‘Mountain Between Us’ deserves to be read again and again
“The Mountain Between Us” by Charles Martin is one of those books.
Sometimes the urge to get home can be overwhelming, and for Dr. Ben Payne, being stranded in the Salt Lake City airport with a huge snowstorm coming is not an option. An orthopedic surgeon, he has patients who need his care.
As flights are canceled and passengers begin looking for hotel rooms, Ben seeks out a charter flight that might get him out of the impending storm. He remembers that fellow passenger Ashley Knox is anxious to get home for her wedding, so, on a whim, he invites her to join him on the flight. When tragedy strikes, it would be a decision both of them regret.
In Martin’s riveting novel “The Mountain Between Us,” two strangers find themselves struggling to survive after their pilot suffers a fatal heart attack and crashes their plane in the middle of the Utah wilderness.
Ben suffers broken ribs in the crash, and Ashley sustains major injuries to her leg, rendering her unable to walk and dependent on Ben for her most basic needs. Fortunately, Ben’s medical training allows him to tend to her with whatever he can salvage from the wreckage. But with no rescue in sight, it becomes clear they will have to save themselves.
While Ben focuses on survival, Ashley begins to realize there is more to this handsome young doctor than meets the eye. She listens every night as he tapes a message to his wife, Rachel, from whom he is separated, and it’s through his loving words that Ashley finds herself questioning her own relationship with her fiance.
Martin offers a beautiful, emotion-filled story of survival and redemption with “The Mountain Between Us.” His descriptions of the frigid cold, the frightening unknown, and the sheer strength of both characters are amazingly realistic. The reader is offered a front-row seat to a breathtaking drama and heart-wrenching story of friendship and love which blossoms on the side of a snowy mountaintop.
