Between the Covers: Stories from My Bookcase

Sunday, October 13, 2013

Riversong by Tess Thompson

I finished a book! Yay! Smile

Back in May this year I bought the digital boxed set of The River Valley Collection. At the time, there were only two books: Riversong, and Riverbend. In August, a third book was released entitled Riverstar.

 

I know I’ve said it before, and it’s still true, I prefer paper books than e-books. But I’ve seen some interesting titles go on sale on Amazon’s Daily Kindle Deals that I just couldn’t pass up. I’m talking about titles I probably would have passed on if I had seen the paper version. Anyway. When I got this set, it was only $2.99.

Before I even heard about Riversong, I stumbled upon http://tesswrites.com, the author’s own blog. I added it to my feed reader and every once in a while, I am moved by her writing. She has this way of telling a good story even in just a few words. It is that writing that convinced me to buy her books.

riversong

Riversong, the novel, tells the story of Lee Tucker who loses her husband to suicide, and learns that running away is not the path to freedom and happiness. All her life has been a struggle. She was barely raised by an alcoholic mother, but she always felt that her wonderful surroundings had helped her through growing up years. She made her own way through college studying art, and then at the last minute switched majors when a professor just didn’t like her work.

She got married and went into business with him. They agreed on not having kids. She made friends. She had a life. She had a sense of security. But she was still lonely.

On her husband’s death she learned that they had been 1 million dollars in debt, and in no position to pay it off. The investor is bent on collecting his money and has sent his minions to shake up Lee and her good friend Linus. They scrounged up a quarter of a million by selling most everything that Lee and her husband owned. The only thing left to her name was her mother’s old home in faraway Oregon.

Fearing for her life, they devised a plan to get her out of the city and off to the home she ran away from so many years ago. The plan was to fix up the old place, sell it off with a profit, and use the money to payoff the loan and have some leftover to start a new life. Staying put in good ol’ River Valley wasn’t part of the plan.

But slowly she begins to see that the small town does have a lot of promise. She meets people who become dear friends who got her back. She learns that having friends means having to trust them fully, even with your deep dark secrets. Plus, she comes to terms with her own past, both the far distant one, and the recent.

This is the story of Lee’s journey to freedom, of second chances and of finding her right place under the sun. Smile

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