I will not publish my review -- I am obviously in the minority -- I did not like this book.

https://www.bookbarmy.com/the-gilded-mountain-by-kate-manning/

I had a difficult time wanting to read this one. The characters were not my favorite and I wasn’t able to connect with any of them. The storyline felt slow but also chaotic at the same time. Lost interest pretty quick.

Thank you to Scribner and to NetGalley for an ARC of this book.

I tried to start this book a few times, but I just could not get into it. Sadly I DNF

An amazing historical tale of a family that moves to a Colorado mountain town to work in the mines. Heroine Sylvie sets out to change the working conditions of the town in this fabulous western coming of age story.

In comparing this book to Kate Manning's first work My Notorious Life. I was highly disappointed. I could not get into the story and I found no intrigue in the telling. Highly forgettable.

I am sorry for the inconvenience but I don’t have the time to read this anymore and have lost interest in the concept. I believe that it would benefit your book more if I did not skim your book and write a rushed review. Again, I am sorry for the inconvenience.

I have attempted on several occasions to make my way through this novel. I just can't. Sadly, a DNF.

This story is told in first person by Sylvie, a seventeen-year-old girl who has traveled with her Quebecois family to Moonstone, Colorado in 1907 to join her father who works as a machinist for a stone quarry. It tells of the hardships of the mineworkers and the excesses and ignorance of the quarry owners, but most of all it is the story of a young girl learning about life and love and the unfairness of the world. I enjoyed the setting and the depictions of early union workers and the life of the mineworkers and other working classes as well as the insights into the racial tensions of the times.

However, I found myself frustrated with the young girl who is portrayed as a brave newswriter for a female operated paper that tells the “truth” in direct opposition of the local newspaper put out by the Company sycophants. Sylvie spent more time mooning over Jace, the drunken doddering Padget heir, than she did being a strong female protagonist. I tired of listening to her mouth off in her head to all the deserving authorities but when push came to shove, she just kept her mouth shut and went about her business doing her best not to make waves while she waited for her love interest to do something.

Recommended to readers who enjoy coming-of-age stories about females making their way in the historical American West.

Thank you to Netgalley and Scribner for a copy provided for an honest review.

With perfect pitch, this is a well written, atmospheric novel. I loved the finely drawn characters and the tumult of the town.
Many thanks to Scribner and to NetGalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

Thank you Scribner and NetGalley for the ARC. I couldn't finish the book. The story didn't really resonate with me. I may have to go back and re-read it at another time. It was kind of a sad story and I was going through a tough time then. But it does seem to have more positive reviews mostly by others.

A sweeping historical romance that covered a little-known part of history, Gilded Mountain is a thrilling, heartbreaking tale of injustice and finding one’s voice.

My favorite part of this book was definitely the writing style–it’s both lyrical and stark in the way it describes our protagonist, Sylvie, and the catapulting she does from her squalid mountain existence to the opulent home of the wealthy mine owners. Spanning generations, this is both a coming-of-age novel and a warning about what happens when battles fought in the past are taken for granted by us in the present, and the ending is one that still haunts me.

If I have any qualms with this book, it’s that the foreshadowing felt a bit too heavy handed—it’s VERY obvious that bad things will happen later on in this book, but it was alluded to a few too many times before the event actually happened. I also thought the last section of the novel felt a bit rushed, and some elements of one of the romances felt underdeveloped and a bit out of left field.

Overall, though, this was a heartrending, beautiful novel that will stick with me for a long time.

“I asked a man in prison once how he happened to be there, and he said he had stolen a pair of shoes. I told him if he had stolen a railroad, he would be a United States Senator.” — Mary Harris “Mother” Jones.

The early 1900s is an epic time in American history and Moonstone, Colorado, is a harsh place to live. In Gilded Mountain, author Kate Manning introduces readers to Sylvie Pelletier, an unforgettable teenager who bravely exposes the corruption that enriches her father’s employers.

Sylvie is a first-generation American and the daughter of French-Canadian parents. To help put food on the table, the sixteen-year-old serves as an apprentice to the editor of the local newspaper. But when she is offered a temporary position as a personal assistant, she leaves her family’s dilapidated mountain cabin to work in the opulent manor house of the Padgetts, exploitative owners of the marble-mining company that employs her father. “Countess” Inge is charming, Mr. Padgett is lecherous, but it’s their son Jasper who has her affections.

The town of Moonstone is roiling with discontent. Labor conditions are dangerous, the camp is primitive, and what provisions can be had must be bought at the overpriced company store with company scrip.

A handsome union organizer, along with labor leader Mary Harris “Mother” Jones, is stirring up the quarry workers. The company hires union busters and the Pinkertons to quell the protests.

Gilded Mountain is drawn from the true stories of powerful robber barons and the immigrants who make them rich. Sylvie’s vivid first-person narrative and deeply sympathetic characters captured my imagination and didn’t let go. 5 stars.

I had a difficult time with this one. Couldn't get into it. I browsed through to the end, and was not happy with the ending, so that did it for me.

I received this as an arc, and am under no pressure for a positive review.

Ramona Thompson

A good story about the strength of women in the coal mining/union days in Colorado. The author did a great job on describing the the women and also the Colorado mountain country.

Set in a Colorado mining town in the early 1900’s, Gilded Mountain is historical fiction that brings to light the brutal living conditions of miners and their families, contrasted with the luxurious lifestyles of the mine owners and operators. The main character, Sylvie, is a rather silly 18-year old girl who confronts many things during the course of the book—mine tragedies, labor organizing and strikes, newspaper reporting, race relations, and much, much more. Yes, there’s a lot going on here, but Sylvie is.written with great voice, and the book really brings this time and place to life. Young adult readers who like historical fiction would be especially interested In this book.

Thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for an ARC.

I, unfortunately, had trouble getting into this one. I started it on several different occasions and could not push through. This was a "did not finish" for me.

Opening this book, I joined Sylvie Pelletier on her journey as she narrates high up in the Colorado mountain community in which her father has landed them. Her French family came seeking a better life, and we are landed smack in the middle of Sylvie's realization that this might have been a huge mistake. Soon she is looking for other options for herself, all of which are limited by her gender and the time in which she lives: the early 1900s.

The topics covered by Sylvie's story are many, and it is long. She is 15-years old at its beginning and so we go through a number of twists and turns as we attend her. For me the story was compelling, but Sylvie was not as believable as I wanted her to be (that is to say, she was not as likeable as I prefer). . . but then. . .I've met many people in my life with the self-same flaw. That, in itself, drives the nail in it. A worthy read. Reminds me rather, at the end, of Stegner's Joe Hill.

A Sincere Thank You to Kate Manning, Scribner and NetGalley for an ARC to read and review.

I couldn’t imagine what marble-mining in the early 1900s Colorado would be like without the help of Kate Manning’s newest novel, Gilded Mountain.
This is just one of the things I love about infusing my reading life with historical fiction.

In this quasi-coming-of-age novel, our young protagonist Sylvia Pelletier recounts the story of her family’s move to the snow-bound mountain where her father is employed as a marble miner, her time working for the company’s owners as the “Countess” Inge’s secretary, working as a fearless newspaper reporter, and a union rabble rouser fighting to secure labor rights for workers like her father.

It’s an illuminating tale of what life was like for so many families during the early 20th century, trying to secure a way of life in a desolate, cold country. As a historical fiction novel, I learned a lot about the immigrant experience, the appalling work conditions for early companies & the necessity for labor union creation, and Colorado’s history.

Unfortunately, it missed the mark for me for a couple of reasons. The storytelling felt a bit off & the suspense was missing making this reading experience feel like an uphill challenge. Also, Sylvie’s love interests felt unrealistic and fleeting. There was so much jam-packed within the plot, that it was difficult to form emotive feelings towards the characters.

If you’re a fan of early 20th century American historical fiction & want to learn more about early Colorado history, be sure to add this to your TBR.
Thank you to the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this book.

Set in an early 20th century Colorado mining town, this is a story of worker vs exploiter, good vs evil, rich vs poor. It has all the makings of an epic tale of the West and a young woman’s coming-of-age. There is rich detail in descriptions of the setting and the times. Sylvie, the bright young protagonist of the story introduces us to the horrible living conditions of her family and the dazzling life of the marble quarry owners living in the castle on the hill. Sylvie experiences and observes it all – from labor issues to women’s independence, from honesty to lies and greed. Along the way, Sylvie experiences some ‘love’ interests. She doesn’t always think that clearly or even make the best of decisions. The book is well-written and well-researched. It covers a plethora of issues and important problems that we continue to grapple with. But I felt Sylvie, perhaps because of her youth and naivete, just wasn’t a sufficiently strong, well-developed character and that interfered with the overall success of the book. Thanks to NetGalley and Scribner for an advanced readers copy of this book. The opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own.

Gilded Mountain is a masterpiece of historical fiction, bringing alive the very early labor movement in the United Staes even featuring a cameo appearance by Mother Jones. Sylvie Pelletier, child of French Canadien immigrants, travels with her mother and siblings from Vermont, to a company town in Colorado. Her father works for Padgett Fuel and Stone Company as a quarryman. It is 1907. Why have they traveled to this remote collection of rough cabins, eight miles up a treacherous, icy mountain road from "the prettified coal town of Ruby", then on past the town of Moonstone, with a store, a church and a jail to Cabin 6?

Manning brings alive the grim reality of life in a company town. Workers are often paid in scrip. They receive no pay for the many hours they are required to work to keep the road clear or for any time they are expected to work beyond their shift. The work is hard and they have barely enough to pay rent and buy food. This is a marble mine with virtually no safety protocols. Moving slabs of marble is dangerous work and accidents, including deadly ones are common. There is talk of a union. Sylvie's father is one of the people at the center of the talk, having left Vermont at gunpoint because of his labor organizing activities. His current tendency to talk up unions is unsettling to his wife and unacceptable to his employer. He could lose his job at the whim of the manager and their home along with it.

Sylvie and her older brother attend school. Their toddler brother is home with their mother. Sylvie is a talented student. She wins an essay contest with the local newspaper selecting a daring topic., The Moonstone City Record's female editor is college educated, fiercely independent and progressive. Obviously, she, too is unacceptable to the Padgetts as she increasingly writes critical articles about their employment practices and mine safety. Miss Redmond hires Sylvie to work for her setting type. Eventually she lets Sylvie report on family news and accidents at the mine.

Because she is bilingual in French and English, Sylvie is invited to apply for a position with the mine owners' wife as a secretary for the summer. "Duke" Padgett is obscenely wealthy, with holdings far beyond this mine.. He's from Richmond Virginia and his wife (the "Countess") is from Belgium, where they met in King Leopold's Court. They summer near Moonstone, living in the lavish home they built, Elkhorn Mansion, entertaining visitors from all over. Guests are treated to balls dinners including oysters from the East and other costly delicacies. Duke's son Jasper, attends Harvard but he is also in Moonstone for the summer. Two of Duke's former slaves, John and Easter Grady work there as cook and driver. The Grady's son Caleb is there for the summer and serves as a chef on the Padgetts' private railroad car. Their other son, Marcus, is in a different part of Colorado where he hopes to participate in building a town for "Negroes." Jasper is very close to the Gradys, as Easter took care of him when his mother died.

Sylvie experiences the harsh reality of her father's work and the risks he takes when he encourages his fellow workers to consider fairer treatment. She sees what her mother must do in their meager surroundings to care for her family and help provide for them. She witnesses a variety of immigrant families' adjustment to the harsh conditions of Colorado Mountain winters with no pay because the mine is shut down for the season. She is subjected to harsh comments about the newspaper and her role there. She's spent eight weeks with a front row seat to people living at a level of luxury she could not have imagined. During that time, she connected personally with the Countess, who made something of a pet of her. She connected personally with Jasper almost as a friend. Later, Sylvie meets Mother Jones and the organizer sent by the national union. She's there, when they speak to her father and his coworkers and she's there for the backlash. Pinkerton men arrive, vicious and heartless. She witnesses the challenges faced by the Gradys in seeking how to make their way independently. Ultimately, all of these people interact with Sylvie in life-changing ways that make for an amazing story of the people of turn of the century Colorado.

So, this is the story of one smart, attractive and courageous girl's life. We learn how a variety of opportunities, challenges and a range of people from different classes, countries and backgrounds shape who she is. She takes risks. She makes choices that a situationally moral but would put her in jail if she were discovered. She sometimes follows her heart and loses her way. The characters are fabulous, the story fascinating and fun, dark and sad, exciting, quiet and surprising. Definitely a could not put it down and stayed up too late several nights to read on kind of book.