Rocky Mountain Rendezvous (Sisters of the Rockies, 1)
Sisters of the Rockies: Book One. In 1837, the four Collins sisters travel from Virginia to a trappers’ rendezvous in the American West. They are fulfilling a promise to their dying father. He tasked them with returning some blue beads to a Piegan woman who had saved his life twenty years previously. Riley Turner, a cavalry veteran from Illinois, has come west to trap and barter his furs. He worries about the four unchaperoned girls, and decides to guard them.
Riley and Juniper Collins find love as the girls search for the Native American woman. Little else is resolved, and the mystery ends in a cliffhanger.
This story is pedestrian. There are no stakes and little conflict. The trappers do not pose much of a threat, and the romance has few obstacles. The blue bead mystery is uncompelling. Still, this is a clean, sweet, not unpleasant read, Christian in tone without being preachy. Wildlife rehabbers will cringe at the lovingly inappropriate treatment of coyote pup “Boots.” He is my favorite character by far, and I’ll read the next book to make sure he is all right.
