Montana Books: The Best Books Set in Big Sky Country

Book Summary

Bodine is the manager of her family’s Montana ranch resort. She’s way too busy for love, even when her childhood crush, Callen, returns to work at the ranch. However, when a young woman’s body is discovered on their land, the deputy sheriff is fueled by an old grudge and treats Callen as a suspect.

Twenty-five years ago, Bodine’s Aunt Alice disappeared, so the murder of this young woman hits close to home for the Longbow family. Bodine and Callen must work together to uncover the truth behind the current murder, and in the process, they may learn more about Alice.

Book Summary

Based on a true story, this novel will transport you to two vastly different time periods and locations. In 1939 Paris, Odile worked for the American Library. When Nazis arrive in Paris and threaten the library, Odile and her fellow brave librarians join the resistance.

Forty-three years later, in Montana, teenager Lily becomes interested in her widowed neighbor. As they begin to form a bond, Lily tries to learn more about how her French neighbor ended up in Montana. They have no idea that a dark secret connects them.

Book Summary

Penny loves her job as a property development manager in Seattle, but a tragedy requires her to travel home to Sapphire Bay, Montana, to say goodbye to her grandmother. She has three sisters, and none of them expected to inherit their grandmother’s home together, especially with the strings attached.

Their grandmother’s neighbor, Wyatt, was equally surprised when the Terry sisters moved in next door. His hopes of completing a series of paintings were crushed when the women started a noisy remodel. Maybe that unwanted free time will give him a chance to help Penny solve an old family mystery.

Book Summary

Eleven-year-old Donal lives deep in the Montana Rockies with his grandmother. However, when she needs surgery, she decides to send Donal to her sister in Wisconsin. Sadly, Aunt Kate is a tough woman to live with, unlike Gram. And it’s not just Donal that finds her difficult. Aunt Kate’s husband, Herman the German, is also getting tired of her tyrannical nature. 

When Kate sends Donal back to Montana on the bus, Herman the German decides to travel with him. Along the way, they meet an interesting cast of characters and find themselves in all kinds of misadventures.

Book Summary

Thirteen-year-old Duchess Day Radley considers herself an outlaw. She’s hot-headed and believes that rules aren’t meant for her. She lives her life somewhere in the gray area between right and wrong.

Her single mom, Star, can hardly take care of herself, let alone two kids. So Duchess spends her days protecting her 5-year-old brother, Robin, and mothering her own mom.

Walk still lives in Cape Haven, the same coastal California town where he and Star grew up. He does his best to protect Duchess and Robin in all the ways that Star cannot. Although Walk is now the chief of police, he is still scarred by the memory of having to testify against his best friend, Vincent, thirty years ago.

Three decades after that testimony, Vincent is being released from prison, which spells trouble for both Walk and Duchess. This story is told from their alternating points of view. The primary narrative is set in the present day with flashbacks to past events.

Book Summary

Paige has been sent from New York to report on Montana’s unique Yogo sapphires for the Manhattan Post. During her visit, she finds an old diary, hidden inside the wall of a historic hotel which detours her original mission.

Each eccentric town resident seems to hold a different key to understand more about the diary. Soon, the worlds of western art and sapphire mining collide. Along the way, she’s hopes to reconnect with a handsome cowboy named Jake.

Book Summary

In 1891, Butte, Montana, was a small copper mining town with a significant Irish immigrant population. The residents, including main character Tom Rourke, enjoy many vices. He’s feeling unsure about his future when Polly arrives in town. She’s the new bride in an arranged marriage to the devout mining captain Long Anthony Harrington.

Polly quickly realizes her arranged marriage is not going to work, and just as quickly, an affair sparks with Tom. The duo heads west on a stolen horse, embracing their wild romance. However, they are being pursued by gunmen, and the choice they make next will haunt them forever.

Book Summary

In this 2007 Newbery Medal Nominee, a 16-year-old orphan named Hattie receives the surprising news that she has inherited her uncle’s homesteading claim in Montana. She bravely travels from Iowa in 1917 to start a new life for herself on his land.

World War I is raging in Europe, and anti-German sentiment has reached Montana, creating complications for Hattie’s friend, Perilee Mueller. On top of the war, Hattie faces bug-infested summers and bitter winters, but her will to thrive finds a way to endure each challenge that comes her way.

Book Summary

Years ago, George and Margaret Blackledge lost their son James when he was thrown from a horse. Now, it’s September 1951, and James’s widow, Lorna, has remarried. Margaret doesn’t trust the new husband, Donnie Weboy, and is concerned for the safety of their grandson, Jimmy.

Jimmy is their last remaining connection to James, but George, a retired sheriff, doesn’t want to stir up trouble with Donnie. Unable to allay Lorna’s fears, George gives in, and the two take to the road in pursuit of Jimmy. They travel through the North Dakota badlands and on to Bentrock, Montana.

When Margaret tries to convince Lorna to return to North Dakota with Jimmy, she and George find themselves entangled with the fearsome Weboy clan, who aren’t going to give Jimmy up without a fight.

Book Summary

Author Norman Maclean was an English professor who began writing fiction at age 70. His novella, A River Runs Through It, was first published in 1976. It is now considered a 20th-century classic about life, told through fly-fishing and vivid descriptions of the scenic Montana landscape.

Book Summary

When Cameron Post suddenly loses her parents to a tragic car accident, alongside her shock and grief, she also feels a sense of relief that they’ll never know she had, just hours before, been kissing a girl.

Orphaned, Cameron is forced to move in with her conservative aunt and old-fashioned grandma in rural Montana. Then, Cameron meets Coley Taylor – a beautiful cowgirl with a perfect boyfriend. The girls form a close friendship that seems to leave the door open for something more to develop in their relationship.

When Cameron’s ultra-religious Aunt Ruth tries to “fix” her niece through conversion therapy, Cameron must come to terms with her true self.