The Gold in These Hills

Joanne Bischof is one of my all time favorite authors and her recent release, The Gold in These Hills, is one of her best books yet.  It is a dual storyline.  That seems to be a very popular style of writing and although it is not my favorite, I did enjoy both of these storylines and how they complimented each other.

One of the stories is set in the late 1800s to early 1900s.  Juniper Cohen came to California to marry John as his mail order bride.  The gold mining town they are living in is slowly fading into a ghost town with no gold to be found.  John seems to have disappeared and many of the townsfolk believe him to be dead.  But not Juniper.  She refuses to believe that her beloved John is dead.  She writes him letters and turns down proposals in hopes that one day he will return, but it's not long until she finds out that John is an outlaw.  Juniper is furious.  When he finds his way back home, he is near death's door and Juniper struggles to care for this man that betrayed her.  She has to find a place of forgiveness and allow her own heart to be healed.  

The other story is set in present day and focuses on Johnny Sutherland who is going through a divorce.  He has just bought an old farmhouse and is excited to fix up a new home for him and his two children.  After discovering some old letters written by Juniper he realizes that there is a lot more history in this old house than what he realized.  He meets Sonoma who is doing some research for her family tree in hopes of discovering more about her heritage.  As they read the letters and dig into the past and new relationship begins to form between the two of them.

I really enjoyed so much about this book.  I wouldn't have minded if the whole book would have stayed centered on Juniper and the early 1900's, but it was clever how the two stories interlocked.  I am so excited for the next book in this series to come out and I'm sure I will love it just like this one. 

Thanks to the publisher for providing me with a copy of this book through Netgalley in exchange for my honest review.