The Heart of the Mountains by Pepper Basham

Book description: 

Can True Love Weather a World of Differences?

To escape marriage, Cora Taylor runs away from her home in England to join her brother in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina, but not even her time as a nurse in the Great War prepares her for the hard landscape and even harder lives of the mountain people. With the help of Jeb McAdams, a quiet woodcarver, who carries his own battle scars, she fashions a place for herself among these unique people. But the past refuses to let go, and with dangers from within and without, can hearts bruised by war find healing within the wilds of the mountains?

My review:

  This is the first book by this author that I started. I got it to review and after a few chapters realized it was the sequel to another book, one that I had gotten free on my Kindle. I read it first, then went back to this one.

  This was a very enjoyable book. It was different than what I usually read, with it being set in the mountains and the characters all being backwoods mountain people with different beliefs and superstitions. 

  Cora was a great heroine. She was determined to do the right thing and help the mountain folk no matter what happened to her, and she did a great job of fitting in despite her fancy upbringing.

 Jeb made a great hero. Still suffering from the war, he was determined not to be a drunk like his father, and also determined to protect this "flatlander" female no matter what happened to him.

 The two seemed too opposite for a relationship, especially to Jeb's thinking, but that made the book all the more interesting. I like the author's style of writing, and her ability to describe the people and setting of the Appalachians in the early 1900's. The book had its amusing moments, and a lot of inspirational ones as the author showed God can change anyone, even the people living in that time and location.

  I have heard a lot of good about this author, and I am impressed with the three books I have read by her. (I read a third after finishing this one). She has hooked me enough that I will definitely be reading more of her books in the future.

 I was provided a copy of this book for review purposes. All opinions in this review are my own.

About the author:

Pepper Basham is an award-winning author who writes romance peppered with grace and humor with a southern Appalachian flair. Her books have garnered recognition in the Grace Awards, Inpsys, and the ACFW Carol Awards, with The Thorn Healer selected as a 2018 finalist in the RT awards. Both her contemporary and historical romance novels consistently receive high ratings from Romantic Times,

with Just the Way You Are as a Top Pick. Most recently she’s introduced readers to Bath, UK through her novellas, Second Impressions and Jane by the Book, and taken readers into the exciting world of WW2 espionage in her novella, Façade. The second novel in The Pleasant Gap series, When You Look at Me, arrives in October and her contribution to Barbour’s wonderful My Heart Belongs series hits the shelves in January 2019 with My Heart Belongs in the Blue Ridge. Her books are seasoned with her Appalachian heritage and love for family. She currently resides in the lovely mountains of Asheville, NC where she is the mom of five great kids, a speech-pathologist to about fifty more, and a lover of chocolate, jazz, hats, and Jesus.

 The Heart of the Mountains is available from Barbour Publishing.

Thanks to Barbour for the review copy.

You can get to know Pepper on her website, www.pepperdbasham.com, on Facebook, Instagram, or over at her group blog, The Writer's Alley.

                                                                          Book #1