Riverbend Gap

 

I think this is the second book by Denise Hunter I've read this year.  She writes light romances with mostly believable characters and incredible settings. In Riverbend Gap, she takes on the culture of the Appalachian Trail and its hikers. This book won't take long to read and that is one of its better qualities.  I am the wife and mother of long distance hikers, and I have learned quite a bit about the culture as well as the support that goes into undertaking a hike on one of the long trails in the US and around the world. Denise has done incomplete research on the trail and its attributes.  

Katelyn (Katie) Loveland has grown up in foster care since she was five years old and is moving to Riverbend Gap, North Carolina, to take a new job with her best friend, Avery Robinson. She has some secrets she hasn't revealed to anyone why she is moving to the small town, one of which is that her birth mother lives there and she wants to find out what was so much more important than taking care of her and her brother.  She has also the task of spreading her brother's ashes on the trail.  

As Katie is approaching town, a deer runs in front of her and she loses control of her car.  Soon after her car goes over the embankment, Cooper Robinson comes upon the site and finds Katie in a rather precarious position.  Neither of them know that Katie's current boyfriend is Cooper's brother, Gavin.  This is where the book goes sideways for me.  The attraction between Katie and Cooper nearly tears Cooper's family apart, and to a degree it does tear Cooper's family apart for a short time. 

The tension in the book is exacerbated by Cooper's run for county sheriff and his opponent's shenanigans to keep him from winning. That would have been enough for the book to have held my interest. 

What Denise got right about hiking the Appalachian Trail:

    The hiker towns depend on the business of the thru-hikers for a large part of their revenue. 

    The residents of the hiker towns, for the most part, love the hikers and often provide Trail Magic or act as Trail Angels for them. 

    Water caches are extremely important for the hikers. 

    Trail Names are one of the most fun parts of hiking.  If a hiker gets a trail name on one trail, it carries over to the other trails the hiker pursues.  My son is Pathfinder, my husband is Wayfair. It is bad form for hikers to give themselves a trail name.  There is usually a reason for the Trail Name--that's one thing Denise got right, down to the last detail. 

What Denise missed: 

    Thru-hikers for the most part choose to hike NoBo (NorthBound--Georgia to Maine), but there are a significant number who choose to hike SoBo (SouthBound--Maine to Georgia). 

    Resupply packages are more often the way hikers get their food supplies.  There are a number of hikers who will resupply in the towns, but sometimes that just isn't always possible or even feasible. Getting to towns with the post offices for picking up resupply boxes is vitally important. 

My biggest criticism is that the relationship with Cooper and Katie didn't have to destroy Cooper's family the way it did and the book would have been just as compelling to read.  Three stars. 

Thomas Nelson Fiction and NetGalley.com provided the copy I read for this review.  All opinions expressed are solely my own.