One way to cool off

As I was reading The Moutain Between Us by Charles Martin, I was telling my co-workers about it. Each day, I'd give updates on how the story was going. Christi and Karen were entertained by my retelling of events, so I decided to make a video blog about it. It probably would have been funnier if I did it two weeks ago right after I read it.



Here's the official book description from the author's website:

On a stormy winter night, two strangers wait for a flight at the Salt Lake City airport. Ashley Knox is an attractive, successful writer, who is flying East for her much anticipated wedding. Dr. Ben Payne has just wrapped up a medical conference and is also eager to return home to Jacksonville, FL for a slate of surgeries he has scheduled for the following day. When the last outgoing flight is cancelled due to a broken de-icer and a forthcoming storm, Ben finds a charter plane that can take him around the storm and drop him in Denver to catch a connection. And when the pilot says the single engine prop plane can fit one more, if barely, Ben offers the seat to Ashley knowing that she needs to get back just as urgently. And then the unthinkable happens. The pilot has a heart attack mid-flight and the plane crashes into the High Uintas Wilderness-- one of the largest stretches of harsh and remote land in the United States.


Ben, who has broken ribs and Ashley, who suffers a terrible leg fracture, along with the pilot’s dog, are faced with an incredibly harrowing battle to survive. Fortunately, Ben is a medical professional and avid climber (and in a lucky break, has his gear from a climb earlier in the week). With little hope for rescue, he must nurse Ashley back to health and figure out how they are going to get off the mountain, where the temperature hovers in the teens. Meanwhile, Ashley soon realizes that the very private Ben has some serious emotional wounds to heal as well. He explains to Ashley that he is separated from his beloved wife, but in a long standing tradition, he faithfully records messages for her on his voice recorder reflecting on their love affair. As Ashley eavesdrops on Ben’s tender words to his estranged wife she comes to fear that when it comes to her own love story, she’s just settling. And what’s more: she begins to realize that the man she is really attracted to, the man she may love, is Ben.


As the days on the mountains become weeks, their survival becomes increasingly perilous. How will they make it out of the wilderness and if they do, how will this experience change them forever?


Both a tender and page-turning read, The Mountain Between Us will reaffirm your belief in the power of love to sustain us.

Spoiler alert...


I got really into the book because I wanted to know what happened. I wanted to find out how they got down the mountain. But seriously? OH-my-goodness... it really, really, really got predictable, especially considering the fact I've read all of the author's other books. You can take some of the author's other books, change the setting, and you have the exact same thing. To that extent, I was disappointed.

AND oh, how convenient to have an orthopedic surgeon who climbs mountains as the person who crashes. Just too many coincidences to be really believable. And I really did predict the ending immediately. Even possibly by reading the book description.

Charles Martin's books are a lot like Nicholas Sparks. I have recorded a special message to both of them here. (Side note... they both talk about logger head turtles in the latest books. Bizarre.) Sort of have a spoiler at the end, but do watch if you don't mind that. Seeing my hair-do alone is worth it.

View videos of the author talking about the book, read excerpts and more on his website.

To satisfy the FTC, I bought this book and am posting a review by choice.

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