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The Mountain Between Us: A Novel [Hardcover]

Charles Martin
4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (179 customer reviews)


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Book Description

June 1, 2010
From the author of Where the River Ends, comes this page-turning story of love and survival.

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 get back East 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 become 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.


Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Charles Martin is the author of seven novels. He and his family live in Jacksonville, Florida.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Prelude
 
            Hey…
            I’m not sure what time it is.  This thing should record that.  I woke a few minutes ago.  It’s still dark.  I don’t know how long I was out.
            The snow is spilling in through the windshield. It’s frozen across my face.  Hard to blink.  Feels like dried paint on my cheeks.  It just doesn’t taste like dried paint.  
            I’m shivering…and it feels like somebody is sitting on my chest.  Can’t catch my breath. Maybe broke two or three ribs.  Might have a collapsed lung.
            The wind up here is steady, leaning against the tail of the fuselage…or what’s left of it.  Something above me, maybe a branch, is slapping the plexi-glass.  Sounds like fingernails on a chalkboard.  And more cold air is coming in behind me.  Where the tail used to be.  
            I can smell gas.  I guess both wings were still pretty full of fuel. 
            I keep feeling like I want to throw up. 
 
            A hand is wrapped around mine. The fingers are cold and calloused.  There’s a wedding band, worn thin around the edges.  That’s Grover.
            He was dead before we hit the treetops.  I’ll never understand how he landed this thing without killing me, too.
            When we took off, the ground temperature was in the single digits.  Not sure what it is now.  Feels colder.  Our elevation should be around eleven-five.  Give or take.  We couldn’t have fallen more than five hundred feet when Grover dipped the wing.  The control panel sits dark, unlit.  Dusted in white.  Every few minutes the GPS on the dash will flicker, then go black again.     
            There was a dog here somewhere.  All teeth and muscle.  Real short hair.  About the size of a loaf of bread.  Makes snotty, gurgling sounds when he breathes.  Looks like he’s jacked up on speed.  Wait… 
            ‘Hey, boy…Wait…no.  Not there. Okay, lick but don’t jump.  What’s your name?  You scared?  Yeah…me, too.’
            I can’t remember his name.
 
            I’m back…was I gone long?  There’s a dog here.  Buried between my coat and armpit.
            Did I already tell you about him?  I can’t remember his name. 
            He’s shivering and the wrinkles around his eyes are quivering.  Whenever the wind howls, he jumps up and growls at it.
 
            The memory’s foggy.  Grover and I were talking, he was flying, maybe banking right, the dash flashed a buffet of blue and green lights, a carpet of black stretched out below us, not a light bulb for sixty miles in any direction, and…there was a woman.  Trying to get home to her fiancé and a rehearsal dinner.  I’ll look. 
 
            …I found her.  Unconscious. Elevated pulse.  Eyes are swollen shut.  Pupils are dilated.  Probably a concussion. Several lacerations across her face.  A few will need stitches.  Right shoulder is dislocated and left femur is broken.  It didn’t break the skin but, her leg is angling out and suit leg is tight.  I need to set it…once I catch my breath. 
           
            …It’s getting colder. I guess the storm finally caught us.  If I don’t get us wrapped in something…we’ll freeze to death before daylight.  I’ll have to set that leg in the morning.    
           
            Rachel…I don’t know how much time we have, don’t know if we’ll make it out, if…but…I take it all back.  I was wrong.  I was angry.  I never should’ve said it.  You were thinking about us.  Not you.  I can see that now. 
            You’re right.  Right all along.  There’s always a chance. 
 
            Always. 

Product Details

  • Hardcover: 336 pages
  • Publisher: Broadway Books; First Edition edition (June 1, 2010)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0767927001
  • ISBN-13: 978-0767927000
  • Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.8 x 1 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
  • Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (179 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #145,701 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

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Customer Reviews

I couldnt put this book down, I read it in a day & wanted to read more when it ended! Kimberly Jones  |  55 reviewers made a similar statement
So many surprises throughout the story...even to the very end. scres  |  26 reviewers made a similar statement
It's a beautiful, clean love story! Susan  |  33 reviewers made a similar statement
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
23 of 24 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars very good story! August 18, 2010
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)
Most reviews give a breakdown of the storyline. Two people trapped start to talk to each other about their lives and start to make realizations about their lives becase of their perilous situation. Ashley and Ben are two people that we get to know very very well and for me that makes a fantastic book. Since they are stranded we have a lot of time to delve into each of their minds. I love characterization and done well. I say that in nearly every review but it's what makes me love reading. I want to know the people I'm reading about otherwise I don't care about what happens to them. A fantastic plot can't fix the lack of character development for me. This book has both. I'm normally not a big fan of Christian fiction but dang if Mr. Martin doesn't do it very well without beating a bible over one's head. I really enjoyed this one.
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19 of 22 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic Read June 1, 2010
By Brad
Format:Hardcover
Another great book from Charles Martin! I loved this book from the first page to the last. It will pull at the heart strings like all of his other books. If you havent read a Charles Martin novel yet this is a great one to start with!
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12 of 14 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars A Great Read December 3, 2010
Format:Hardcover
Last night I sat with expectation, staring at the cover of The Mountain Between Us. My plan was to read for just a couple of hours. At 3 am., I finished the last word. I'd laughed and cried, sat tensely through whole episodes, determined not to look ahead, not to spoil it by cheating. At times, I found truths about me, my life, staring me in the face and I asked myself, "How could Mr. Martin know this about me?"

Charles Martin has created a sensitive, emotional journey with all the hallmarks of a romance but strengthened with masculine requisites to protect, endure, survive. A survival story at its core, both of nature and of love.

This is the second Martin novel I've read, and it won't be the last. I have found a new favorite author and can't wait to read all his work.

All right guys, pick this one up and read. Bone up not only on your own survival skills, but also those of communication, with your heart, with those you love. This book is not just for women. It's for you, too.
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21 of 28 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars Romantic Suspense Faith Novel-OK-3 to 3.5 stars June 24, 2010
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)
Again, this is not a terribly new idea. However, if romance coupled with suspense is your specialty subgenre, with faith thrown in for good measure, this is probably right up your alley. A woman writer and a male doctor are in a plane crash together and are the sole survivors of it. They are stuck in the High Uintas Wilderness, a hard and remote land in the United States.

Survival and love quickly take front and center. They are injured and cold and need to survive this experience. Yet there is an attraction despite their seeming commitment to others in their lives. She is about to get married to someone else and he is already married to someone else, although he is strangely living apart from his wife.

However, this is Christian Fiction so there is not really anything sinful going on. Personally, I have trouble with the idea that there needs to be a separate subgenre for religious beliefs now, that fiction has to espouse certain beliefs. I did better with Ted Dekker's version of Christian fiction than with this version.

A nice touch is that pilot's dog has survived the crash with them.

This is more for the romance and faith reader than the suspense or thriller or adventure reader.
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13 of 17 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars "It's Complicated." June 25, 2010
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)
"It's complicated" that is what Ben says to Ashley when she questions him about his relationship with his wife, Rachel. Ashley and Ben are stranded in the Utah wilderness above 10,000 feet altitude along with a small dog and the remains of the pilot and the plane they had chartered to take them to Denver before a winter storm. Ben narrates the story in painfully slow chapters, detailing everything that happens each day for almost two weeks. I guess that is the way it is when you are struggling to survive in the snow and no one knows where you are....the time passes painfully slowly. Ben's narration of the mountain survival is interspersed with him recording his thoughts for his wife. He relives all of his previous life through these recordings.

The story picks up speed when Ben decides to pull Ashley, who has a broken leg, to civilization. The survival story becomes a page turner which kept me reading. Somewhere along the way, I also started to understand the complications in Ben's life.

I read the last half of this book almost in one sitting and I wasn't disappointed in the end.

Here is why I give it only 3 stars.
1. Many of the things that Ben is able to accomplish or the things he happens to have in the plane are just a little bit too convenient.
2. Some of the survival story is just a little too much stretch for my imagination.
3. It is just a little too sweet for my tastes. Is this what "Christian" fiction is all about, unrealistic coincidences happening to good people who deserve reward?

What I liked:
1. Great description of the scene and the things that happened.
2. A story good enough to keep me reading.
3. Writing good enough to keep me interested.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)
Seldom does a reader have the opportunity to get to know the characters as well as we were able to know Ben and Ashley. After what seemed to be a hopeless tragedy, we were able to experience the day to day successes and failures of the survivors - and we spent much of this time inside Ben's head, listening to his thoughts about the succeses and failures of his life. Martin's descriptions of the surroundings was so vivid and the obstacles they faced were so realistic that I began to wonder if he was giving us an account of something that had actually happened to him.

Don't you just love a story that carries you along in one direction, filling in all the bits and pieces, only to take you in a completely different direction at the end? Martin does this so deftly that I had to go back and re-read, as the twist was so incredible - and incredibly plausible - that I wanted to be sure of it.

This book was such a great departure from the usual, and I enjoyed every moment I spent with it. This was a book I carried around with me and read at every opportunity. Bravo, Charles Martin - and thank you for time well spent.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars Could've been five stars
Could have been five stars but the end was a little cloying and certain part of their situation were impossible.
Published 10 hours ago by Lisafliny
5.0 out of 5 stars LOVE THIS AUTHOR
THE MOUNTAIN BETWEEN US is only the second book I've read by author, CHARLES MARTIN. I intent to read each and every one he's written.

Dr. Read more
Published 2 days ago by Kym McNabney
5.0 out of 5 stars I totally recommend "The Mountain Between Us"
I couldn't put this book down!! I kept thinking if this were me I would have been dead the first day. It really held my interest-wondering if only one or both would survive. Read more
Published 2 days ago by Mary
4.0 out of 5 stars Awesome book!
This book is unlike any I've ever read. I believe it will touch your heart. I'd love to go back and read it again
Published 2 days ago by Libby S
5.0 out of 5 stars The Mountain Between Us
This was such a good book. From the beginning to the end!! I strongly recommend this to everyone! Now I am reading "Unwritten", by Charles Martin!
Published 6 days ago by Jan Robinson
4.0 out of 5 stars Intriguing
Martin's style was not as fluid as other books he has written, but the story line was interesting enough to keep me involved. I enjoyed the book.
Published 7 days ago by Linda Price
4.0 out of 5 stars Good ... But ...
Spoiler alert! My comments give you an idea as to how the book ends ... so don't read my thoughts before reading the book ... Read more
Published 8 days ago by ainem
5.0 out of 5 stars A must
This is a fantastic story! from the first page on you're transported into that and you just don't wanna leave. The end is completely unexpected. Perfect plot.
Published 8 days ago by Carol gurgel
5.0 out of 5 stars One of the best!
I've read all of Charles Martin's books and this is one that I had to share with all of my fellow book-lovers. Read more
Published 12 days ago by Lori Goldade
5.0 out of 5 stars Make a Movie...Please!
Charles martin is the man. You could make a movie of any of his books, but this one would be the best. If you've never read him get this one. Read more
Published 12 days ago by Paul A. Drawdy
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