River's Song Book Review

SUMMARY:  Sometimes when we look back, we are able to see ahead.
     Following her mother's funeral, and on the verge of her own midlife crisis, widow Anna Larson returns to the home of her youth to sort out her parents' belongings, as well as her own turbulent life.  For the first time since childhood, Anna embraces her native heritage, despite the disdain of her vicious mother-in-law.  By transforming her old family home on the banks of Oregon's Siuslaw River into The Inn at Shining Waters, Anna hopes to create a place of healing - a place where guests experience peace, grace, and new beginnings.  Starting with her own family ...

REVIEW:  Melody Carson does a great job with Anna and her story.  There are many things Anna regrets: coming home only once in almost twenty years (and that was at the death of her father), not spending more time with her parents and grandmother, not learning more about her Siuslaw Indian heritage, and her very dysfunctional relationship with her daughter and mother-in-law.  Anna meets Hazel, an anthropologist studying the local Indian populations for her upcoming doctoral thesis, who encourages Anna to change her parents' defunct general store into an inn.  In the process, Anna finds healing of wounds left by her husband's illness and death, embraces her heritage and tries to reconcile with her family.  This is a great book.  It is suppose to be the first in a series.  I can't wait until the second book comes out.  I'm sure it will be as good as this one.

This book was provided by Glass Road Publicity Group for review without compensation.

Melody Carson is the award-winning author of more than 200 books, including Love Finds You in Sisters, Oregon, Limelight, the Diary of a Teenager Girl series, the TrueColors series, and the Carter House Girls series.  Nominated for a Romantic Times Career Achievement Award, Melody is also the author of Homeward, which won a Rita Award.  Melody and her husband live in central Oregon.