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Light to the Hills: A Novel by [Bonnie Blaylock]

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Bonnie Blaylock

Light to the Hills: A Novel Kindle Edition

by Bonnie Blaylock (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

4.5 12,080 ratings

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A richly rewarding novel about family bonds, the power of words, and the resilience of mothers and daughters in 1930s Appalachia.

The folks in the Kentucky Appalachians are scraping by. Coal mining and hardscrabble know-how are a way of life for these isolated people. But when Amanda Rye, a young widowed mother and traveling packhorse librarian, comes through a mountain community hit hard by the nation’s economic collapse, she brings with her hope, courage, and apple pie. Along the way, Amanda takes a shine to the MacInteer family, especially to the gentle Rai; her quick-study daughter, Sass; and Finn, the eldest son who’s easy to warm to. They remind Amanda of her childhood and her parents with whom she longs to be reconciled.

Her connection with the MacInteers deepens, and Amanda shares with them a dangerous secret from her past. When that secret catches up with Amanda in the present, she, Rai, Sass, and Finn find their lives intersecting—and threatened—in the most unexpected ways. Now they must come together as the truth lights a path toward survival, mountain justice, forgiveness, and hope.

Print length

271 pages
Language

English
Sticky notes

On Kindle Scribe
Publisher

Lake Union Publishing
Publication date

Dec 1 2022
File size

5789 KB
Page Flip

Enabled
Word Wise

Enabled
Enhanced typesetting

Enabled
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Popular Highlights in this book

What are Popular Highlights?

A mama’s heart is a wonder, able to hold an endless measure of love, hope, sadness, and rage all at the same time.
Highlighted by 221 Kindle readers
A warm bath, a good cry, and a cup of tea: her mother used to say that was close as you could get to the Holy Trinity here on Earth.
Highlighted by 203 Kindle readers
Mind your business, and keep today’s worries for today. No need to stockpile ’em for two weeks from now.
Highlighted by 101 Kindle readers

From the Publisher

Product description

From the Publisher

Being from the Appalachian region myself, I was immediately drawn into the rich, atmospheric mountain setting of Bonnie Blaylock’s incredible debut novel about the family we choose. A strong sense of the resiliency, kindness, pride, and familial love of the Appalachian people truly shines through in this heartening story set in the 1930s about human connection and the power words can hold.

Light to the Hills follows three strong female leads, including Amanda Rye, a single mother looking to provide for her young son as a packhorse librarian delivering books with her trusty mule, Junebug. On her route, she meets the stalwart Rai MacInteer, her spunky twelve-year-old daughter Sass, and her charming son Finn. An immediate friendship is born and Amanda begins to feel like she has an extended family for the first time in years. However, when a threat from Amanda’s past resurfaces, endangering the MacInteer family as well, the three women become allies in a mission to protect their loved ones.

At its heart, Light to the Hills is a love story to Appalachia, to literacy and the gift of words, and to a group of people who have little in the way of material possessions yet so much to give the world and each other. Perfect for fans of Jojo Moyes’s The Giver of Stars or Kim Michele Richardson’s The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek, this heartwarming novel transports readers to the misty mountains of Kentucky and introduces a cast of unforgettable characters who exemplify resilience and hope.

—Alicia Clancy, Editor

About the Author

After changing locations frequently in a military family, Bonnie Blaylock finally put down roots in Tennessee, where she co-owned a veterinary practice with her husband for twenty years. They live on a small-acre farm where they raise chickens, donkeys, and bees, and they achieved a family goal to travel to all fifty states before their children graduated. Bonnie writes about the South, family, growth, and more on her personal blog and is a contributing writer for various online publications. A graduate of the University of Tennessee, she lives near Nashville. Learn more at www.bonnieblaylock.com.

Review

“This moving tale of family bonds and the resilience of mothers and daughters is filled with rich period details, regional dialect, and fascinating local customs and foods…Readers of Kim Michele Richardson, Ann H. Gabhart, and Kim Vogel Sawyer will also enjoy this engaging historical novel.” ―Booklist

“A gorgeously written and well-layered novel that immediately transports us to the Appalachian Mountains of the 1930s. The ways, superstitions, folklore, and justice of the mountain people are woven deeply into the story. Rich in color, tradition, and character, this mountain saga will hold you spellbound.” ―Historical Novels Review

“A bright and vibrant debut. Light to the Hills is a touching meditation on motherhood and the importance of community, especially during difficult times. Bonnie Blaylock will be one to watch in the realm of historical fiction.” ―Olivia Hawker, bestselling author of One for the Blackbird, One for the Crow

“The packhorse librarians of the 1930s opened up entirely new worlds to people through the power of literature, a power no better showcased than within these pages: the vibrant Appalachians, courageous women, and a moving tale of compassion, justice, and forgiveness. Lush and rich with detail in a setting like no other, Bonnie Blaylock’s Light to the Hills will transport readers, capturing not only the resilience of those living among the Appalachians but of the lasting and binding magic of stories.” ―Gabriella Saab, author of The Last Checkmate

“Bonnie Blaylock is a gifted author, and her Light to the Hills is an impressive debut. Set in the eastern Kentucky mountains during the Great Depression, Blaylock takes the reader into the lives of an Appalachian rural coal-mining family hit hard by hard times. Blaylock skillfully weaves a grand story of moonshiners, coal miners, tough people, regional language, a beautiful setting, danger, romance, and more than a little humor. The compelling characters in Light to the Hills will live with you long after you finish the last page. This is a beautiful novel, and I recommend it heartily!” ―John Carenen, award-winning author of the Thomas O’Shea series and Keeping to Himself

“Bonnie Blaylock’s Light to the Hills paints a loving, vivid portrait of the families, communities, and landscape of 1930s Appalachia. Its characters endeared themselves to me in their pluck and spirit, their attunement to the natural world, and their fierce love for one another. I wanted to stay immersed in their world.” ―Susannah Felts, author of This Will Go Down on Your Permanent Record and cofounder of Porch Writers’ Collective --This text refers to the paperback edition.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B09QPL7XT5
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Lake Union Publishing (Dec 1 2022)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 5789 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 271 pages

Best Sellers Rank: #8,864 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #41 in Stories of Friendship
- #234 in Historical Fiction (Kindle Store)
- #360 in Coming of Age Fiction (Books)

Customer Reviews:
4.5 12,080 ratings

About the author

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Bonnie Blaylock

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After 20 years of co-owning a veterinary practice while raising two kids, traveling extensively, and living on a few acres where she wrangles the bees, the garden, and various barnyard beasts, Bonnie focused on her first love of words and writing (and put that MA in creative writing from UT to use). It's these experiences, as well as growing up in a large military family, from which she draws material for story ideas. She hosts a blog of personal essays, many of which have been re-published on various platforms.

Light to the Hills won the 2021 Porch Prize in fiction award. Bonnie is currently at work on her third novel.

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Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5

12,080 global ratings

5 star		60%
4 star		30%
3 star		8%
2 star		1%
1 star		1%

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Top reviews from Canada

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Sharon Mierke

A heart warming read!

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on January 28, 2023

Verified Purchase

Light to the Hills reminded me of books written long ago - perhaps a bit slow at the beginning, but descriptive and just enough suspense to keep you reading. Delightful characters along with nasty villains. No graphic violence, explicit sex, or coarse language.

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on December 3, 2022

Verified Purchase

I enjoyed reading this book. It is difficult for me to imagine people living in these conditions in North America during my lifetime.

Helpful

Top reviews from other countries

Angart

A story that just spills out. ‘The words tumbling like a rain-swollen creek down a mountain’.

Reviewed in Australia 🇦🇺 on December 24, 2022

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This book is just ‘the best thing since pockets on a dress’. It was a joy to read. Wonderfully written in words that ‘travel like dandelion seeds. There’s no controlling where they’ll fly’.
A story set in the 1930’s in the Appalachian Mountains, in a ‘nook of the world that was like the small end of a telescope’. The author writes in such a way as to perfectly capture the mood and language of the place and times. Great characters and plenty of plot, that unwinds in ‘the spool of telling’.
This is a book that will catch you by the tail and ‘fill up your chest with air and a curious lightness’.
Highly recommended.

Fefi73

5 stars - wonderful storytelling

Reviewed in Australia 🇦🇺 on January 20, 2023

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Bonnie has created characters that you want to know more about. This book is full of people whose story you want to know.
Not just one main character but many and the book doesn't suffer for it

StephyH2

Great read

Reviewed in Australia 🇦🇺 on November 30, 2022

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Thoroughly enjoyed this ..Great characters and really brought to life the hardships and families intertwined in the Kentucky hills. Highly recommend

Sarah Brown

Mountain librarian

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on November 1, 2022

Verified Purchase

I was drawn to this book because it reminded me of a story from Jojo Moyes that I had loved dearly. However, this did not grab me as much as I had anticipated, although I still found the subject matter to be interesting.

Undoubtedly, this is a very well-written story and it is evident that Blaylock has researched this period. I loved the depiction of the Appalachian mountains and how families struggled in the remote wilderness. With the travelling packhouse librarians, communities were brought together through the power of the written word, and this is seen with the MacInteer family. When Amanda first visits, the children cannot read and decipher Amanda's story through the illustrations. I enjoyed watching this transformation over time and how the children grow to love reading and appreciate the opportunities that come with such a skill.

However, this book is not just about the reading scheme across America, but also Amanda's past. Over the course of the novel, readers discover the circumstances that led to Amanda being a single mother. Her story is saddening but not uncommon and I could not have predicted some of the revelations in her story. Although Amanda feels like her past is truly in the past, this does not seem to be the case and it was interesting to see how her life begins to interweave with the MacInteers, leading to a dramatic conclusion.

I enjoyed the historical element to this story and thought the descriptions to be very vivid. At the same time, I thought it made the story unnecessarily dense and quite slow in places. It felt like the writer took a bit too long to establish parts of the plot, causing my attention to wander. Whilst I enjoyed the overall plot development, I thought it could have been put together in a more interesting and absorbing manner.

The characters were all interesting to observe and I enjoyed how the writer switched between different perspectives, especially with the juxtaposition provided by Sass's narrative. It was satisfying to read from the view point of one of the nastier characters and I think this added extra depth to the plot. As identities become clearer in the story, I felt that these perspectives allowed me to understand character motives a bit more.

I liked this story but did not fall in love with it as I had hoped. Well-written and historically fascinating, I wish the plot development had been more immersive. It probably would have also helped if I had not opened it with the desire of reading a book similar to a much-loved story...

5 people found this helpful

chimneyman

All you need is love....

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on February 28, 2023

Verified Purchase

This story is all about the love between and within families as well as the author's love of the place and time in which the story is set. The occasional references to things like motor cars, aviation and stock market collapse (etc) provide an ongoing reminder of the fact that parts of America in the 1930s were still living in pre-industrial times. And there was at least one tribute to the long-gone Native Americans.

The main theme of the book is the historical context but the addition of an element of suspense is nothing short of a masterstroke. Although the ending was fairly predictable in general terms, the details provided a very enjoyable twist to the story.

The only possible criticism of the story is that. like some fairy tales, it's a little bit 'preachy' about some things. And it also takes quite a few liberties with the number of coincidences and chance events which keep the story moving towards its happy ending. A different writer would have allowed a much darker outcome which would have opened the door to at least one sequel.

The book stands alone and is easily worthy of 5 stars for its originality, its warmth and,above all, for its totally immersive picture of a time and a place.

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Follow the Author

Light to the Hills: A Novel Kindle Edition

From the Publisher

Product description

From the Publisher

About the Author

Review

Product details

About the author

Bonnie Blaylock

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Top reviews from Canada

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