The Return by Sharon Sala. Publisher: Mira (Harlequin), September 2009*
As a legacy of hatred erupts in a shattering moment of violence, a dying mother entrusts her newborn daughter to a caring stranger. Now, twenty-five years later, Catherine Fane has come home to Camarune, Kentucky, to bury the woman who raised her, bringing a blood feud to its searing conclusion.
At the cabin in the woods where she was born, Catherine is drawn to the ravaged town and its violent past. But her arrival has not gone unnoticed. A stranger is watching from the woods, a shattered old man is witnessing the impossible, and Sheriff Luke DePriest’s only thoughts are to keep Katherine safe from the sleeping past she has unwittingly awoken.
A feud between families causes the death of the baby’s parents. Returning to town to bring her grannie home to rest, Catherine is about to learn more about her past with a new family on the horizon. This was an awesome book, to the point that I needed a box of tissues to finish reading this story. My rating: 5 stars
*Originally published under the pseudonym Dinah McCall in May 2000