Review: Enjoy the View (Moose Springs, AK #3) (ARC)

Author: Sarah Morgenthaler

River Lane’s acting career is tanking fast. Determined to start a new career behind the camera, she’ll will take whatever job she can get, including filming a documentary about the picturesque town of Moose Springs.

When mountaineer and Moose Springs local Easton Lockett sees a woman walking down the road looking lost, of course he offers to help. The last thing he expects is to interrupt a film shoot and earn River’s wrath. But Easton has an idea to make it up to her: he can take River’s crew up the local hidden gem, Mount Veil. When bad weather strikes, putting the film crew at risk, it takes all of Easton’s skill to get them back down safely…and to keep River in his arms. 

Moose Springs, Alaska we meet again! The third novel in the series brings us back to our small town in the Alaskan wilderness with the same set of characters we’ve all come to know and love. We started with The Tourist Attraction with Graham and Zoey, moved on to Mistletoe and Mr. Right with Rick and Lana, and now we’re on to the loveable Easton and his turn to be a main character. As with the previous novels, this one can technically be read as a standalone, but it is best enjoyed when read as part of the series to gain the background of the town and characters. If you can only read one of the previous before reading this one, then I would suggest the first as it gives a more in-depth set-up of the main town and characters.

Easton Lockett is the introverted mountain climber that believes he is aiding a person in need when he picks up River Lane, who seems to be in need of a ride, off the side of the road. However, River is not in need of any help as she is in the middle of filming a scene for her new documentary all about Moose Springs. The misunderstanding begins our tale of the two interacting together where River enlists Easton’s help to film some scenes.

River Lane is a fiery former actress who is now trying her hand at making it behind the camera. Her first major project is to make a documentary all about the town of Moose Springs. However, it is proving to be a challenge due to the reluctance of the town. River must get creative with her filming and ends up focusing on Mount Veil (one of the main mountains surrounding the town).

The majority of this story, therefore, takes place on Mount Veil during the climbing adventure with Easton serving as guide to River’s film crew. Together River and Easton begin to explore their feelings for each other. Not only that, but they also face, as a team, the perils that come with mountain climbing. There are potential disasters around every turn that they must overcome to not only submit the mountain, but also film the shots needed to complete the documentary.

River and Easton have some great banter and they learn to trust each other as the mountain climb forces their hand at times. River does make some questionable decisions that make her seem a little one-dimensional and she doesn’t quite match the complex counterpart that is Easton. I’m not sure if it’s just the way she was written or if it’s just that we’ve come to know Easton through the previous novels, but something didn’t always add up and make me love River as much as the other characters. However, I still greatly enjoyed the relationship that was formed between Easton and River and also loved how all the characters interacted in the story.

Overall, Sarah Morgenthaler’s series about this fictional small town in Alaska has become an automatic on my TBR list. I really hope that we get more tales from Moose Springs in the future! The writing flows well and the story is captivating while being easy to follow. For me, the story was beyond enjoyable and I devoured it in a few hours. The series seems to just keep getting better. My main disappointment mainly came from the lack of Moose Springs in a Moose Springs novel. As the setting is away from the central town, it lost a little of the charm of the first two. I would recommend this novel to anyone who wants a super sweet story that’s also filled with some mountain climbing adventure.

**Thank you to Netgalley and Sourcebooks Casablanca for the ARC to read. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.**