My Thoughts and More on Born of Gilded Mountains by Amanda Dykes

 

About:

A lost treasure. A riddled quest. The healing power of friendship.

Legends are tucked into every fold of the Colorado mountains surrounding the quaint town of Mercy Peak, where residents are the stuff of tall tales, the peaks are taller still, and a lost treasure has etched mystery into the very terrain.

In 1948, when outsider Mercy Windsor arrives after a scandal shatters her gilded world as Hollywood's beloved leading lady, she is determined to forge a new life in obscurity in this time-forgotten Colorado haven. She purchases Wildwood, an abandoned estate with a haunting history, and begins to restore it to its former glory.

But as she does, her every move tugs at the threads of the mountain's lore, unearthing what became of her long-lost pen pal Rusty Bright, and the whereabouts of the infamous Galloping Goose Railcar No. 8, which vanished years ago--along with the mailbag it carried, whose contents could change the course of countless lives. Not to mention the fabled treasure that--if found--could right so many wrongs.

Among the towering mountains that stand as silent witnesses, the ghosts of the past entangle with the courage of the present to find a place where healing, friendship, and hope can abide amid a world forever changed.

My Thoughts:

This was a very different read, as I felt as though I was following Alice in Wonderland, picking up clues here and there to fully get the whole story by the end. And it was a well-told story with unique characters and places. The author helps tell her story with pen pal letters, screenplays, fieldnotes, and interviews scattered throughout the pages of this book.

We have a runaway actress, Mercy Windsor, who has come to a mining town in Colorado, where her beloved pen pal, Rusty, lived. Why Mercy has run away from Hollywood and what happened to Rusty are two of the mysteries. There are some major surprises that I absolutely did not see coming. In fact, they kind of floored me. In a good way. There is a hidden treasure and scandal around this treasure that no one even knows what it is. Add in small-town gossip and enduring friendships, plus treasure hunting, and you have a story quite unlike one I have read before.

I was provided with a copy of this novel from Bethany House Publishers through Interviews & Reviews. I was not required to post a positive review, and all views and opinions are my own.

About the Author:

Amanda Dykes's debut novel, Whose Waves These Are, is the winner of the prestigious 2020 Christy Award Book of the Year, a Booklist 2019 Top Ten Romance debut, and the winner of an INSPY Award. She's also the author of Christy Award-finalists All the Lost Places, Yours Is the Night, and Set the Stars Alight. Find her online at AmandaDykes.com.