A famous country music singer meets his soulmate when she stumbles upon the cabin where he is recuperating from vocal cord surgery in the first installment of Treadgold’s Olympic Peninsula trilogy. In the 1990s, country music star Joe O’Connell—aka Joe Bob Blade—is hiding out in his agent’s cabin in the Hoh Rain Forest to silently recover from vocal cord surgery when a woman faints at his door and he carries her into the cabin. Ali Ryan was caught in the rain while attempting to commune with her twin brother Liam’s spirit, disbelieving that he died in a terrorist attack in Jerusalem. Later, Ali is unable to forget the man she knows as JJ. Eventually, Ali hears a song and recognizes the lyrics from the poem JJ wrote down in a note to her—and the tabloids claim Joe is set to marry a fellow singer, Rina.Treadgold’s background in acting and vocal performance shines through, adding credibility to her richly hewn depictions of music industry life and politics, right down to the incessant pursuit by the paparazzi to get the latest scoop on the most popular entertainers. While the romance between Ali and Joe is the primary focus of Treadgold's plotline, gripping the attention of readers who will want to find out whether they find their happy ever after, Treadgold also excels at creating intriguing supporting characters, such as Joe’s brother Jake, who jealously decided to date Ali after learning that she was the subject of Joe’s song, and Teresa, Joe’s sister, who seems to hold her own as the only girl in a family with four brothers and a domineering mother.
The use of the 1990s as a setting for her narrative offers more than a chance for nostalgia, as it magnifies the interactions between characters who don’t have instant access to news and social media that today skew the perceptions of reality. The relationship compels, the story moves fast, and the ending satisfies, with a door open for intriguing future installments.
Takeaway: Polished story of a remote cabin, a hit song, and a second chance for love.
Comparable Titles: M.J. Fredrick’s Two Step Temptation, Arie Ray’s Forever Country.
Production grades
Cover: A
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A
The Silent Woodsman, which is book one in a new series by Cat Treadgold, is a fun, suspenseful at times and amusing at other times, romance book that looks to be the start of something really great[....]
An excellent example of the romance genre, A Silent Woodsman, should be a must on your reading list. While the main characters are excellent and make it worth the time, a book with such an incredibly written supporting cast is one that is absolutely not to be missed.
4.8 stars/IR Approved: "Filled with 1990s nostalgia, Cat Treadgold’s THE SILENT WOODSMAN sizzles with an addictive 'will they-won’t they' tension that starts from the moment of the main character’s fated meeting and doesn’t let up, making for a suspenseful romantic drama debut."
