Gilded Mountain tells the story of 17 year old Sylvie Pelletier, a girl from a working class family in Colorado. With her knowledge of French, she is sent to be secretary to the Countess, the young wife of the town's benefactor. While there she is awed by the splendor surrounding her and the attentions of the heir, Jasper. But things are coming to a boiling point in town, where the discontent runs rampant. Sylvie is stuck between two worlds - one where she sees and knows the unfairness the lower class workers face and one in which she has intimate knowledge of life's luxuries.

This was definitely a slow start for me and I found myself struggling to get into it. But I was drawn to Sophie and how difficult it was for her to choose between what is right and what feels good. Descriptions of the town and the struggles of the miners were on point and ultimately, I was able to get into the story and Sylvie.

The opening of the book really drew me in. I could see the snow storm as Sylvie, her mother and brothers were being driven by horse and cart along the side of the mountain. I could feel their fear that they would end up off the side and fall down the mountain. I could feel the cold and the eagerness to see their father/husband again after he moved away to get a job in a stone/marble quarry. I could also feel the disappointment they felt as they got to the town where the shack that they would live in. The author was very good at making me feel the setting. It was a coming of age story set among union sympathizers and those who made a living off the sweat of others. It moved slowly and I was never able to form a connection with Sylvie herself. I stayed annoyed with her naiveté throughout the novel and this dampened my enjoyment of a very well written novel. I received a complimentary copy of this e-book from Scribner and NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

The Gilded Mountain is a stark reminder of the harsh life of the working classes in the early 20th Century. Sylvie’s father goes west from Vermont to work in the marble quarry of Moonstone, Colorado. It’s dangerous work and management constantly worries about the workers attempting to unionize. Once Sylvie graduates high school, she finds a job first with the town newspaper and then as the summer secretary to the quarry owner’s wife.
The story works in a straightforward fashion, told solely from Sylvie’s POV. She tells the story looking back on her life, which allows her to comment on what she learned later. Mrs. Padgett has a plan for “sociology” to cure the problems, but many of her ideas are ill conceived when the main issue is lack of decent pay and safety benefits. As the story goes on, the Financial Panic of 1907 hits and things become even harder. As has been said, “when the aristocracy catches a cold, the working classes die of pneumonia.” Sylvie becomes more strident in her views concerning the rights of the working class.
As the Padgetts were originally slaveholders in the South, we also see the issues that confront their black household help, formerly slaves. At the heart of the story is the lack of concern over the value of human life by the rich.
The characters were all richly drawn. Sylvie’s youth, Inge’s obliviousness, Jace’s desire to separate himself from his father while living off his father’s wealth, K.T.’s proto-feminism. Real life characters, like Mother Jones and among Leopoldo of Belgium , make an appearance. It worked well to have Sylvie be young and impressionable, with feelings that seesaw back and forth.
Manning has meticulously researched the story and it was easy to envision the events taking place.
My thanks to Netgalley and Scribner for an advance copy of this book.

"An unforgettable saga of a bygone American West seized by robber barons and settled by immigrants; a novel about resilience in the midst of hardship, and a story infused with longing—for family and equality, beauty and joy."

There was a lot going on in this book! I enjoyed reading about Mother Jones and the struggles of unionization. But the life of poor, little, naive Slyvie was underwhelming. Overall, a very readable story but it did drag on too long.

3.75☆

This compelling historical fiction is centers around Sylvie, an Arcadian young woman, who wants to do something special with her life. Her father brings the family to a mining camp in the Colorado mountains where Sylvie learns some hard lessons about mining operations, the difference between owners and miners, the newspaper business, and romance. This is a compelling story and Sylvie's voice is strong and memorable. I really liked this one.

Thanks to Netgalley for the e-ARC of Gilded Mountain.
The book follows Sylvie, the daughter of a miner in Colorado. I love historical fiction set in the Rockies, having grown up there, but find most westerns too sexist to stomach. Gilded Mountain, having a young female protagonist, is not, though. The setting is wonderful. It really seems to capture the harsh, mountainous landscape. As much as I loved the setting, though, I couldn't really get into this book. Every time I picked it up, I enjoyed it. However, if I wasn't actively reading it, I wasn't thinking about it. Which made it hard to finish. I do have to give props to Kate Manning for being inclusive and really looking at class and race. This is something that often gets glossed over in westerns.

Sylvie tells the story of her family in the mountains of Vermont. Her father is a marble miner, exposed daily to danger, long hours, and poor working conditions. He is involved in union organizing and is unpopular with the owner of the mine. Sylvie, however, is friends with the owner's wife, working for her for a summer, and his son. She is a talented young lady who writes and works for the local paper, three miles from the shack the company provides for her parents to live in. Following a tragic mining accident, Sylvie herself becomes involved in advocating for better conditions and pay for the minors. Her relationship with one of the company organizers and the owner's son soon escalate into something more. This is a good story with well-developed characters. It is a sad part of our country's capitalistic history and the author Kate Manning does a good job of telling it. Thanks to #GildedMountain#NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review the book.

I enjoyed this historical novel. I did find it depressing to read about all of the hardships the characters were forced to endure. I liked that the real historical figure Mother Jones was included in the book. Thanks for letting me check it out!

Sylvie comes to a small Colorado mining town as an immigrant, a woman, a daughter, and an outsider. Her father's death turns her towards activism, labor rights, and a desire to make America a better version of itself.

This story doesn't get bogged down though--Sylvie is a fully human character who makes her fair share of mistakes and is prone to getting swept off her feet by wealth and sparkly things. She's not perfect, but I found myself rooting for her success.

In a Colorado mountain mining town in the early 1900’s, the men work without barely any time off, often in incredibly dangerous conditions, water freezes in their company housing, they must buy their goods from the company store on credit; all the while the Padgetts who own the mine live in luxury. Sylvie Pelletier, the oldest child of a miner working in those marble mines, finds herself first working for the woman-run town newspaper reporting what’s actually happening to the men and their families up in the mine town, and then working as the summer secretary to Lady Padgett. When union organizers come to town, including the real-life Mother Jones, the company is determined to squash any talks of unions, even bringing in the Pinkertons to assist by whatever method is necessary.
The story is gripping, fast moving, and the characters absolutely compelling. When you’re done you may have technically finished a work of fiction, but you realize it was undoubtedly anything but.

An interesting historical novel set in the marble mining area of Colorado. I can't say I necessarily enjoyed Sylvie's story; the hardships she, her family, and the other workers face are rightfully depressing, but I reveled in the mountain setting, and I liked learning more about the labor movements in the early 1900s. I was frustrated at times trying to separate the fictional from the authentic. I wish Manning had included a bit more background in her author's notes to help with this. Recommended for historical fiction lovers, especially those of us from Colorado who want to experience the past in our state.

Gilded Mountain is the story of Sylvie Pelletier, the daughter of a pro-union quarry worker in a small town in Colorado in the early 1900s. The story traces Sylvie’s life, from the moments that make you cringe with foreboding to the times when you cheer her assertiveness.

Although some may like a protagonist who always chooses the right path, Sylvie seemed much more real in that she sometimes was led by her own weaknesses. Overall, I enjoyed the story and was invested in why would happen to Sylvie.

Thank you to Net Galley and Shelf Awareness for giving me an ARC of this well-written historical novel. Set in the early 1900s. it made me realize how far we've come as a society regarding women's rights, workers' rights, and racial equity.
The teenage protagonist, Sylvie Pelletier, lives with her family in Moonstone, Colorado, where her father works in the marble mine. Working conditions become increasingly unbearable; the mine owners and bosses care nothing for the employees. Profit is the driver, and promise after promise is broken. Union organizers come in, which creates unrest. After Sylvie's pro-union father is killed in a questionable accident, she becomes more involved in the struggle. She has taken a job at the local newspaper, whose female editor is constantly antagonizing the Company by publishing the truth about their practices. Also, George Lonahan, an outside organizer, becomes a love interest.
On the other hand, Sylvie takes a summer job as secretary to the boss's wife, Inge Padgett, and she gets a taste of how the other half lives. There is also a strong attraction between her and Jace, the boss's mixed-up son.
Much of the book deals with Sylvie's struggles between right and wrong, as well as loyalty, truth, and justice.
The author conveyed a great sense of time and place, and the writing is excellent. I found the pacing a bit slow and felt the book was much longer than it needed to be. But I do recommend it to fans of historical fiction.

The language in this story was absolutely exquisite. The beauty of nature contrasted with the horrors Sylvie and the other working families face created a very unsettling and galvanizing setting to a story that rings true in the 2020s.

This was a really interesting and engrossing book, set in a particular time and place that I had known nothing about. The characters were wonderfully fleshed out, and at times my heart was pounding to see what was going to happen to them. I enjoyed this book very much, and think it will appeal to a wide audience. Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Felt a little too long but I enjoyed the story. Writing was beautiful and the characters were raw and felt so real. Will definitely recommend!

This novel by Kate Manning is historical fiction set in Colorado during the turn of the last century. A time before women's right to vote, before the 40 hour work week, before working people had mich in the way of rights. A young girl sets out with her her family to join her father as he labors deep in a mine. The starkness of their lives takes a small swerve when she is invited to work for the summer for a lady of the manor. The author conveys with a light hand the brutal existence of the people making the rich richer.

With deft prose, Kate Manning transports us to a hardscrabble American past in Gilded Mountain. The protagonist, Sylvie, projects an elegance that belies her humble environment. The setting is a Colorado mining town at the beginning of the 20th century. Factions of quarry workers and their enormously wealthy employers engage the reader from the beginning of this historical novel. A pivotal character is Mother Jones, who inspired and instigated striking miners. Kate Manning researches the people and the period creatively and makes everything come alive. While we are immersed in the time and place, the characters in this novel continually compel our interest A thoroughly enjoyable and important novel to read!

“Gilded Mountain” is a sweeping tale of the rise of the labor movement, told through one girl’s experience growing up in a “company town” in Colorado. The main character grows throughout the novel and confronts hard choices— such a choosing a life of wealth vs a much harder, but more righteous, path of reporting on and supporting the labor movement. The novel takes a mature approach to the subject matter and the characters; most characters here are complex, inconsistent, and a bit hypocritical— just like real people. The novel highlights the exploitation that enables the extreme wealth of one family, which the main character recognizes while still yearning for a luxurious lifestyle. I learned a lot about the time period, too. However, the novel is careful not to be pedantic or long-winded about the period or its ideas. Historical events and themes are interwoven throughout.

My only criticism is that the novel really sped up at the end and did not reach a real climax, despite plenty of foreshadowing.

Overall, I recommend this novel highly and look forward to more from this author.

This was a beautiful novel. I love truly losing myself in a historical fiction novel, and this one makes it easy. Sylvie is an engaging protagonist, though her teenage thoughts are sometimes too overwrought - think Harry Potter in Order of the Phoenix. But there's a lot at stake here, and this novel touches on a lot of significant cultural and historical moments as well as social movements. Highly recommend.