Thanks for stopping by my blog! I’m sharing a review of Joy Callaway’s recent historical fiction novel, What the Mountains Remember, a 1910s tale set around Asheville, NC.
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 gasoline magnate, Shipley Newbold. But when her stepfather’s business acquaintance, 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.
What the Mountains Remember is a fascinating, setting-as-a-character historical fiction story with roots in real-life places and people. This is the first novel I’ve read by Joy Callaway, and I’m impressed with her style and immersive prose transporting the reader to the rugged Appalachians. The story encompasses an empowering, engaging heroine’s tale with relatable struggles, a spot-on depiction of grief’s impact, and a reluctant and hopeful romance.
The romance thread is my favorite aspect of the story (imagine that!) as it is integral to Belle’s arc and growth as she asserts a new role for herself as a writer and recorder of people’s stories. The love interest himself is an observant, perceptive, and caring beta hero. For the two of them, a convenient betrothal grows to genuine care, albeit reluctant on both sides (they are adorable little fools for a good portion of the story). Instead of frustrating the reader, the reluctance and avoidance of love, on Belle’s part, is endearing and something you want her to completely work through.
What the Mountains Remember is the kind of story that makes me want to learn more about the places and real-life people in its pages. I found myself down a Google rabbit hole learning more about the now-Omni Grove Park Inn and the Henry Ford vagabonds trips.
Thank you to Netgalley for the advance ebook copy. And thanks to my library for the audiobook copy I also utilized for part of my reading. This is my honest review.
The Green Mockingbird 