Book Review: Yellowstone Heart Song

Title:  Yellowstone Heart Song
Author:  Peggy L. Henderson
Pages:  262
Publication Date:  2012
Version:  Kindle
Genre:  Adult Fiction/Romance/Time Travel/Western

Summary Via Goodreads.com:
"Nurse and avid backpacker Aimee Donovan is offered the opportunity of a lifetime. She encounters a patient who tells her he can send her two hundred years into the past to spend three months in the rugged Yellowstone wilderness at the dawn of the mountain man era. The only requirement: she cannot tell anyone that she’s from the future.

How did a white woman suddenly appear in the remote Rocky Mountain wilderness? Trapper Daniel Osborne’s first instinct is to protect this mysterious and unconventional woman from the harsh realities of his mountains. While he fights his growing attraction to her, he is left frustrated by her lies and secrecy.

Daniel shows Aimee a side of Yellowstone she’s never experienced. She is torn between her feelings for him, and exposing a secret that will destroy everything he holds as truth. As her three months come to an end, she is faced with a dilemma: return to her own time, or stay with the man who opened her eyes to a whole new world. When the decision is made for her, both their lives will be changed forever."

My Review:
Aimee is a modern day nurse and avid backpacker.  She has had some rough patches in her life, but her love of backpacking never dies and is something she loves to do and feels she is really good at.  When a man she is treating tells her he can send her back 200 years so she can do the ultimate backpacking wilderness adventure in Yellowstone she thinks he is crazy and simply humors him by saying she would love to do that.  When it really happens, however, Aimee learns just how unprepared she was for this trip.  She should have believed him and been more prepared with her gear when she had him time travel her back.  How can she survive when she is so unprepared and can't tell a soul how she came to be there and where she really belongs?  Daniel is willing to help her, but a rocky and painful past prevents him from wanting to help her very much.  He is not fond of white women and is very suspicious of where this one really came from and wonders what she is failing to tell him.  How can he help her if she is not being honest with him?  Aimee is soon seeing things that she loves and it's not all just scenery, but also the man that is helping her.  Is it possible to kindle a romance with someone knowing you are lying to them?  How will Daniel react when it is time for her to go back to her time?  How will she explain it all?  Will she have a chance to explain or will things just play out as they are supposed to?

This was a pretty typical romance if you ask me.  Woman is saved by a man who is mysterious and handsome...man doesn't want to fall for woman...they fall for each other anyway.  I am not a huge historical fiction person, but this one had intrigued me because of the time travel aspect.  It was an interesting book in it's own way, but it was not a book for me.  It seemed a bit too much like the typical romance read.  I did enjoy the in depth details of the time though.  The descriptions were there and made me feel as though I was watching the book play out in my head.  The characters were also pretty interesting.  They all had such interesting back stories that were slowly learned throughout the book.  They then developed into amazing characters that you couldn't wait to see grow.  I enjoyed the concept of the plot, the new twist on time travel, and the characters.  It was well written and easy to read.  I read this book quite quickly, so it was not that I didn't want to finish it either, it just wasn't my kind of book.  I am used to more mystery based and those are my favorites, so this book was a bit out of my comfort zone.  I did shock myself though, and was eager to pick it back up to read on in it to see how things really played out for Aimee and Daniel.  I'm glad I read it, it was a good book, just not a series I feel I will continue reading.  I stress though, this is not because it was a "bad book", but just simply that it wasn't a book that is "typical" for me.

4/5 Stars!