Melanie has lost her job as a governess and is hoping that she can get a job working in her cousin's mercantile in Arizona. He died a while ago, but she's hoping that his partner will help her out. Once she gets there, not only does she find that her cousin's partner is dead, there's a man there proclaiming that the store is solely his. Melanie is sure that her cousin intended for her to own half the store and presses her case. He's determined to get Melanie out of there, even if he has to come up with a plan on his own to try and marry her off.
Caleb has run the store since his uncle died. He's moved away from the place of his wife's death and is hoping the store will support him and his son as the boy grows. Melanie's presence is something of a tornado in his world. She has plans to rearrange the whole store and pretty much tells him that he's running it wrong.
When problems start happening, the townspeople look at Caleb and Melanie and wonder if they have anything to do with the mysteries in the town. I found their reasoning to be a little odd, since it didn't make any sense with the timeline of the deaths to blame them on Melanie and Caleb.
The story overall was a little fractured for me. I didn't understand why Melanie didn't seem to have any curiosity about Caleb's wife. Maybe it was mentioned and I missed it, but it seemed like she didn't have any questions whatsoever and I found that a bit odd. Also their mutual omission of the problems plaguing the store. The notes for instance. Melanie confronts Caleb about the notes and then vows not to take his silence for an answer. Yet, she doesn't really ask him about them later on. There were a few moments like that where it seemed like I had missed something.
Overall, it was a good read. I felt like there could have been more interaction between Caleb and Melanie to display their attraction. They didn't seem to have much of a connection throughout the story. It gets my Decent Book! review.
*I received a copy of this book from the publisher through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
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