Alisa is chopping firewood for her inn when a scruffy drifter named Nick, with an equally scruffy dog, shows up and offers to take over the chore in return for scraps for the dog. Cautious but very busy, the girl agrees. Nick has a varied background, between serving in the army and being in prison, but for now he is just living in his pickup, hiking in attractive country and trying to reconnect with life.

Mama Machak, Alisa's mother and cook, is delighted when Nick fixes her dishwasher and offers him a temporary handyman's job which comes with room and board. Alisa is less sure, because she's a lone parent with a boy old enough to want to play ball with a father figure and Nick might not be a good role model. But only the local barber, an ex-soldier, recognises Nick as a former sergeant and understands his tendency to flashbacks. Cleaned up, Nick jogs Alisa's memory of him as a kid in the local school, until his father moved the family from the area. So he's come HOME TO MONTANA - but how long will he stay?

I liked the matter-of-fact attitudes of the people at Bear Lake, the hardworking spirit and resignation that profit margins are eroded by higher wholesale food prices. Nick has seen kitchen injuries from his time in army kitchens and is on hand to deal with a terrifying scalding incident. The trouble with industrial kitchens is that there is so much more of everything harmful, all the time. But when Mama is hospitalised Nick realises he is going to have to say the hardest words in his vocabulary - "I can cook." The catering skills he has learned have not been wasted, and he is a much better match for Alisa's family than a front-line soldier would have been. But he really is very troubled and can't completely relax.

Although HOME TO MONTANA has a Christian ethos, the single mother is seen as having made the mistake of trusting the wrong man, and she is determined to raise her child well with the support of her mother. I enjoyed this quiet tale and the believable romance. Charlotte Carter has put a lot of thought into her characters and fleshed out the story well, with plenty of scenes set against a rugged landscape.

I recommend this enjoyable read.

Book Summary

Staying in one place was never Nick Carbini's plan. When his troubled past leads him to Bear Lake, Montana, single mom Alisa Machak makes him consider putting down roots. Alisa doesn't have a problem letting Nick work in her diner, but when he starts edging his way into her heart, she has to draw the line. He reminds her too much of her son's father, another drifter who abandoned them both. Nick wishes he could be there for them, but believes he's not fit to be a husband. When his worst fears come true one night, it's up to Alisa to show him the perfect recipe for a forever romance.