An ideal sanctuary and a dream come true–that’s what Margaret Lane feels as she takes in God’s gorgeous handiwork in Mount Rainier National Park. It’s 1927 and the National Park Service is in its youth when Margie, an avid naturalist, lands a coveted position alongside the park rangers living and working in the unrivaled splendor of Mount Rainier’s long shadow.
But Chief Ranger Ford Brayden is still haunted by his father’s death on the mountain, and the ranger takes his work managing the park and its crowd of visitors seriously. The job of watching over an idealistic senator’s daughter with few practical survival skills seems a waste of resources.
When Margie’s former fiancé sets his mind on developing the Paradise Inn and its surroundings into a tourist playground, the plans might put more than the park’s pristine beauty in danger. What will Margie and Ford sacrifice to preserve the splendor and simplicity of the wilderness they both love?
Karen Barnett’s vintage national parks novels bring to vivid life President Theodore Roosevelt’s vision for protected lands, when he wrote in Outdoor Pastimes of an American Hunter: “There can be nothing in the world more beautiful than the Yosemite, the groves of the giant sequoias and redwoods, the Canyon of the Colorado, the Canyon of the Yellowstone, the Three Tetons; and our people should see to it that they are preserved for their children and their children’s children forever, with their majestic beauty all unmarred.”
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Summary
From: Rebecca Maney
Book Title: The Road to Paradise
Book Author: Karen Barnett
What do you like about this book:
"My soul is at peace here. Like God has led me to the promised land."
Margaret Lane has made her great escape; leaving a life of social obligation and burrowing herself into life at Mount Rainer National Park, as a result of her father's generosity, she finds herself dubbed a "naturalist" by Chief Ranger Ford Boynton to whom she is assigned. Surrounded by wildlife and flora to her heart's content, Margie's love of the outdoors flourishes, in spite of Ford's initial concerns about her ability to survive in the "wild", "for she saw God in every loving brushstroke of creation".
Ford Boynton has absolutely no intentions of falling under the spell of the senator's daughter, in spite of her admirable determination, talent with their park guests, and lovely appearance. However, when Margie's pompous ex-fiance arrives on the scene with an outlandish land development plan, Ford instinctively comes to her aid, only to discover that their differences run far deeper than family pedigrees, for Ford's heart is still shrouded by bitterness and grief, following the untimely death of his father, leaving him at odds with Margie's enduring faith.
"The Road to Paradise" is an exceptional series opener, full of interesting history with regards to the establishment of our national parks, but's it essentially a love story, and a romance; for "when I consider the heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; what is man, that thou are mindful of him?"
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