The Heart of the Mountains (My Heart Belongs in the Blue Ridge #2) by Pepper D. Basham

 

Can their hearts overcome the darkness of the mountains?
 
To escape a forced marriage, Cora Taylor travels from England to the Blue Ridge Mountains in search of her brother, who is working as a teacher in a mission school. She hopes to find a place where her nursing skills and independent ideas will be accepted and appreciated, but nothing prepares her for the wild mixture of isolation, community, brokenness, and hope within these mountains…or in the person of Jeb McAdams.
 
Returning from the devastation of World War 1 emotionally damaged, Jeb McAdams struggles against the rampant mountain alcoholism to soothe his nightmares. It’s easy to hide within the mountains, or it was, before Cora Taylor arrived. Now, she seems to show up at every turn, bringing her modern ideas, curiosity, and beautiful eyes with her.
 
Bound by their shared war history, the pair develop an unlikely friendship, which unexpectedly hints to something more. But when Cora’s desire to help the women of the mountains crosses an unspoken line, will Jeb be able to protect this feisty flatlander from the wrath of the mountain men or will he end up losing much more than his heart? 

Amazon

 

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.

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

 

My Review

 What a quick book to get lost in. A rather pampered girl, or she was until she ended up as a nurse in the The Great War, only to return home and find her father was arranging a marriage for her. So she does what a girl who has now grown up and seen the worst of the world, leaves England and goes to the Blue Ridge Mountains, world apart from what she has known, but now she begins to see the beauty that her brother and uncle have told her about.

We meet people that are very wary of new flat landers, and those that embrace Cora, and what a heart she has for these people.

We meet Jeb who literally comes to Cora's rescue.

Some of the happenings here are hard to understand, these people have long held beliefs, along with many superstitions, that Cora did not share, but opened her mind and heart to helping!

In the end I wondered if those I now cared about would even survive! Page turner for sure, and throw in some sweet romance!

I received this book through Net Galley and the Publisher Barbour, and was not required to give a positive review.