Cold River By: Liz Adair

Mandy Steenburg thinks her doctorate in education has prepared her to run any school district - until she tangles with the moonshine-making, coon-dog-owning denizens of a tiny district in Pacific Northwest timber country. She's determined to make a difference, but the local populace still looks to the former superintendent for leadership. When Mandy lands in the middle of an old feud and someone keeps trying to kill her, instinct tells her to run. And though she has to literally swim through perilous waters, she finds a reason to stay and chance the odds.




I liked this book.  Mandy gets a job for a SMALL school district and thinks that everything is going to be great.  She has her degree, she worked for a large school district in New Mexico so she knows what she's doing.  Right?   I loved how not everything works out perfect. Luckily she finds a place to stay next to the river and out in nature.  Mandy even finds some friends in the locals.  Although she finds that people there aren't accustom to change and try to keep everything the same.  The last acting superintendent still works with her and people still look to him for decisions and how to react.  

Mandy was a smart woman.  I also think she is brave.  She moved to the middle of nowhere, by herself to start life over and that is definitely something I wouldn't be able to do.  She had plenty of opportunities to quit and go home, especially when her life was in danger and she didn't leave.  Of course I like that she seriously thought about it because any real person would weigh the options so that kept her real for me.  I also liked that she worked so hard.  She had a lot of things stacked against her and she worked overtime to figure things out and take on extra responsibilities in the community.  She is a great role model for girls and women alike.

I really liked the supporting characters.  They all had really fun personalities and I could picture them really easily.  One thing that I really liked was I kept guessing who the bad guy was through out the whole book.  Once I would set my mind to pick one person I would read the next few pages and change my mind again.  I liked that, to me, the ending wasn't completely obvious so it made the book a lot more enjoyable. 

Purchase Link
(http://www.amazon.com/Cold-River-Liz-Adair/dp/1599928035/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1322625922&sr=8-1) if my link isn't working correctly.


Want to find out more about Cold River or the Author, Liz Adair?  Check out her website.