Where the Fire Falls

Where the Fire Falls by Karen Barnett    352 pages

This is the second in the Vintage National Parks novel series. I love that they are stand alones, that I don’t have to remember plot lines and characters, especially because there is such a wait between publications.  I love the backdrops of the National Parks. And given my adoration of Abraham Lincoln, I was triply please to learn that he signed the Yosemite Grant Act way back in 1864 the park featured in this novel

As you’ve probably ascertained by now, this novel  takes place in Yosemite. Readers are in for a treat that we get to see the park as it was in 1929, much more pristine and isolated. I wonder if it still is?  This story takes place from July to March 1930. 

Olivia Rutherford is a young artist on the cusp of notoriety. As the story opens, she is enjoying a gallery showing and hoping that a lot of her art sells. Her genre is watercolor. Olivia tries to love up to all things that a flapper should: she’s brassy and hard.

Her art dealer, Frank, has some good news. “Scenic Magazine” is hiring her to paint Yosemite for the next magazine. So she takes off for the wilderness.

At Yosemite, she encounters Clark Johnson, a former minister, who leads guides of the backcountry. Clark isn’t sure what God wants him to do. He left his church in disgrace, and now he has a month to decide if he wants to become a park ranger or do something else.

Then Olivia and her entourage arrive. She is accompanied by the wealthy Sophie and Marcus Vanderbilt. At first, Clark and Olivia butt heads. She doesn’t think that she needs to get off the hotel balcony to paint what she needs. He thinks she is a spoiled girl who has gotten everything she’s ever wanted.

As Clark convinces to move outdoors, the attraction between the two ignites. When Clark learns that Olivia is not whom she claims to be, will their attraction heat up, or dissolve like a fallen leaf?

One of the things that really made me long for this park in a simpler time was the descriptions of the sites that no longer exist. One is the Yosemite Firefall. According to legend, the original owner of the Glacier Point Mountain House Hotel used to build giant bonfires, then kick the burning coals over the cliff so it appeared that the waterfall was on fire.

I really liked this story, although there were a few unanswered questions. That why Where the Fire Falls receives 4 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.