55 pages • 1-hour read
Hidden Nature
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Themes
Content Warning: This section contains discussion of emotional abuse.
Finding Strength in Family Bonds
Sloan’s recovery in Heron’s Rest demonstrates how loving family relationships provide a protective or healing influence, expand to include new elements, and offer a strong foundation for family members to thrive and grow. The strong bonds among the Cooper family ground the dramatic action and provide a safety net for each member of the family, demonstrating the importance of finding strength in family bonds.
While she is in the hospital recovering from her gunshot wound, Sloan’s family is a primary means of support for her survival. Her doctor reminds her, “People who love you make a difference. And you’re loved” (10). Elsie, Dean, Drea, and members of the extended family all offer their love and support, confirming to Sloan that her decision to return to her body during surgery was the right choice. Though she hates the thought of a long recovery, Sloan agrees to do the work because her family reinforces the doctor’s orders. Elsie and Dean bring her back to her childhood home, Drea insists she use the wheelchair when she is discharged from the hospital, and Elsie fusses about Sloan’s comfort and food intake, showing that they are committed to Sloan’s care and recovery.
One of Sloan’s lessons as a character is learning to rely on others while she is injured and weak, even though she cherishes her independence. Joel reminds her, “Sometimes you have to let people take care of you” (23). Sloan realizes this as both her parents pitch in to help her become grounded in her new life by renovating and refurbishing her new house. Later, she realizes she can lean on Nash, and that it’s not a sign of weakness to seek human love and support.
The power of loving family bonds emerges in contrast to the cold childhood that Nash and Theo describe, where their parents were distant, demanding, and quick to disapprove. Nash survived this emotional abuse by toughening and distancing himself in turn, but this makes him wary of emotional intimacy in his new relationship with Sloan. Nash observes to Theo, “Their unique combination of neglect and unshakeable demands layered together with constant disappointment hurt you more than it did me” (73).
However, when Nash sees that Theo is unafraid to risk his heart in becoming close to Drea, he understands that Theo is forming new family bonds that will include a wife, child, and home. Both the Littlefields find themselves nourished by their quick acceptance into the Cooper family. At dinner with Elsie and Dean, Nash observes, “They clearly loved and understood each other […] but more, they liked each other. And they’d folded Theo right in, had given him what he’d never had. Family” (227).
Finding and meeting Drea confirms to Theo that he made the right choice in giving up his career to move to Heron’s Rest, and the embrace of the Cooper family fills in the gaps left by the Littlefields’ own parents. Sloan, though she has always known a loving family, likewise recognizes the benefits of her family relationships, and being near them is one reason she chooses Travis’s job offer. Thus, Sloan, Theo, and Nash all discover how to find strength in the bonds and support family ties can offer.
The Rewards of Rebuilding and Renewal
Though part of the book is a thriller and part is a romance, the character arcs for both protagonists follow a path of regrowth and renewal. Both Nash and Sloan are facing second chances, and both find an opportunity to rebuild their lives, and their homes, in meaningful ways.
Nash moves to Heron’s Rest and buys the old Parker place precisely because he wants to change his life. His job in finance in New York City and his previous romantic relationship were sufficient but not fulfilling. He wants a job that will let him use his hands and build things, and he welcomes the challenge of renovating his new home. He takes satisfaction in making the place more comfortable and accommodating, adding not just necessary repairs like new windows but luxurious touches like a coffee bar in the master suite, and giving new life to old furniture that simply needed some restoration. Nash is satisfied by his life choices: He’s no longer pursuing the life his parents designed for him, but is instead following his passions and interest, doing work he really enjoys. This new attitude about his place in the world also makes room for Sloan in his life.
Theo is another character who makes a satisfactory life change, as he, too, looks forward to “[b]uilding something, doing good work, learning how to make something last” (90). Theo leaves behind a career in a law firm to join Nash in his new renovation business, making a new start in his life as well. Theo’s renewal also involves falling in love with the partner he wants to share his life with, which leads him to embark on building the life he truly wants—again, not the life his parents designed for him.
Sloan’s renewal is both literal and metaphorical as she has time to think about her life during her recovery from her wounds. When she considers taking a job in the area around Heron’s Rest, she realizes how her return has helped her understand what the area means to her. She tells her parents, “I had to leave and make something, be something, on my own before I could come back” (135). As she rebuilds her physical strength, Sloan learns a new skill, crocheting, which becomes symbolic of the new avenues she is considering for her life. Travis’s job opportunity, which offers Sloan a promotion as well as a local base, provides the foundation for rebuilding her life anew. Buying her own cottage and refurbishing it to suit her tastes and comforts is another way Sloan reorients her life to make room for the things most important to her. Her refurbished home echoes her deepening sense of satisfaction with her job, her deepening bonds to her family, and her ability to welcome a new person into her life when she falls in love with Nash.
All three of these characters illustrate that a successful and rewarding life can mean not just trying new things, but in some cases rebuilding or renewing something that already exists, which reinforces the larger theme around second chances.
The Joys of a Calling
In concert with the rewards of rebuilding, several of the characters experience the pleasure of finding personal satisfaction in their line of work. Through Sloan and Nash’s experiences in particular, the novel illustrates the joys of a calling.
Sloan’s injury makes her appreciate how important her job is to her, and how suited she is for the work. She chose a job in the Natural Resources Police because she subscribes to the core values of the organization and wants to uphold its mission to educate, preserve, and protect natural resources and public lands, while making sure their human stewards can enjoy these resources in a safe and appropriate fashion. Sloan chafes when she is on medical leave and left weak after her injury, telling herself that she “[n]eeded to do her job. To protect human and wildlife, to protect the forest, the rivers, the lakes” (82). She enjoys having a purpose, the feeling of success when she’s done her job well, and she enjoys training other officers who also show an aptitude for the work. This is the reason Sloan is able to put her uniform back on and return to work even after the attack in the mini-mart.
In addition to her usual sense of mission, Sloan also enjoys the work of investigation. The plight of the missing Janet Anderson calls to her for personal reasons, because she sees another woman who is weak and vulnerable, unable to protect herself from attack. Sloan feels a sense of purpose and satisfaction in finding out information and putting pieces together, demonstrated by the several conversations with Nash where she makes accurate conjectures about the motives and methods of the killers. This need to solve crimes and enact justice is part of her calling to be an officer who upholds the law. In bringing Clara and Tom to justice, Sloan also demonstrates once again how talented and capable she is in solving crimes.
Nash also illustrates the joys of a calling in giving up his career in finance for his new renovation business. While his financial career was more lucrative and ostensibly more glamorous and prestigious, his renovation work in Heron’s Rest is more suited to his actual interests. Working with his hands brings Nash more genuine satisfaction than his financial career did, and he finds that he is a happier, more relaxed person as a result. Theo’s willingness to leave his law career behind to join Nash as a partner in the business reveals a similar trajectory that suggests that following one’s real interests is the best course of action. In these ways, Nash and Theo end up in a career that, like Sloan’s, feels like a true calling instead of a way of merely making a living.
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