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I picked up this book because I needed something easy and happy to read during the exam period. I read the first pages and I knew it was what I was looking for, and I also have to say romance is one of my favorite genres.
In the prologue we meet Lee Tucker, an eighteen-year-old girl who is looking forward to the end of the summer to leave her little village in Oregon and her alcoholic mother and go to the city to study art.
Just in the next chapter sixteen years has passed, Lee is pregnant and her husband has committed suicide: he had a debt to the mafia and he couldn’t pay it back, so he decided to shoot himself before the gangs killed him. Now they are threatening Lee, so she decides to escape to her village and try to get money by fixing and selling her mother’s house, and thereby pay off the debt and live in peace again.
Her mother passed away years ago and back in the village an old lady neighbor helps Lee with the house. She also finds a job in a restaurant as an agent when she is asked to develop a viability study for the place, Lee being free to choose the design and the staff and to change everything she thinks should be improved so that people come. But there is one thing she is sure that must stay: the band that plays every Friday night and Tommy, their Mexican singer.
Lee doesn’t want to endanger her new friends, so she keeps to herself the reason why she has come back and tries not to think so much about the time when she has to leave the village and say goodbye to them.
The story is simple and from the beginning the reader expects a happy end, and that is exactly what you find when you finish the book; perhaps is too happy, but well, it wasn’t a problem for me because I liked the rest: the food is served in the restaurant now, the staff trying to become smarter because is part of the changes, Tommy’s riverside garden, Tommy himself… (Did I mention Tommy?).
I found little mistakes – apart from the excessively happy ending – in some phrases written in Spanish, but nevertheless the meaning was perfectly understandable.
A good reading if you are looking for romance with entertaining characters and an idyllic location.
My Spanish review here
From Isi 
This sounds like a sweet and easy read. I need one of those now and then!
It is just what the book is, Jennifer!
It sounds a lot easier than I’ve previously thought (I read a few reviews that were negative). It’s interesting, in a way, because of the plot, but with the background story something happier sounds a good idea. I’m guessing the detailing is really nice.
Charlie,
I suppose it depends on what you expected from the book. From the beginning you know everything will be OK at the end, so that’s why I think it is a light reading.
It won’t be the book of the year, but it is enjoyable.
This sounds like a nice read, one I’d love, too. It reminds me (a little bit) of The Truth About Love & Lightning by Susan McBride that I reviewed this weekend. It’s also about a woman returning to her rural town.
Judith,
I’ve just read your review and yes, I think that is a book I would like too!
Riversong is simple, romantic and happy. Just a light read that you like from time to time.
If I enjoyed romance then I might enjoy this book. But I think I’ll pass for now. I always enjoy reading your reviews, even if it’s a book I’m not interested in!
Thanks, Rebecca!
And yes, it’s impossible to read everything!
Isi, now you can find mistakes in spanish senteces in english books, this is a new level, I’m so proud of you.
Loque: 😛 For example, María was written Maria, or “muy bonito” was “mui bonito”.
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