A Review of Yellowstone Heart Song, by Peggy L. Henderson

Yellowstone Heart Song is a time travel romance, set almost entirely in 1810 Yellowstone. It has been a while since I read a time travel romance, but I couldn’t resist this one. A modern-day Emergency Room nurse who loves to spend her free time backpacking through Yellowstone, travels two hundred years back in time and meets up, and falls in love, with one of the first trappers in the region.

Setting

1810, Yellowstone Country, and 2010, Southern California

Main Characters

Aimee Donavan is an ER nurse who lives to backpack in Yellowstone every chance she gets. She has taken wilderness survival courses, and cannot wait until her upcoming vacation to Yellowstone with her best friend. Especially because her controlling ex-fiancé doesn’t seem to underextend that she will not marry him. When a patient dressed like an old-time trapper offers her the chance to travel back in time, she decides there could be no harm in humoring the old man.

Daniel Osborne is a trapper and one of the few non-native people in the Yellowstone wilderness. He traps with his father, who has taken his annual trip east to sell their furs. When a white woman shows up, dressed very oddly, he has to figure out what to do with her, because his mother’s death taught him that white women cannot survive in this wilderness.

Romance

Aimee sprains her ankle badly escaping from a grisly bear, and at first, doesn’t know what to make of the taciturn trapper who rescues her from the ledge she is stuck on. Soon she realizes he is the son of her patient who sent her here. And one of the most stunningly masculine men she has ever laid eyes on. But she promised his father she would not give away the secret of where she came from, or that his father would return her to her time in three months, at the end of the summer.

Daniel tries to pass his reaction to her off as loneliness, since he hasn’t been with a woman in a long time. Besides, she is obviously lying about where she is from. Her evasiveness and lies about her background get under his skin in a way they shouldn’t. As she begins to recover from her injury, he succumbs to her pleas to take her trapping with him, and he starts to enjoy her company too much.

The longer she is with him, sharing a cabin, cooking their meals, the harder she resists the urge to let herself give into their attraction. While at first it had been about being safe and sensible around a man she she had just met and who could obviously overpower her, now she can’t bring herself to get involved, only to betray him when she has to leave. But the pull is so strong…

Plot

Aimee and Daniel are not the only two people in the region, and after Aimee saves a native boy from drowning, and is brought into Daniel’s native family’s circle, she is thoroughly invested in his world.

But tumultuous rivers and angry bears are not as dangerous as humans, and Aimee’s modern sensibilities bring more danger on them. As other trappers and enemies of Daniel’s indigenous friends discover her existence, even Daniel may not be able to help her survive the summer.

Historical Worldbuilding

Henderson builds a very believable nineteenth century trappers world. She is intimately familiar with the landscape of Yellowstone, and brings it vividly to life in a time before tourists were its most dominant form of wildlife. We feel the dangers of the hot springs, of bear and bison, and of lonely, unscrupulous men, in an era and location where a single woman, unprotected by native nations, were virtually non-existent. Henderson’s native characters are three-dimensional, and refreshingly free of offensive stereotypes. Can’t get time away to visit Yellowstone? Read this book!

Tropes

This is definitely a grumpy and sunshine trope, with Aimee coming bubbling into Daniel’s blissful, monosyllabic solitude. Time travel is the most extreme form of the fish-out-of-water trope. But at the same time, Aimee is deeply familiar with the landscape, which gives her a solid anchor, and is a nice twist. And with Daniel’s brawn and skills, it also is a protector romance, though Aimee is far from helpless.

Secondary Characters

Most of the novel takes place in the howling wilderness, so there is a limited cast of characters. That said, Aimee’s roommate, Jana, plays an important role in the story, and is fun and well-drawn. Daniel’s best friend and adoptive brother, Elk Runner, is a wonderful foil for Daniel. Elk Runner is three dimensional, and if he weren’t already married with children in this novel, we would begging for him to get his own romance.

Point of View

The novel is written in third person, alternating between Aimee and Daniel’s points of view.

In Summary

• This is a wonderful time-travel escape, that allows modern readers to imagine what it would be travel back in time themselves.
• It is set almost entirely in the wilds of 1810 Yellowstone country, before white Americans made any real inroads, and with a few scenes in 2010 Southern California.
• The main characters are fun, and each believably of their own time, and yet also clearly made for each for each other.
• The history is primarily of the setting and the indigenous inhabitants there at the time, and that is all spot on. Henderson’s intimate familiarity with the setting of Yellowstone also comes through clearly and helps transport us there.
• The tropes are grumpy and sunshine, time travel/fish out of water, and protector.
• The heat level is about a 2 out of 5. There is sex on the page, but it is more sensual than steamy.
• There is hunting and dangerous wildlife, and violence among men (mostly off the page). There is also attempted sexual assault. It isn’t gratuitous, but it a significant moment in the plot, so those sensitive to that topic should consider that when picking up this novel.

Bring ’em on!

Please continue to let me know about historical romances set in the Americas that you enjoy. I am reader, too, and I would love to hear about them and also share them with others. I am grateful to the reader who emailed this one!

Do you also love historical romance set in American history? My next novel, Pasion’s Duty, Romance and the American Ranger, Book One, is set in 1755, at the start of the Seven Years War (also known as the French and Indian War). Sign up for my newsletter for updates on its release this June, for bonus content, and to know when I post reviews of more historical romances set in the Americas! Be sure to check your spam folder if you don’t see the confirmation email, since the system requires that you confirm your email before I can start sending you my newsletter.

Image by Klaus Stebani from Pixabay

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