“'You make it sound so easy!' Haley sat up and faced her grandmother. ‘You don't know what it's like to be responsible for the death of someone you love…It's not like I can just forget about it.'”

Haley Walsh is on a mission to conquer the ever-looming fear arising from constant nightmares! She may be physically disabled and quaking inside but externally she presents as an angry, haunted female character on the move “forward” hopefully to overcome a particularly horrendous memory – causing her own sister's death! She meets Tank Lassiter, a man with his own “issues” whose faith is holding him together amidst some accusations of murdering his own wife.

But Haley isn't much interested in God and wants to get about the business of learning about and photographing bears in Alaska , a trip that seems more and more familiar, as circumstances present more and more threats to the peace for which she longs. In fact she's about to discover some facts that will bring her psychologically close to a breakdown.

Romance certainly does seem in the cards for Haley or Tank, yet neither can ignore the growing tide of feelings defying all logic and former preferences. Each measures the risks and inches cautiously ahead. Obstacles make their bonding so very realistic!

Augusta Walsh, Haley's grandmother, may be a rather static character in her single-focused statements that God is all the answer anyone needs but there is something magnetic about her insistence that is always looming even when things get wild in the Alaskan wilds.

More than unhappy relatives, secret prowlers, ever-present fear and death from a predator bear, many more hair-raising scenes, and finally the shocking way that Haley and Tank's lives are intertwined from the past will amaze the reader.

Few books combine a page-turning adventure, an inspiring story, and a sweet but realistic, budding romance. Colleen Coble does just that – and does it very well indeed!!!

Reviewed by Viviane Crystal on May 5, 2006