Native American Emerson Coffee is the last surviving member of her tribe. An endling. After an internship in New York, she has returned to her chosen life of solitude in the stone cabin atop the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, where her grandfather trained her to survive by seeking God’s guidance in nature. When US Marshals inform her she’s being hunted by a mob hit man, Emerson declines their offer of witness protection, believing she can best outwit a predator on her own turf. But when three innocent children living in the art colony below become caught in the crosshairs, Emerson must decide if she will risk it all—her mountains, her heritage . . . even her life—to secure their safety.

Can a lone and unarmed endling stop the most ruthless family of all or will everything her ancestors fought to preserve die with her?

I tried to read and like this book, but I just couldn’t get into it. I gave it eight chapters (around 60 pages), but it didn’t pull me in–the storytelling is quite slow with lots of reflection, but the main character’s being hunted by a mob boss, so I had a hard time making the two work in my mind.

Because of the plot line (the mob boss) I expected this book to be more suspenseful/fast paced than it is. Instead, it’s more literary. There’s nothing wrong with that if you’re expecting that style; I wasn’t prepared for it.

I’ve read a few books before that classify themselves as southern fiction (as does this book), and I usually find them to be much slower, more detailed reads. The same is true for this book, but for some reason I couldn’t connect with the main character, so I struggled to keep going. It’s not that the book’s badly written; it’s just not for me.

What I read would be G/PG rating (I don’t think it will change much throughout the story, but it might). Get your copy here!

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