1907. Women climbing mountains in skirts. Loggers fighting for the eight hour day. The forests and mountains of the North Cascades are alive with progress, but not everyone is on board.Caroline Symington comes from a prominent family in Portland, Oregon. Much to her family’s dismay, she’s more interested in hiking outdoors and exploring the freedoms of a 1907’s New Woman than fancy parties and money. She plans to marry on her own terms, not her parents. When she falls in love with Bob Alford, an enterprising working-class man who loves the outdoors as much as she, little does she know how sorely her theories will be tested. Betrayed by her jealous sister, Caroline elopes, a decision that causes her father to disown her.The young couple moves to a rugged village in the North Cascade Mountains where Caroline begins a new life as the wife of a forest ranger. Though she loves her life in the mountains as a wife and mother, her isolation and the loss of her family is a challenge. As she searches for meaning among nature, she’s ushered along by a group of like-minded women and a mysterious, mountain man with a tragic past. "Timber Rose" is an involving yarn, filled with well-drawn characters, interesting historical nuggets, plenty of adventure and a dash of romantic spice." ~ Barbara Lloyd McMichael for the Bellingham Herald April 3, 2014 Oakley does a skillful and confident job of weaving a good deal of historical material into her story of married life, from mountain-climbing to the women's suffrage movement to the early days of ecological conservation. All of it is presented in an appealingly earthy, unpretentious prose style laced with wry humor and some memorable insights into human nature. Timber Rose is at times an openly sentimental tale, and it's portrayal of Caroline's slow awakening to love and happiness is genuinely memorable. Highly recommended. ~ Historical Novel Society Review November 2014 J.L. Oakley successfully draws you into the story of Caroline Symington with complete grace. The concept of this novel is unique and introduces a special time in history about the new women of the new twentieth century...Balanced with a romantic arc, the story beautifully introduces a new perspective of women involved in mountaineering during the early 1900s. J.L. Oakley is a talented writer with a fantastic concept, and I thoroughly enjoyed this novel. ~Judge, 22nd Annual Writer's Digest Self-Published Book Awards. (Nov 2014) This historical romance by award-winning author J. L. Oakley assuredlycreates and sustains a magical love affair between Caroline and Bob,while successfully tackling a multitude of overarching themes: thedetermination of American working men to act collectively againstself-seeking business titans; the will of American women to demand their autonomy despite the many subtle societal forces holding them back; and the formation of American national parks to preserve and protectnature's beauty. ~ Chanticleer Book Reviews 2016 We areproud to announce that TIMBER ROSE by JL Oakley is a B.R.A.G. MedallionHonoree. This tells a reader that this book is well worth their time and money! Publishedon December 16, 2014 by indieBRAG So proud that TIMBER ROSE was a 2015 Silver WILLA Award winner. Janet Oakley is an awarding winning writer, historian and a practicing gardener. Her personal essays appear in the CUP of COMFORT series and CLOVER, A Literary Rag. Her articles on Washington State history are at Historylink.org and in the prestigious maritime history magazine, SEA CHEST. TREE SOLDIER, a novel set in a CCC camp in the Great Depression won the 2012 EPIC ebook award for historical fiction as well as a 2012 grand prize with Chanticleer Book Reviews. It is a EVERYBODY READS 2013 for the Lewis & Clark Valley community. She is a Humanities Washington speaker, talking on the Civilian Conservation Corps in the state. TIMBER ROSE, its prequel, came out of reading about women in the early 20th and her own hiking experience as a young woman in the White Mountains of NH and Hawaii. But not in skirts.