A ship accident leaves Wallace Reed a widow. His wife gets separated from him during the evacuation of the ship and he is informed later that she died. He and his brother, William Reed, try to deal with their grief while living a new life in Seattle (they are originally from Alaska). Wallace, though, is struggling. He leaves behind his job as a pastor and renounces God. William tries to get Wallace to see reason, but Wallace is stubborn. Instead, William focuses on his job at the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Expo and continuing to work on his botany book.
It is at the Expo whre he meets Eleanor, who is a Camera girl selling Kodak cameras and taking pictures of people. Eleanor has a desire to study botany, so she and Bill hit it off right away. They start to fall in love, but an encounter with a woman dressd in black with a baby leads to the revelation that Bill’s sister-in-law may be alive. The rest of the novel involves Bill, Eleanor, and Wallace trying to find Wallace’s wife. While they are doing this, an old enemy from their past may be plotting to hurt all of them.
While the premise was interesting, I found the characters, especially Bill and Eleanor, to be either too innocent or superfical. The romance between Bill and Eleanor went too fast. It was difficult to get into it and the conflict was too easy to solve. Also, Wallace lost his faith too easily. As a pastor, he would have dealt with death many times. Of course his wife’s supposed death would have been difficult, but I have a hard time believing he would have abandoned God so quickly.
The first novel in this series was much better. Hopefully, the third and last installment will be much better than the second installment.
Next Novel in Series: Knowing You
Next Novels to Review: Estelle’s Endeavor and Knowing You