Down River
*Starred Review* When Lisa Vaughn is eight years old, her mother jumps from a ship, clutching Lisa’s baby sister in a successful suicide attempt after Lisa manages to break free just before her mother goes over the rails. Years later, Lisa’s firm has a team-building event in Alaska in a lodge by a treacherous, white-rapids river. Someone pushes her into the water, and her former lover, Mitch Braxton, risks his life to save her as they are swept through the turbulent water at breakneck speed. As Lisa and Mitch struggle to survive in the wilderness, they start to grow close again. But once she returns to “civilization,” Lisa needs to figure out who’s trying to kill her and why. Harper’s descriptions of Lisa and Mitch fighting the river and braving the elements are so realistic the reader can almost feel the icy winds. A tale guaranteed to bring shivers to the spine, Down River will delight Harper’s current fans and earn her many more. --Shelley Mosley