You learn right away about her horrible childhood with a sad excuse for a mother, and understand why she sometimes carries a chip on her shoulder. I was rooting for Lee the entire way throughout the book, and she is someone you want to see catch a break in life. This is Hardwick’s debut novel, and I feel she is an author to watch for. I enjoyed all the restaurant scenes and how hard Lee worked to make it a success, and the stories of other residents among the small town will make you smile while pulling at your heart. There were a few grammatical errors in there that I caught, and sometimes I wondered why the loan shark didn’t think to first look at her hometown for her, but overall, I really enjoyed a beautiful story with a smart heroine to connect with.
[Rating: 4]
