Wendy Williams
The Gold in These Hills by Joanne Bischof is a beautifully written, historical saga set in two timelines, one in the early 1900s and the other in the present day. This is a story about grief, patience, and forgiveness. Juniper Cohen and her daughter Bethany, are alone in the town of Kenworthy, California after her husband, John disappeared. The mining town is dying after the discovery the mine had been salted and is not a viable gold mine after all. Juniper’s life is hard and she takes in laundry from the remaining townsfolks as she awaits word from her husband, who suddenly disappeared after the discovery of the salted mine. She has a friend, Edie, who runs the mercantile and eventually takes on a border, Mrs. Parsons, who was the schoolteacher until the school shut down due to lack of students. In the present-day timeline, Johnny Sutherland is still reeling from his separation from his wife and their impending divorce. In order to provide a home for their two children and hope for shared custody, Johnny buys an old farmhouse. He discovers historical treasures in the old barn and works to discover the history of the farmhouse. I sure enjoyed this historical saga. The use of the alternating timelines helped the book’s pacing, however, it did get a bit bogged down in historical details in the middle. But, the ending is very worth it to get to. The characters in both timelines have to deal with grief and learn patience and understanding. This deeply emotional tale will tug at your heart and the characters feel like they are living with you through their journey. The historical details in the book brought me an understanding of the history of the gold mines in California and the Cahuilla tribe that I never knew before reading this book. I highly recommend this book to lovers of historical fiction. I received a complimentary copy of this book. The opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.
brf1948
I received a free electronic ARC of this wonderful historical novel from Netgalley, Joanne Bischof, and Thomas Nelson publisher. Thank you all for sharing your hard work with me. I have read this novel of my own volition, and this review reflects my honest opinion of this work. I am pleased to add Joanne Bischof to my must-read novelists. She writes a clean, clear historical novel with heart and a well-researched background. She is an author I will follow. The Gold in These Hills is a story told in two time periods, from the viewpoint of Juniper Cohen beginning in the spring of 1902, and in the voice of Johnny Southerland in the present. The glue that holds this story together is a house, built before 1900 by John, husband of mail-order bride Juniper, in what would become the San Jacinto Mountains mining town of Kenworthy, California. John disappears without notice in 1903, leaving Juniper (June) and their three-year-old daughter Bethany to handle life in general, and the closing of the non-producing mine, watching the retreat of most of the miners and residents of the company town of Kenworthy, leaving it a virtual ghost town. With the 1904 sale of all of the mining equipment June and her close young friend Edie Manchester, who has been running the mercantile, watch as the church closes its doors, the school, the hotel, and their neighbor's buildings are broken-down and harvested, the materials to be reused elsewhere. They and the nearby native Cahuilla tribe watch as the town dissolves under their noses. June can't leave as John would not know where they went - if he ever returns. And Edie has her dying father to care for, a man whose whole life revolved around his church and his Kenworthy store. Edie has an undisclosed romantic interest that holds her to Kenworthy as well. The ladies can depend on one another for help, support, and comfort. Can and do, holding their faith in the future and that they can survive and watch life come back into their world. Or that they will find closure on their pasts. And then we revert to the present. After many years as the home of a museum covering the mining times of Kenworthy and the native Cahuilla Tribe, the house and its accompanying acreage on the mountain is boarded up and put on the market. Johnny Southerland is an experienced rock climber, and his first exposure to the house is on a weekend canyoneering trip. He buys the house and its acreage with the intention of restoring it. Johnny is a California independent contractor, the father of two, and soon to be divorced against his will. Johnny isn't sure if he will just restore and flip the house, or if he and his children, of which he has a hard-won 50/50 custody agreement, will adapt to living on this remote mountain and call this their new home. In a world where he has little that he can control, restoring and refurbishing the mountain home feels like a safety valve to mental health. And running with his dog Rye the many trails available to him in this 100 miles of open land on the mountain is a bridge to harmony. He, too, must find closure, and faith in tomorrow. Reading the letters of Juniper to her husband John, copies of which he obtained with the paperwork of the land, gives him a glimpse into faith and harmony. Maybe sharing them with Sonoma will help her with her ancestry search, as well.
