I didn’t see this one coming.

This book was a recommend to me by my husband who watched the movie on a flight several years ago. “You would love this book,” he told me. After reading Charles Martins’ Chasing Fireflies, I picked up The Mountain Between Us. Just wow — as I’ve said before, if you haven’t read a Charles Martin book, you are missing out.

Due to weather in Salt Lake, commercial flights are canceled. Desperate to get home, Dr. Ben Payne hires a charter pilot, Grover, to fly him home to Florida to his wife and kids. On a whim, he asks Ashley, a fellow passenger who is on her way home for her wedding, if she’d like to join so as not to be late for her special day. The three, and Grover’s dog, beat the storm and head toward Denver when Grover’s heart gives out leaving Ben, Ashley, and Napoleon, the name Ben and Ashley give to the dog, to survive the Uintas Wilderness. Without filing a flight plan, and with neither Ben nor Ashley having told anyone of their change from commercial to charter, no one is looking or them. To make matters more dire, upon impact, Ashley’s shoulder dislocates and her femur breaks. Making it out of the vast, rugged, and isolated terrain alive will take more than shear strength.

The Mountain Between Us is an incredible story that is superbly written, and worth every minute it takes to read it. I hear the movie is good as well, but I have no intention of watching it — why ruin a good book by trying to put the words on screen.

I cannot stress enough how The Mountain Between Us will have you looking inward, mulling over your personal relationships, and checking yourself to uncovering your strength. And the ending — a total shocker to me. I LOVE THIS BOOK and wish it just kept going.
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I read this book in about 15-20 hours over the span of two days. I couldn't put it down. It is incredibly thought provoking, funny, arduous and filled with love. It was a tale of incredible strength and one of the best love stories I've read. I couldn't stop thinking about whether I could have kept going and moving forward under the same or similar circumstances. I'm not sure that I am made of the same stuff these characters are. If you're on the edge, just say yes and read it. ( )

Two survivors of a plane crash manage to get themselves to safety from wilderness at over 11,000 feet in the Utah mountains. They accomplish this with broken ribs and possible collapsed lung in one and a badly broken leg with the other. While I truly liked the characters of Ben and Ashley, and I thought this book was well written, the plot was so improbable that it got difficult to read towards the end. The survival of the two would be essentially impossible, especially considering the obstacles they had to overcome. Of course they were conveniently in superb physical shape, and Ben happened to be a surgeon and ER doctor. The part of the story I found most interesting was their developing relationship and the relationship of Ben and his wife Rachel, back home in Florida. The ending brought tears to my eyes in an unexpected way. If you do decide to read this book, stick with it until the end. ( )

I loved this book. It had many of the things I love. First of all it is a plane crash survival story. I eat that stuff up. Then it had humor and pathos, a strong heroine and a very strong and morally upright hero. The writing was well done. I could feel the cold and ice an snow along with the characters. The author avoided using deus ex machine to get his characters out of their very tight spot. The story was told in the first person from the hero's POV interspersed with diary entries which he was recording for his wife on a tape recorder. Telling her of his trials etc., while also reflecting back on their lives together. They were high school sweethearts and as he retold their story, the language and emotions were quite poetic and moving. Spoiler read at your own risk His feelings for his wife from whom he is separated seem much stronger than his feelings for the heroine and the fact that they got together in the end was the only thing that seemed as if it could have been led up to a bit more strongly. The relationship development lacked just a bit between the hero and the heroine because of the strength of his obvious love for his wife. I did sort of figure out what was going on but the author hid it fairly well so I waffled back and forth and didn't totally figure it out ( )

This was not a typical read for me. I don't normally go for romance type novels, but the survival aspect of this book intrigued me. That being said I did not love it but there were parts that I did enjoy.

The storyline was very unrealistic, way too convenient, and incredibly cheesy at moments. The survival elements were portrayed in an unrealistic way, with anything the pair needed magically appearing just in time. Anyone who has ever spent a night without shelter in the woods knows things just aren't this easy, let alone at 15,000 feet in the middle of the wilderness.

All that said for some reason this intrigued me and I did enjoy the journey with Ben, Ashley and the dog, Napoleon. About halfway through I thought I saw the ending coming and wanted to see if I was right or not. (I was)

If you need or want your books to be realistic you will probably not enjoy this one. There also seemed to be a lack of editing at some points so if that would bother you I would also stay clear. ( )