Customer Reviews

Mountain Heather

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

 

 

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.

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.

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?

This novel was first published in the UK as "Grianan", the name of Sally's aunt's bed and breakfast inn. The previous reviews pretty much summarized the storyline, but I don't feel that the characters are at all one-dementional. Their inner struggles to determine what is right for themselves, while weighing the needs of those who depend on them, lead to some interesting character development. The common plot,that of the main character going back to the loving home of her childhood to heal and finding something she didn't know she was missing all along, may be trite, but no one can fault Raife's imagery in giving us a glimpse of the beautiful, natural world of the Scottish Highlands. A common thread in all of Raife's novels is the effort of the highlanders bring back what, over the centuries, was destroyed by the conquerers. They pool their resources to maintain their highland way of life in the face of encroaching civilization by developing an economic system in keeping with today's demands. Raife's characters tackle the problems of all ancient landed families in a modern economy--trying to preserve their ancestral homes and those of the locals who live on the estates by establishing various local industries to provide income for themselves and jobs for the community. They encourage a tourist economy by opening their estates for hunting, fishing,and hiking parties, establishing sheep farms, reforesting the highlands, and establishing cottage industries, all of which not only provide a means of preserving their own homes, but also provide jobs for the local populace who prefer staying in their ancestral homes to moving to the cities for jobs. In this framework, Raife's very human characters interact, develop and shine!

...She (Raife) was very, very good. And when she was bad, she was horrid! And, I am sorry to say, "Mountain Heather" is fairly horrid, from start to finish. The main character, Sally Buchanan, is a one-dimensional, self-centered, clueless birdbrain with a penchant for married men and an astounding disregard for the feelings of everybody around her. She is so unlikeable that I found it impossible to sympathise with her problems, or care what was going to happen next--which made finishing the book at all a real chore. The other characters-- from her nasty-but-supposed-to-be-wonderful Aunt Janey, to the hippie caricature Piers (complete with organic food and flute), to the younger sister who turns up out of the blue and has a married lover of her own, to the love interest, whose tragic accident is used as a blatant and insensitive plot device--are basically as one-dimensional and incomprehensible as Sally. None of these people reacts in any way that is believable, and the plot is too weak and feckless to sustain such a large number of cardboard characters. I'm so glad that I read Raife's wonderful books, such as "Wild Mountain Heather," before I picked up this one--or I never would have looked at another of her works. Read it at your own risk!

~<p~ <p~ fans of contemporary rural stories. The story line constantly is propelled forward by superbly drawn secondary players, but it is Sally, whose ability to disassociate is told with insight and warmth by Ms. Raife, that makes this book a wonderful reading experience. Like the author's previous romances, DRUMVEYN and WILD HIGHLAND HOME, MOUNTAIN HEATHER is a rich tale.

<p

I discovered writer Alexandra Raife after finishing her novel, "Wild Highland Home", just over one week ago. For a good chunk of the book, I was sorely disappointed and disgusted in the characters and the story, as I do not think affairs are in any way romantic or bittersweet (I hated "The English Patient" and "The Bridges of Madison County" for this very reason). I'll never condone it, and this book is no exception.

However, I ended up giving this book 4 stars, simply because Raife's story and her writing really touched me in unexpected (as well as uncomfortable) ways. I can't remember ever reading a simple romance book that touched on the topics that Raife addressed in this one, and I thought she did it beautifully. To say more would be to spoil the twists in this book for others. Suffice it to say, if you start this book and have some of the same problems and conflicts with it that I did, just stick with it to the end. I can't promise that the end results will be the same for you as for me, but I can say that it's a little more complex then your typical romance novel.

I thought this story was just wonderful. The other reviewers that bashed Sally for her romances with married men should stop and think about it. It seems to me those men were using Sally for their own selfish satisfaction. The first one was divorced and he and Sally were even planning their wedding and had received gifts. But he was two-timing her with his ex-wife and then decided to go back to her cause he liked her better in bed. I would say Sally was the wronged one in that affair. And her old boyfriend that thrust himself back into her life was just doing it to get back at his own wife and rough homelife. The short love affair with Mike was just so special, how can anyone fault that and as the story unfolds you can see where he was justified in finding a soulmate with the wife he had. She couldn't care less. This story was full of so many peoples lives and the misconceptions they had of each other it was wonderful to see most of them come together in the end. This was my first book by Alexandra Raife.

Sally Buchanan has spent her entire life avoiding emotional entanglements. Thus, it is not shocking when she breaks an engagement and flees to her Aunt Janey's inn, Grianan, the only place that Sally has felt at home. On the way to the inn, Sally stops at her Aunt Ursula's home where she meets Mike Danaher, a married father of two. To her amazement, Sally begins to fall in love with Mike. Knowing that any relationship with him would be wrong, Sally completes her escape to Grianan.

However, Sally soon learns that life has a way of interceding on the tranquillity of individuals. Her aunt Janey is dying and Mike becomes perilously ill. Once again, Sally thinks of running away, but this time the magic of Grianan and love forces her to deal with the cards fate has dealt her.

No one does modern day, small town Scotland better than Alexandra Raife does. Her current novel brings to life the Highlands in a refreshing romance that will be cherished by fans of contemporary rural stories. The story line constantly is propelled forward by superbly drawn secondary players, but it is Sally, whose ability to disassociate is told with insight and warmth by Ms. Raife, that makes this book a wonderful reading experience. Like the author's previous romances, DRUMVEYN and WILD HIGHLAND HOME, MOUNTAIN HEATHER is a rich tale.

Harriet Klausner

Sally Buchanan has spent her entire life avoiding emotional entanglements. Thus, it is not shocking when she breaks an engagement and flees to her Aunt Janey's inn, Grianan, the only place that Sally has felt at home. On the way to the inn, Sally stops at her Aunt Ursula's home where she meets Mike Danaher, a married father of two. To her amazement, Sally begins to fall in love with Mike. Knowing that any relationship with him would be wrong, Sally completes her escape to Grianan.

However, Sally soon learns that life has a way of interceding on the tranquillity of individuals. Her aunt Janey is dying and Mike becomes perilously ill. Once again, Sally thinks of running away, but this time the magic of Grianan and love forces her to deal with the cards fate has dealt her.

No one does modern day, small town Scotland better than Alexandra Raife does. Her current novel brings to life the Highlands in a refreshing romance that will be cherished by fans of contemporary rural stories. The story line constantly is propelled forward by superbly drawn secondary players, but it is Sally, whose ability to disassociate is told with insight and warmth by Ms. Raife, that makes this book a wonderful reading experience. Like the author's previous romances, DRUMVEYN and WILD HIGHLAND HOME, MOUNTAIN HEATHER is a rich tale.