Gold Mountain — Charlotte Paul

It's 1884 in the town of Gold Mountain and the Snoqualmie Valley, thirty miles east of Seattle and a world away. The virtual king of the valley is Nils Bengston, a young Swedish-American who owns half of the businesses and land, including the largest hop ranch in the world, supplying crops to the breweries of England. Or at least he will own it, if his luck holds out and the banks get paid.

Into this growing empire rides Katherine Duncan, the diminutive new schoolteacher, barely an adult herself but fiercely determined to escape the poverty of her childhood and establish a respectable place in the world. It is Nils who has hired her to teach the children of the valley -- yet Nils despises school and schoolteachers, and will tolerate her lessons only until she gets in his way. Then there's Carl White, a law student in Seattle and the son of the riverboat captain who brought Katherine to the valley. He wants to take Katherine back to Seattle to marry him, as she has promised to do. So, why does her commitment to her school keep delaying that day?

Based on true tales of Snoqualmie Valley pioneers, "Gold Mountain" evokes a land where the stakes are high, lives are made and unmade, and love is the greatest lesson of all.