Crow Mountain

Gr 8 Up—In alternating chapters, two 16-year-old British girls have parallel, romantic adventures in Montana, a century apart. Hope travels with her feminist, environmental scientist mother for a summer stay at the Montana ranch of Caleb Crow. Despite her mother's cautions, Hope is immediately attracted to Caleb's handsome, brooding son Cal. When Hope finds a diary labeled "Montana 1867" in the barn loft, the compelling account of Emily, an aristocratic girl sent west for an arranged marriage, unfolds. Hope shares the diary with Cal, and they realize that Emily is describing familiar Crow ranch land, predecessors of local people, events that shaped current relationships and hostilities, and a mysterious cowboy who rescued Emily after a carriage disaster. Emily's 19th-century fears, isolation, discomfort, and commitment to fulfill her parents' wishes fade as she falls in love with Montana and her unnamed cowboy. Meanwhile, Hope and Cal embark on a perilous road trip that coincidentally follows Emily's story and footsteps: they crash at a bridge, shelter in a wilderness cabin, have discreet sex, and take part in a violent shoot-out. Emily and Hope are refined young women liberated by love and wilderness from the constraints of parental and societal expectations. Despite narration and dialogue that is stilted in spots and the Crow family's surprising lack of awareness about their own heritage, this action-packed Western romance reveals a generational feud, Native American family connections, and the power of love to transcend time, place, and social differences.