This was a very engaging tale mixing the romance of childhood friends/first loves with a dash of action and intrigue involving the potential destruction of old growth forest. I enjoyed it very much. Courtney was back home in small-town Port Russell teaching elementary school. Protests against old growth logging in the area led to her former best friend (and first love), Josh, now an RCMP officer, being assigned to the area. Reluctantly at first, Courtney begins to let Josh back into her life, but the situation is more complicated than she could have imagined, with ties to Josh’s estranged family. It was really interesting to see some of the inside of the protests and glimpses of the machinations occurring on the business side. It was almost a little hard for my anxiety to read about some of the things Courtney did as part of the protests. The romance was great, building on their past connection, it built as they spent time together, first as friends. I really like both Courtney and Josh. And there were also many interesting secondary characters. The setting was fantastic. It’s not hard to imagine people fighting to preserve it. This is a fade-to-black romance, with intimacy occurring but details off the page. There is some innuendo as well. There is a moderate amount of harsh language, most mild to moderate, but a few instances of strong harsh language.

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.