Contemporary Springwater

Linda Lael Miller transports readers to the rugged beauty of the American West, where Springwater, Montana, once a dusty stagecoach stop, is now a frontier town for the twenty-first century. Cattle rustlers have gone high-tech, and the Internet is the newest highway in town. But Springwater is still a place of strong passions and second chances.

Maggie McCaffrey came home determined to restore the dilapidated Springwater Station. But she didn’t count on running into deputy marshal J.T. Wainwright, the hometown boy who broke her hearts years before. No sooner does J.T. lay eyes on Maggie – and realize that she’s always been the only woman for him – than the peaceful town erupts with a wave of deadly attacks on neighboring ranchers. Now, one homegrown cowboy lawman must face down some very sophisticated outlaws. Because if he can just get Maggie to say "yes," he’s got a wedding to attend...


I got to visit the town of Springwater (founded in the late 1800s) one last time in the book Springwater Wedding by Linda Lael Miller. It’s the final novel in the series but it’s set in present day with the descendants of the very first people of Springwater (the McCaffrey’s & the Wainwrights) as the main characters. In it Miller blends the past with the present in some ways that I thought was very nice but this Springwater just didn’t have the same friendly, small-town feel to it nor is the community as close-knit as it was back in June-Bug’s day (although you can tell that it’s still a nicer town than most).

Meeting the descendants of my favorite town and seeing how Springwater has grown was a real treat but I just didn’t care for the main heroine Maggie McCaffrey. She annoyed me to no end because she cried at the drop of a hat when I know for a fact that her ancestors were built of stronger stuff. Especially the women! I liked J.T. and the rest of the people in the town though and I wouldn’t mind finding out more about them someday.

In each book of the Springwater series, Mrs. Miller makes the reader feel like they’re a part of the community but in trying to do so in Springwater Wedding, she just made the book feel strained under the weight of so many relationships and information. Nonetheless, it was still a good story, just not as wonderful as the rest of the series.

Springwater Seasons
Springwater (1998)
Jessica (1999)
Miranda (1999)
Rachel (1999)
Savannah (1999)
A Springwater Christmas (1999)
Springwater Wedding (2001)