CHERRY CREEK

In Griffin’s novel, a young wife is torn between her dependable husband and the promise of adventure and independence.

As a child, Molly, her older sister, Eileen, and their parents emigrated from New Ross, Ireland, to a bucolic farm in Ohio. Molly’s family members are close friends with their neighbors, the MacLeiths, owners of a profitable sawmill. Once Molly turns 15, she’s courted by one of their sons, Andrew MacLeith. Although Molly is charmed by Andrew, she dreams of storybook romances and worries that “to accept a proposal of marriage from a mere mortal was to abandon all those dreams.” Despite her concerns, she marries Andrew, and the couple are at each other’s throats from the get-go. After a bitter argument, Molly runs away with Andrew’s brother, Hugh, a gambler who dreams of making his fortune in Pike’s Peak. Molly eventually leaves Hugh as well and follows a group of prospectors to Cherry Creek, where she forges an independent life cooking meals and washing clothes for the prospectors. While she enjoys her new adventures, memories of what she’s left behind still haunt her. The latest from Griffin (2025’s Morgan’s Landing, etc.) is a stirring historical romance set against the Pike’s Peak Gold Rush during the late 1850s; however, the novel’s relatively brief length leaves some plot holes and characters underdeveloped. Molly MacLeith is an amiable if impulsive protagonist. Her transition from a wife seeking new adventures to a self-reliant woman bravely facing the risks and hardships of life in Pike’s Peak is well rendered and the strongest element of Griffin’s narrative. That said, at 87 pages, the novel leaves very little room for the development of characters and storylines.

A spirited but uneven tale of romance and adventure that feels unfinished.