Evergreen Falls

The story of Evergreen Falls is set in two time periods - 1926 and 2014. The prologue describes a tragedy that occurred during the winter at Evergreen Falls, a hotel in the Blue Mountains. We are then introduced to a waitress working in a cafe in the same area eighty-eight years later. The hotel is undergoing renovations and when Lauren gains access to the old building she discovers a collection of letters and papers that start her journey investigating life in the hotel in the 1920s.

Lauren's investigations are encouraged by Tomas who works on the  renovation project. Who wrote the letters and what was really happening at Evergreen Falls? The flashbacks introduce the reader to events leading up to the tragedy described in the prologue. We also meet many of the staff working at the hotel as well as a number of the guests. In between we learn of Lauren's progress in identifying the people mentioned in the letters.

This is a story of the burden and freedom of love. Class is ever present in the 1926 section of the book, so are people allowed to form serious relationships outside their class? To what extent should family expectations affect the choice of a marriage partner. The demands of family is also a theme ever present in the 2014 section of the book for, as her investigations progress, Lauren also discovers family secrets about her own family which had been hidden from her.

Relationships are the key to this historical romance by Kimberley Freeman as she describes how one location changed the lives of several characters living in different time zones. I would have liked to have more in the book about Lauren and her discoveries but all in all I enjoyed reading this book.