Customer Reviews

A Beautiful Fall: A Novel

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Thirty four year old Emma Madison has done quite well for herself in a prestigious law firm in Boston. Life is happening at lightning speed until Emma gets a call. Her father has just had a heart attack. Regrets filled her heart as she race to the hospital. Had it really been 12 years since she was home last? It hardly seemed possible. Emma was doing her job, taking care of business all these years which left little time for anything else in her life - even time to think.

She arrives at the airport and is welcomed by friends with open arms. Each of her friends treat her with a warmth that wasn't expected after all this time. Samantha (a full time mom), Christina (a full time writer) and Michael (a very special someone), are all proud that she had made her dreams come true. They treat her like they talked every day for the last 12 years. It surprised her. They all have a deep love that satisfies them. It has her wondering what is different. She later finds out that each of her friends were following Jesus in a very special way. It was very different that just playing church.

Emma realizes as she fights with her law firm partner, Robert Adler, on the phone something has definitely been missing in her life. Emma thought she was content. But being home made her start to realize she didn't have it all. Emma begins to see how much she has missed out on; that money isn't everything. It definitely can't buy happiness or a relationship with her father. Robert is demanding that she come back and handle this very important deal for the firm. She owes it to them. Emma puts him off as she spends time with her father. Robert isn't use to hearing the word "No" and keeps putting the pressure on her to return in a day or two. That should be plenty of time to square things away with family, according to Robert.

Emma feels caught between two worlds and isn't doing well in either one. Emma reunites with her friends. Emotions she didn't realize she had start to stir. She starts to want what they have. She begins to smell the flowers and really see them clearly for the first time in a long time. Emma struggles with the fact that she has made work a priority in her life. That choice has cost her dearly. She can't get back yesterday but maybe she can have tomorrow. Can she really live in a small town again? So many choices to be made so little time...

Chris Coppernoll captures the essence of small town life and the sweet relationship with really special friends. Chris is a romantic at heart and sees the best in everything. I really loved that about this story. In Chris' first book "Providence", he wrote from the male point of view; in this story he mainly wrote from a woman's point of view. His female dialogue rang true and his attention to detail amazed me. Chris' second book shows how versatile he is. I can't wait to see what he does in his third book. After reading this story you'll be waiting too.

Finding Hope Through Fiction
[...]

I really enjoyed this heartwarming story of family and romance - set in the south. The setting and characters are so real you get involved in the story right away and care about what happens! I appreciate good clean stories that inspire.

I started and finished this book in the same evening (I was up much later than I had planned...). Chris Coppernoll does a wonderful job at developing both the characters and their stories. It is easy find yourself feeling as if you've escaped into Juneberry and are right there with Emma, Michael, and all of their friends, experiencing the ups and downs of their emotions and relationships. What a joy to find an author who writes in such a way as to make you anxious for the next book!

Chris Coppernoll has another hit on his hands with A Beautiful Fall. In this story Chris Coppernoll does show how Emma Madison, small town girl making it as a big city lawyer returning home in a family emerency meets up with her hometown boyfriend who she left the big city for can be brought back toether through prayer and patience if it is to be God's will.
Emma madison is pulled in several directions but in her heart she does know what she wants, she just has to open up her heart to see God's will in her life.
Michael Evans knows if it is to be God's will for Emma and him than he is leaving it in God's hands.
The wonderful twists and turns that bring this story together is beautifully crafted by Chris Coppernoll.
Chris again uses lyrics from songs that help create a better understanding of life's many angles.
Keep a watch out for Chris Coppernoll he will be around and each book of his stories get better and just shows what talent God is giving Chris Coppernoll to the Christian literature field.

Brief Summary:

Twelve years ago, Emma Madison had everything going for her, a loving home, best friends and a summer romance, but she ran. Ran out of fear that she would be suffocated by small town living without the chance to reach for her dreams.

Now, working as a high rising Boston Lawyer, Emma wins her biggest court case yet. However, as soon as she leaves the courtroom, she receives a phone call that her father has suffered from a stroke. She drops everything to go back home--something that she had avoided doing for twelve years.

Emma assumes she'd go home to help her father and put things in order and quickly return to Boston, but her plans change when she once again falls in love with being home, with her high school sweetheart, family and friends. She needs to decide if she should fall for her successful career or rather for the love of all those she holds dear in her hometown.

Positive Elements: God is clearly at work through the faithful spiritual journeys of Emma's friends. I enjoyed seeing faith in action by the words and deeds of these characters.

Negative Elements: While this wouldn't stop me from recommending this book, I must say that I noticed that Emma was reconciled to her family, friends and sweetheart--but she was never clearly reconciled to God.

I picked this book because the setting is mostly in South Carolina and as always or in most books that I have read with the setting in SC - the book has a "Home" feeling - it is heartwarming, caring, and loving. I loved the characters in this book. Not just the main characters but the supporting ones as well. This book is definately a good book - a MUST read! I loved it all the way through!! The couple(s) in this books are unforgettable.

At first glance, A BEAUTIFUL FALL appears to be that perennial staple of contemporary CBA fiction: the story of a successful young city woman who, in response to some emergency, temporarily returns to the small town where she grew up, only to discover her true home and the love of her life in the town she vowed she'd never see again. Thankfully, Chris Coppernoll handles this staple better than most.

Boston attorney Emma Madison is flying high from a major courtroom victory when she receives the news that her father has suffered a heart attack. Amid predictable objections from her law partners, she takes the next flight to South Carolina, where Noel, her cousin Samantha's too-good-to-be-true son, picks her up at the airport and escorts her to her father's bedside at the hospital.

What makes this especially significant for Emma --- and those she left behind in the small town of Juneberry --- is that this is her first return visit to her hometown in 12 years. For some mysterious reason, Emma had left town without explaining herself, not to her father, not to Samantha, not to her close friend Christina, and most significantly, not to her then-boyfriend Michael.

Her dread is that someone will ask why, and so she treads somewhat cautiously through her first few days back in Juneberry.

When Will Madison makes a swift recovery from his heart attack, Emma's law partners expect her to take the next flight back to Boston, but Emma has other plans --- plans that involve helping her father establish a home office for his own law practice. Helping her with the effort is Michael, the man she walked out on 12 years earlier. The former couple survives the initial awkwardness and ends up working well together in an effort to help Will recover.

Meanwhile, Emma's friends and colleagues in Boston --- in particular a fellow lawyer named Colin, whose interest is personal --- keep after her to return quickly, hinting that her standing in the legal community is in jeopardy. Ten days after she left the city, Emma returns to Boston and the life she thought she wanted.

A BEAUTIFUL FALL is truly one of those heartwarming stories that makes some readers long for a simpler way of life and a return to the small-town values that cities seem to lack. Coppernoll handles that theme in a believable way, avoiding the typical wistfulness that so often overtakes once-powerful women the moment they set foot back in their hometown. Emma maintains a measure of the woman Boston has made of her, even as she recognizes the advantages of small-town living.

Her story becomes intertwined with that of two other couples: Samantha and her husband, Jim, and Christina and her boyfriend, Bo --- Michael's brother and construction company partner. Throughout most of the book, the stories of these secondary characters fit well with the main plot, but later in the book each couple, in addition to Noel, gets their own vignette --- scenes that don't involve the main characters, don't move the story along and seem to be inserted simply to show how good God is. Coppernoll otherwise handles the faith element seamlessly and subtly.

Despite some minor incongruities and a dizzying, whirlwind wrap-up, A BEAUTIFUL FALL is a pleasant and satisfying read. Fans of contemporary Christian fiction will no doubt find this one to their liking.

--- Reviewed by Marcia Ford

I really can't remember the last time I read a fiction book - but it's been over a decade. A self-proclaimed learner, my paycheck usually goes to books that challenge my worldview, or that present new business principles, or something equally brainy.

Recently, I moved to Nashville and was invited to an author signing for Chris Coppornoll for his second book, A Beautiful Fall. As an author myself, I recognized the need to expand my reading horizons a bit and decided take the plunge and invest in the novel...then actually read it. :)

After the first 10 minutes, I knew I would have a hard time putting the book down. I won't go into storyline, or plot, or characters here -- the other reviewers have done a fine job detailing those -- but A Beautiful Fall flowed seamlessly from word to word, from chapter to chapter, and from beginning to end.

In a world where getting ahead and having that drive to do more, be more, and get more can take us over, it is so refreshing to read a book that reminds us to let go of things and let God. To read about characters that we can actually relate to and their circumstances and struggles of the heart such as Emma and Michael, Christina and Bo, Samantha and Jim, Noel, Will: makes me wish for more small-town experiences. I loved this book and it has reminded me of what is really important in my own life.

A BEAUTIFUL FALL by Chris Coppernoll is a journey. A rode Emma Madison travels to discover what it is that is important in life.

Emma gets a call from home letting her know her father has had a heart attack. Leaving her busy life as a high profile lawyer in Boston, Emma rushes home to the small town of Juneberry , South Carolina. Emma prepares herself for the one question she is sure to be asked by both friends and family. Why did she leave twelve years ago and never come back? Emma is pleasantly surprised that though her friends and family wondered about her absence, it hasn't diminished their love for her. Even Michael-the love of her life the last summer she was home - has forgiven her for leaving but has never forgotten about her.

Feeling the pressure from her law firm to return to Boston as soon as possible, Emma is at a crossroads. Boston holds for her everything she ever wanted in life-a career on the fast track, a prestigious partnership, and the exhilaration of seeing her dreams realized, but is it really living? A renewed love affair with a town that feels as right as a warm blanket on a cool Fall evening, Emma struggles with the decision she needs to make.

A BEAUTIFUL FALL was as quaint as the town of Juneberry. The action was never over the top, and Emma's interactions with past acquaintances always brought a smile to your face. But some of her interactions with Michael fell short emotionally. Though I know Michael was playing the part of a patient suitor, waiting for Emma to realize for herself what it was she really wanted in life, I felt at times, there scenes together lacked depth. But overall, the story was enjoyable.