BIG SKY RIVER - Linda Lael Miller
Big Sky Series - Book 3
HQN
December 2012
ISBN-13: 978-0-373-77720-4
Contemporary Romance

Parable, Montana – Present Day

Sheriff Boone Taylor gave up his two young sons when his wife Corrie died, sending them to live with his big sister, Molly. Griffin is seven years old now and wants desperately to come home to live with Boone, but his youngest boy, four-year-old Fletcher, is reluctant to leave the only home he's ever known with Molly.  Boone's wife Corrie died when Fletcher was only a few months old; and now, all these years later, Boone is still making excuses to leave his sons in Molly's care.  Now that has changed.  Molly just informed him that her husband Bob has been in an accident and needs immediate surgery, after which he'll be incapacitated for several weeks.  As much as Molly loves those boys, she doesn't need the extra work, which finds Boone and his boys on the road back to Parable, arriving at Boone's broken down old trailer, ready or not, to start a new phase in their lives.

Right next door to Boone Taylor's ramshackle double wide is the house he grew up in, now owned by Tara Kendall, who bought the old farm so she could begin a new life away from the city—raising chickens!  And Tara is not shy when it comes to voicing her opinions about Boone's messy yard and the disreputable collection of junk strewn around.  Boone knows he should clean the place up, and now that he has the boys, it looks like he'll have to do that sooner rather than later.

Not long after Boone arrives home with his sons, Tara Kendall gets a phone call that will change her life.  Her ex-husband, Dr. James Kendall, is asking a favor.  James has a new love in his life, and the latest in a long string of nannies just quit or, more than likely, his twin daughters chased her off.  James asks Tara to take Erin and Elle for an extended visit on her farm.  Tara loves those girls like they were her own, and they think of her as their mother.  But Tara knows James's selfishness, and her biggest fear is that he'll change his mind and take the girls away from her once he sees how happy she is to have them.

BIG SKY RIVER is the story of two lonely people living right next door to each other, and four children who desperately need both a father and a mother in their lives, making the recipe for a wonderful story!  Boone is lonely; he needs more than just memories of his fateful marriage.  He needs to learn to overcome his fear of being a father and find a woman he can love.  Tara needs a man to lean on, someone who can be an equal partner in her life.  And, what could be simpler than these two people living right next door to each other?

Characters from the previous two books appear in our story as Opal Dennison steps in to help care for Griffin and Fletcher while Boone works.  Hutch and Kendra Carmody, Joslyn and Slade Barlow, and many more characters are here to help Boone and Tara tell their story.  There are lots or romance, fun, and a good measure of daily life spilling throughout the pages of this exciting story.
 
BIG SKY RIVER is the third book in the Big Sky series, following BIG SKY COUNTRY (June 2012), and BIG SKY MOUNTAIN (August 2012).  BIG SKY RIVER stands alone, and Parable is a town you will want to visit again and again.  It doesn't get much better than cowboys, pets, kids and romance, wrapped inside the cover of a delicious, top notch novel!

Diana Risso