One Mountain Away by Emilie RichardsPaperbackReview copy provided by DMCPR MediaMira (Harlequin), August 2012Synopsis-Emilie Richards' background as a family counsellor and minister's wife has given her deep insights into people and relationships – insights she brings to bear in her award-winning novels.With nothing but brains, ambition and sheer nerve, Charlotte Hale built a career as a real estate developer. Her professional reputation is rock solid ... but her life is empty. Her friends are as grasping and insincere as she's become, and she's alienated her family so completely that she's never met her only granddaughter.So Charlotte vows to make amends, not simply with her considerable wealth, but by opening her home and her heart. And in doing so, she learns at last what it really means to build a legacy.Review- One Mountain Away is a family drama that slowly unfolds, sweeping across three generations of women.Charlotte Hale is in her 50’s, ill and attempting to atone for the many mistakes she has made in life, in particular her estrangement from her daughter Taylor and ex-husband Ethan. Dealing with a teenage pregnancy, Taylor was abandoned by her mother at her most vulnerable period in her life- following the birth of her daughter prematurely.Charlotte has taken to watching her granddaughter from afar at the local park; Maddie has epilepsy and suffers from frequent seizures. Charlotte’s daughter Taylor refuses to have any contact with her.To compensate for the misjudgement of her daughter, Charlotte takes in a young pregnant woman, Harmony who needs the space and time to reconsider her path in life. Charlotte finds a loyal friend in this young woman and develops the relationship she’d hoped to rekindle with her own daughter. The relationships in this story are quite complex, there’s unresolved hurt and losses and misunderstandings that stand in the way of Charlotte and Taylor moving on with their lives.Up until half way through this book (200 pages!) I wasn’t sure whether this book was right for me, but somewhere along the way the characters got under my skin and by the end I was teary-eyed and glad I persevered.
Overall Rating
3.5/5
"I really liked this"
One Mountain Away can be purchased from Fishpond and other leading book retailers
