Title: When the Mountain Crumbled
Author: Angela K. Couch
Series: A Day to Remember, book 4
Major Themes: Disasters, Rescues, Canada, Mounties, Schoolteachers, Grief
Synopsis: On the day Turtle Mountain crumbled onto the mining town of Frank, Samantha learned that she could not simply continue stuffing down the grief and loss she experienced as a young girl.
I have been enjoying the books in the A Day to Remember series. Each book stands alone, telling a story about a different disaster, but each one is memorable. I had the privilege, this week, of reading an advance copy of When the Mountain Crumbled, the newest book in the series.
Publisher’s description:
Discipline and rules are the foundation on which Samantha Ingles has built her life—the life of a spinster schoolteacher in a small mining town in the Canadian Rockies. All that crumbles from her grasp when part of a mountain crashes down on their community.
Constable David Harty has little patience for the strict schoolmarm but has no choice but to leave his three young nieces in her care while he tries to discover the fate of his brother. Already, the girls have lost their mother and a brother to the landslide and require comfort and love while they await the fate of their father, possibly buried in the coal mine.
With the mountain looming over their heads threatening more lives, and the town scrambling to save who they can from the rubble, can hearts find healing—both for their own sakes and the children in their care?
My thoughts:
I had never heard of the landslide in western Canada that covered most of a town and a couple of ranches in 1903. The historical part of this story fascinated me. I have seen many landslides (called slips in my country!) and stood in awe at the destruction caused by them. To have one so huge that it covered ranches, camps, and part of a town, and killed more than 70 people is almost unimaginable. Having experienced several earthquakes, I could well imagine how the survivors felt about going back to the scene of the destruction, and the fear they had to work through in the days and weeks following the disaster.
I also really liked the exploration of grief and how Samantha learned to work through it and help others. Different people in When the Mountain Crumbled responded to loss and trauma in different ways. One person had to realize that stuffing grief down and denying it, “moving on” before acknowledging and grieving her loss, had crippled her. The story shows her learning to allow herself to love and care for others.
I would have preferred if the story had had less romance in it. By the time I read the second chapter, I had identified the love interests and knew what the ending of the story would be. The main focus of the story felt like it was to get the two main characters married. Personally, I prefer books in which that is a secondary focus. As I said earlier, though, there was a lot I loved about this book, so if you enjoy romance with a lot of food for thought thrown in along with some obscure history, this is the book for you!
I received a complimentary copy of this book from NetGalley, and these are my honest thoughts about it.
WARNING: Kisses in chapters 28 and 38.
Age levels:
Reading Independently—Ages 15 and Above, Adults
Links to buy this book:
Amazon: Paperback | Kindle
AbeBooks: View Choices on AbeBooks.com
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