Travel back in time to Ashville, NC Joy Callaway's lovely new novel
Thank you to Austen Prose, Harper Collins Focus, Harper Muse Books and Joy Callaway for my spot on this tour and beautiful gifted copy of What the Mountains Remember by Joy Calloway. Out Now!
SYNOPSIS
At this wondrous resort, secrets can easily be hidden in plain sight when the eye is trained on beauty. April 1913 —Belle Newbold hasn’t seen mountains for seven years—since her father died in a mining accident and her mother married Indiana gas magnate, Shipley Newbold. But when her stepfather’s friend, Henry Ford, invites the family on one of his famous Vagabonds camping tours, she is forced to face the hills once again—primarily in order to reunite with her future fiancé, owner of the land the Vagabonds are using for their campsite, a man she’s only met once before. It is a veritable arranged marriage, but she prefers it that way. Belle isn’t interested in love. She only wants a simple life—a family of her own and the stability of a wealthy man’s pockets. That’s what Worth Delafield has promised to give her and it’s worth facing the mountains again, the reminder of the past, and her poverty, to secure her future. But when the Vagabonds group is invited to tour the unfinished Grove Park Inn and Belle is unexpectedly thrust into a role researching and writing about the building of the inn—a construction the locals are calling The Eighth Wonder of the World—she quickly realizes that these mountains are no different from the ones she once called home. As Belle peels back the facade of Grove Park Inn, of Worth, of the society she’s come to claim as her own, and the truth of her heart, she begins to see that perhaps her part in Grove Park’s story isn’t a coincidence after all. Perhaps it is only by watching a wonder rise from ordinary hands and mountain stone that she can finally find the strength to piece together the long-destroyed path toward who she was meant to be. International bestselling author Joy Callaway returns with a story of the ordinary people behind extraordinary beauty—and the question of who gets to tell their stories.
MY REVIEW
Joy Callaway's lovely and descriptive writing, fascinating plot, and a remarkable amount of research, made Ashville, NC, of the early 1900s came alive for me. The characters are vivid and memorable, especially Belle. Through her, Callaway shines a light on the workers who were not given the recognition they deserved when they built this magnificent building, versus the wealthy investors who overshadowed the event, providing insightful social commentary. The storyline about the tuberculosis sanatoriums in Ashville is interesting as well. Belle is ahead of her time, and I always appreciate reading FMCs who are. The book is well-paced with a charming and captivating romance, this was heartwarming and inspiring.
My steep was Blackberry black tea from Oliver Pluff Tea Co
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