LEGEND OF LOVADA BRANCH

A sequel focuses on a small town and a secret place in the Great Smoky Mountains.

Book Two of this series sees Kyle and Wren Makepeace walking out of the wilds of Unaka Mountain. In Legend of Lovada Branch: Book One: The Cove (2019), the two learned a lot about themselves, thanks to a society that manages to conceal and sustain itself far away from outsiders. As Wren, who was adopted as a child, points out, “For the first time I know who I am.” Meanwhile, Kyle must come to terms with his own past and true purpose. But all is not well in the couple’s small town. For starters, the pair must explain the death of a relative named Porter. Porter met his end in Book One and, as this sequel begins, it is still not public knowledge. Once the death is disclosed, Porter’s children do not take kindly to the news. And it is certainly a shock for Porter’s mostly passive wife, Vestie. The town’s citizens are also upset by another change in their lives: the new population of migrant Hispanic workers. Though some welcome the laborers, even offering to help them learn about the United States, others are less inclined toward hospitality. Part small-town drama, part mystical experience, Karen Karper Fredette’s sequel creates a vivid portrait of a place in America with an element of the supernatural. (The novel includes black-and-white illustrations by Paul A. Fredette, the author’s husband.) While some of the country people may talk as if they stumbled out of an old Western (As one man points out, “A feller don’t git dirt under his fingernails at a whore house”), there is no telling what otherworldliness may lurk in the woods. As Wren seeks to guide Vestie on a journey of self-exploration, there are many intriguing details for her to uncover. But several resulting observations are exactly what one might expect. Wren goes so far as to declare, after hearing about Vestie’s ability at one time to make money singing old ballads, “That must have been so grand for you, Vestie!” Still, with so much commotion in such a small place, readers cannot be sure how things will turn out. This is, after all, a town where a most unusual settlement lies just up in the mountains.

While some sentiments are obvious, this supernatural tale ventures to unexpected places.