Helen Ketterling thought she had left the Bad River Sioux Reservation in South Dakota behind her thirteen years ago. Once an idealistic and spirited schoolteacher, Helen was swept into the lives of the Sioux people and the arms of Reese Blue Sky. These fiery opposites attracted with such heat that their love burned brightly--if all too briefly.

Now a single parent with a son--a son Reese knows nothing about--Helen accepts an assignment that brings her back to Bad River and into the realm of the one man she cannot forget.

A family tragedy has brought Reese home to Bad River. And though it has been years since he has seen Helen, Reese immediately recalls the bittersweet memories of a time when he was very much in love. Now the passion he felt for Helen has been rekindled but he senses in her a secret that she will not--or cannot--share with him. Soon, Reese discovers that the life on the reservation he dearly cherished appears to have been threatened. In a world where tradition and ritual face off against development and greed, a proud but lonely man attempts to reconcile his past, hoping to find his place in the heart of his one true love.

Amazon.com Review
Setting: Rapid City, South Dakota--present day
Sensuality Rating: 7

Popular romance author Kathleen Eagle visits familiar hunting grounds in What the Heart Knows. Returning to the Bad River Lakota Reservation after a 13-year absence, Helen Ketterling has a secret--two of them, in fact. As an undercover investigator for the Bureau of Indian Affairs, she's posing as a blackjack dealer in the reservation casino, The Pair-a-Dice City, to determine whether there's anything illegal going on behind the scenes. When her boss's brother, the former professional basketball player Reese Blue Sky, returns to the reservation to bury his father, Helen's biggest secret of all--her 12-year-old son by Reese--is exposed, while feelings thought long forgotten reignite between the two.

Eagle paints an intriguing portrait of contemporary life on the reservation and its unique issues, with a little mystery thrown in for good measure. In addition, her handling of the understandably turbulent emotions of the former lovers who now share a child is sensitive and astute. All in all, this contemporary draws its audience in, investing them inextricably in the outcome; it's impossible to put this book down. --Alison Trinkle