Violet Fynne is the new school teacher in her old home town of Rattler Rock. She moved from there 10 years previously with her family to Albany, New York. She left her best friend, Stoney Wrenn there in perilous circumstances. His father would beat him every chance he had. Violet promised him when she left that she would return one day to check on him. This promise has haunted her all through her life in New York. Now she's returned and the first place she goes is the tree where she and Stoney played as children. The first thing that she notices is that their initials, VF + SW are still carved into that tree. She's uncertain how to go about finding Stoney, but she does realize at the point of a shotgun that their old friend, Buddy Chisholm has died. On her first day of school, she gets a bit of a shock when the children make it very apparent to her that the mean man who pointed his shotgun at her is none other than her childhood friend, Stoney. But has his heart turned to stone? Does he have room in it for Violet? And most importantly, does she even want him to? I enjoyed this book. I enjoyed the characters and I also enjoyed the suspenseful plot. I love the ending! This one was worth reading!
