Tragedy strikes the life of a young woman when her fiancé breaks off their engagement and one of her beloved aunts suddenly dies. Heartbroken, she returns to her home in Scotland, where she was raised in a bed and breakfast by another aunt. En route, she encounters a man who renews her faith in love, only to discover that he's a married man and devoted father. Burying herself in work at her aunt's country house, the woman mends her wounds caused by a lifetime of sorrow and loss. And when fate unexpectedly brings love back into her life, will she find the strength and faith necessary to embrace it?
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Editorial Reviews
Review
Mountain Heather by Alexandra Raife is a mass market/romance dealing with a few years in the life of Sally Buchanan as she flees England to start a new life in Scotland. Sally begins by visiting her recently deceased Aunt's cottage, and there she meets Mike Danaher who lives in the next cottage. Through their instant rapport we learn that Sally was engaged to a man named Julian who left her to go back to his ex-wife he felt she was better in bed. Sally quit her job (where Julian also worked) and sold her house to start a new life. Sally knows that Mike is married, (she has seen him out and about with his wife and children) yet for someone who has just been crushed in this circumstance, she has no compassion. The first time she thinks of his wife is when they kiss. Later she eats the lunch that his wife packed him and sleeps with Mike with very little guilt. The story continues as she leaves Mike to go help her other Aunt with her bed and breakfast for the summer. Here she sleeps with another married man as she tries to go on with her life. I know this review seems short and shallow, but I had to force myself to continue reading after the first few chapters (never a good sign). I found the book to be lacking a lot of things. Sally seems so quick to sleep with married men without a second of doubt, and is so self-centered that I found myself unable to neither like, nor care for her at all. I found all the characters to be rather flat. The story wasn't even able to keep my interest despite the lack of characterization. You couldn't even blame her attitude on her past situation, as she never showed any self-awareness of this irony. If you don't like the idea of adultery this is not the book for you. It wasn't the book for me. Michelle Sawyer -- Copyright © 110198 Literary Times, Inc. All rights reserved -- From Literary Times
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
This could have been much better.,
By A Customer
This review is from: Mountain Heather (Paperback)
Raife's novel could have been much better. I felt cheated by the lack of emotional depth shown by this heroine who jumps into an adulterous affair with the first man she comes across. Then straining credibility we learn her long-lost sister is also involved with a married man. Finally, when Sally moves out on her own, she picks up with an old beau, also married. It gets to be a bit obsessive and I began to wonder if for Raife there is any other category of man. Either this author is trying to prove that adultery is commonplace or this is her own personal fetish. What saves the book is the development of her heroine's adolescent obsession with someone else's husband into a real relationship which requires her to grow and sacrifice herself for the man whose life has been destroyed.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
A bit of a disappointment,
By A Customer
This review is from: Mountain Heather (Paperback)
What I liked about Raife's first two books was that they were filled with hope. Her characters were imperfect people who matured, grew up, and otherwise became better people. This book was filled with one-dimensional characters -- curmudgeonly old aunt, shrewish ex-wife -- and I didn't like the use of a disability as a way of propelling the plot. Perhaps her next book will be better.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Should be classified as fantasy and not romance.,
By teebeezee (Colorado Springs, CO USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Mountain Heather (Paperback)
I was looking forward to reading this book because I had read her "Wild Highland Home" last year and really liked it because it was so different from the usual romance novels. This one was different too, but not in a way that I liked. I had to force myself to finish it, hoping for some satisfaction, but it was lame. Almost all of the main characters were saints, except of course our heroine, Sally, who needs a lot of work. I didn't like her at all. She takes up with 3 married men in a row as if it were no big deal. When her soul mate lover gets a bad break, she's outta there! She was weak and cowardly and selfish for nearly the entire book. And then when she finally starts to wake up, everyone in her life that she had kept at arm's length suddenly surges towards her ready to shower her with all this love they've been saving up for her. Now wouldn't that be nice, but I don't think that's anything like real life, not that the book is meant as a biography, but it was just too fantastical to imagine that people are all just waiting in the wings for you to get your life in order. I don't know if the author meant for each character to represent one quality, but I like my characters to be a mix of good and bad. Most of these people were saints, much too good to be true, and so not really worth examining. Was that why they were included in the book in the first place, to exemplify generosity and courage, etc. to help her grow up?
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