Thayer Wentworth never really felt she truly belonged at
home. She is a tomboy born into a wealthy family, and the
only person who really understood her died when she was
young. Her mother's priority is to push Thayer to the
nearest wealthy young man, marry her off, and get her out of
the family's hair. While Thayer's grandmother, Grand, seems
to understand her, there is only so much she can do to
comfort and advise Thayer through her life.
Thayer finally goes to camp one summer where she meets Nick
Abrams and falls in love for the first time. Unfortunately,
by the end of the summer, she also experiences her first
heartbreak and major life lesson. This event puts into
motion a series of events that sends Thayer to an undergrad
college where she meets her future husband, Aengus O'Neill,
a professor of Irish literature and mythology.
Just as Aengus and Thayer begin settling into their life
together, Thayer receives news that her grandmother has
passed away. Thayer inherits a wonderful house in a
prominent neighbourhood, and they are afraid that the
neighbours will be dreadful, but they soon form a fast
friendship with the next-door neighbour, Carol, and her
sons. Through Carol, Aengus forms connections that
eventually lands him an offer to work at a nearby camp
telling traditional Irish/Celtic stories, which he has
missed doing since they moved into Grand's house and he gave
up his old teaching job.
But as Aengus spends more and more time at the camp, Thayer
notices a frightening change in her husband. After Carol's
sons start attending the camp, Thayer begins to suspect
what's going on, but can she be right when prominent local
politicians are connected to the camp? And can she make
Aengus find his way back to her?
While I enjoyed BURNT MOUNTAIN as a whole, the jacket copy
was completely deceiving. It referred to Aengus telling his
stories at the camp, but he didn't even learn of the camp's
existence until page 240 of a 322-page book! The book is
really more about Thayer's life, her relationships and
connections, and the lessons she learns through those
relationships, all of which made for an extremely compelling
story. There were also some odd things going on with the
timeline. The book refers to Atlanta preparing for the
Olympics, then refers to the Harry Potter movie series, all
within the same period, which were actually in completely
different decades. Even with the small discrepancies within
the story, overall BURNT MOUNTAIN was a emotional read with
twists and turns that will have you holding on til the very
end.
Born to a wealthy family in Middletown, Georgia, the only
place tomboy Thayer Wentworth felt at home was at her summer
camp -- Camp Greyledge on Burnt Mountain in North Georgia.
It was there that she came alive and where she met Nick
Abrams, her first love...and first heartbreak.Years later,
to her family's dismay, Thayer marries Aengus, an Irish
professor, and they move into her deceased grandmother's
house in Atlanta, only miles from her beloved Camp
Greyledge, now a boy's camp called Camp Forever. There,
Aengus and Thayer lead quiet and happy lives until Aengus is
invited up to Camp Forever to tell old Irish tales to the
campers. As Aengus spends less and less time at home and
becomes more and more distant, Thayer begins to realize
something is not quite right at Camp Forever, and that the
man she married is not the man she thought she knew.