Books Set in Alaska
Our journey through the 50 states continues with a stop in Alaska!
Book Club Pick – Alaska
A Rebel’s Promise by Sara Blackard
What is A Rebel’s Promise about?
A pararescueman home from the military. A dog musher stepping into her dad’s legacy. Thrust together after years apart, can they trust each other and escape disaster?
Gunnar Rebel left the military to find healing, but adjusting to his new life proves harder than he expected.
His desire to help others ignited a desire to become a rescuer for the elite special forces. To qualify for the most arduous division in the military, he cut all ties with everyone but his family back home. Everyone … including Julie Sparks, the woman who still holds his heart. Now that he’s home, he wants to settle down and forget that his reasons for leaving Julie behind don’t make sense anymore.
Julie Sparks is determined to honor her father’s death with an arduous trek to the North Pole.
She also wouldn’t mind proving that she’s not only worthy of filling his fur-lined boots, but will climb to new heights in them. It’s more than just a matter of pride, not with the sponsors waiting to pull their funding if she fails. Establishing she’s worthy of support might prove harder than she expected when her ex, Gunnar Rebel, is brought in to help lead the expedition and shatters her focus.
When an accident on the trail turns life-threatening, will Gunnar and Julie put aside their hurt and broken promises of the past, or will their lack of trust prove fatal?
Sara Blackard on Literary Escapes Podcast
Want to know more about Sara and her books? Listen to our conversation on the Literary Escapes Podcast!
More Sweet Reads Set in Alaska
The Tourist Attraction by Sarah Morgenthaler
Genre: Sweet Romance
He had a strict “no tourists” policy…until she broke all of his rules.When Graham Barnett named his diner The Tourist Trap, he meant it as a joke. Now he’s stuck slinging reindeer dogs to an endless parade of resort visitors who couldn’t interest him less. Not even the sweet, enthusiastic tourist in the corner who blushes every time he looks her way…
Two weeks in Alaska isn’t just the top item on Zoey Caldwell’s bucket list. It’s the whole bucket. One look at the mountain town of Moose Springs and she’s smitten. But when an act of kindness brings Zoey into Graham’s world, she may just find there’s more to the grumpy local than meets the eye…and more to love in Moose Springs than just the Alaskan wilderness.
This story of Alaska marries together all the things you didn’t realize you needed: a whirlwind vacation, a friendly moose, a grumpy diner owner, a quirky tourist, plenty of restaurant humor, and a happy ending that’ll take you away from it all.
Moussee and Murder by Elizabeth Logan
Genre: Cozy Mystery
A young chef bites off more than she can chew when she returns to her Alaskan hometown to take over her parents’ diner.
When Chef Charlotte “Charlie” Cooke was offered the chance to leave San Francisco and return home to Elkview, Alaska, and take over her mother’s diner, she didn’t even consider saying no. For the past year, she’s built a comfortable existence, spending her days making sure the restaurant runs smoothly and that her cat, Eggs Benedict, is appropriately pampered. But soon life at the diner starts feeling a little one-note.
Determined to bring fresh life and flavors to the Bear Claw Diner, Charlie starts planning changes to the menu, which has grown stale over the years. But her plans are fried when her head chef, Oliver turns up dead after a bitter and public fight over Charlie’s ideas—leaving Charlie as the prime suspect.
With her career, freedom, and life all on thin ice, Charlie must find out who the real killer is, before it’s too late.
Thin Ice by Paige Shelton
Genre: Mystery
Beth Rivers, known to the world as Elizabeth Fairchild, has spent years as a bestselling novelist. Her twisty, page-turning thrillers have garnered a legion of fans, but unfortunately, her story-telling landed her in an unbelievable tale of her own―a situation even more terrifying than she could have dreamed. Crazed Elizabeth Fairchild super-fan Levi Brooks stalked and kidnapped Elizabeth, holding her captive inside a van for three days. She escaped by throwing herself from the speeding van, suffering a severe head injury and memory loss.
Scarred and still healing from her injuries, she secretly escapes to the beautiful―and very remote―Benedict, Alaska. It’s the only place she can be sure no one will find her. But just before Beth’s arrival, the already small population of Benedict was reduced by one. Linda Rafferty’s death was ruled a suicide, but no one in the close-knit community quite believes that conclusion, even the sheriff.
While she waits for her attacker to be apprehended in the lower 48, Beth takes on a project to revamp the Benedict town newspaper. She knows enough to go where the story is, and there’s clearly one behind Linda’s death. As rumors of murder spread, suspicion falls upon the felons staying at a local halfway house―and Beth herself. Intrigued by both the mystery and the wary folks who call Benedict home, Beth starts asking questions―only to find her investigation stirring up memories she’d much rather had stayed forgotten…
Northern Lights by Nora Roberts
Genre: Romantic Suspense
As a Baltimore cop, Nate Burke watched his partner die on the street—and the guilt still haunts him. With nowhere else to go, he accepted the job as Chief of Police in a tiny, remote Alaskan town with the hopes of starting over. Despite the name, Lunacy provides a balm for Nate’s shattered soul—and an unexpected affair with pilot Meg Galloway warms his nights…
But other things in Lunacy are heating up. Nate suspects the killer in an unsolved murder still walks the snowy streets. His investigation will unearth the secrets and suspicions that lurk beneath the placid surface, as well as bring out the big-city survival instincts that made him a cop in the first place. And his discovery will threaten the new life—and the new love—that he has finally found for himself.
Moose Be Love by Jacqueline Winters
Genre: Sweet Romance
When I travel to the small town of Sunset Ridge for the reading of my great aunt’s will, I have no idea that my sisters and I are about to inherit a lodge. Or that my rugged Alaskan neighbor is the caretaker I’ll be spending all my time with.
Falling for Ford Harris would be unwise. I’m supposed to get the lodge listed for sale and leave. Not to mention that he hasn’t dated anyone since his wife died four years ago. The little sister he’s super protective over let it slip that he swore off ever falling in love again.
But he’s cooking me dinner, showing me around town, and saving me from getting trampled by the town’s favorite moose. Don’t even get me started on the way my brain short-circuits when I catch him shirtless and towel-drying his hair.
The truth is? I’m falling hard, and I wish I didn’t have to leave.
The Unsinkable Greta James by Jennifer E. Smith
Genre: Women’s Fiction
Just after the death of her mother—her first and most devoted fan—and weeks before the launch of her high-stakes sophomore album, Greta James falls apart on stage. The footage quickly goes viral and she stops playing, her career suddenly in jeopardy—the kind of jeopardy her father, Conrad, has always predicted.
Months later, Greta—still heartbroken and very much adrift—reluctantly agrees to accompany Conrad on the Alaskan cruise her parents had booked to celebrate their fortieth anniversary. It could be their last chance to heal old wounds in the wake of shared loss. But the trip will also prove to be a voyage of discovery for them both, and for Ben Wilder, a charming historian struggling with a major upheaval in his own life. As Greta works to build back her confidence and Ben confronts an uncertain future, they find themselves drawn to and relying on each other.
It’s here in the unlikeliest of places—at sea, far from the packed city venues where she usually plays and surrounded by the stunning Alaskan wilderness—that Greta will have to decide what her path forward might look like—and how to find her voice again.
Tisha by Robert Sprecht
Genre: Memoir
The beloved real-life story of a woman in the Alaskan wilderness, the children she taught, and the man she loved.
Anne Hobbs was only nineteen in 1927 when she came to harsh and beautiful Alaska. Running a ramshackle schoolhouse would expose her to more than just the elements. After she allowed Native American children into her class and fell in love with a half-Inuit man, she would learn the meanings of prejudice and perseverance, irrational hatred and unconditional love. “People get as mean as the weather,” she discovered, but they were also capable of great good.
The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah
Genre: Historical Fiction
Alaska, 1974. Ernt Allbright came home from the Vietnam War a changed and volatile man. When he loses yet another job, he makes the impulsive decision to move his wife and daughter north where they will live off the grid in America’s last true frontier.
Cora will do anything for the man she loves, even if means following him into the unknown. Thirteen-year-old Leni, caught in the riptide of her parents’ passionate, stormy relationship, has little choice but to go along, daring to hope this new land promises her family a better future.
In a wild, remote corner of Alaska, the Allbrights find a fiercely independent community of strong men and even stronger women. The long, sunlit days and the generosity of the locals make up for the newcomers’ lack of preparation and dwindling resources.
But as winter approaches and darkness descends, Ernt’s fragile mental state deteriorates. Soon the perils outside pale in comparison to threats from within. In their small cabin, covered in snow, blanketed in eighteen hours of night, Leni and her mother learn the terrible truth: they are on their own.
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