Patsy Cline. That’s where I first heard the name “Allegheny.” Her rich voice would fill the car, from an 8-track, of course, as we rode through Moorpark and over to Camarillo–to my uncle’s house. “Al-le-ghe-ny moon… I need your light… to help me find… romance tonight…”
Frankly, I thought she was talking about alligator meat being “gamey.” I mean, people ate ‘gators, and I knew what gamey meat was. It stood to reason. I just couldn’t figure out why they needed a light for that meat… or romance. What was that?
Dad explained that she wasn’t saying what I thought she was saying–foreshadowing to years later when Inigo Montoya would tell Vinzzini that he didn’t think the word meant what the guy thought it did. He said, “The Alleghenies are mountains in the east–over in Pennsylvania. Full confession.
I’m pretty sure I thought he said Transylvania. I knew that was a scary place, but I didn’t know why. I said I didn’t want to go there.
Dad insisted they were beautiful, but it was just a poetic turn of phrase… like in Cowboy Jack when the line said, “They’d laid his sweetheart down.” It meant they’d buried her. Same thing.
Yeah. I still don’t get it, but that’s Dad for ya.
Oh, and in the interest of further full disclosure, I saw those mountains about forty years later.
Dad was right. They are beautiful.
That was also, I think, the same time I learned what Allegheny means. A beautiful river or, as in the book I read last night, The River Beautiful.
Yeah. When I got a chance to read a book called The River Beautiful, of course, I requested a free review copy. Who wouldn’t? Especially with a stunning cover and suspense to go with it.
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What 3 Things Make a Simple Story Powerful & Complex?
Let’s face it. Most stories are simple when broken down to their most basic elements. Kind of like a sentence. You can take a sentence full of prepositional phrases, adjectives, and adverbs, and it can take up three lines on a page! But when you break it down to its barest elements, the sentence comes out, “He loves.” Grammar is just so amazing!
Story works the same way, and The River Beautiful is an excellent example. Basically, we have the story of grief, love, and greed. And really, if you narrow those down, it all comes down to one. Love. Love of family, self-sacrificing love, self-serving love of something else. It’s all the same thing!
But that sort of simplicity can be so very deceptive. As I was reading, I found three things that turned something so “simple” into something much more powerful and complex. What were they?
1. Emotion
This book is full of deep emotion, but most of the time it isn’t all over the place. Don’t get me wrong, Lena is a hurting individual, and because of that, she reacts to everything. Yes, she drove me crazy. Um… she was supposed to. When humans run from their grief, when they try to push the people who love them away, they do stupid, stupid things. Lena did every single one of them and not once did it feel like Ms. Carmen thew up a caricature of someone. The wounds were raw and real and exactly what I’ve seen people do in her situation.
Had every person in the book been as volatile in their reactions, I’d have walked away with a very different impression. It would have become wearisome to read. However, Carmen did a fine job of showing one person who refused to deal with her emotions and in turn, allowed those emotions to rule her.
2. Faith
The faith element of this book is one of its biggest strengths. Every time I felt like it was going to devolve into preaching, it just didn’t. But because that element was there and the skillful placement of who brought it up and when made you take note. Instead of an evangelistic plea to love the Lord and just trust that He’ll make everything okay someday, Ms. Carmen allows Lena the raw honesty of doubt, of jealousy (seriously, she was jealous of others’ ability to trust a God she felt had failed her), and of rejection. Folks, that’s what we do when we’re hurting. We reject something. In this case it was SomeOne.
My only criticism is that it does feel a little convenient when Lena finally “comes to terms” with the Lord. However, because she was brought up in a world of faith that she’d rejected, I suspect it isn’t as much as it seemed.
3. Layers
Between the plot, the characterization (yes, even the whining of a girl who’s just hurting!), the faith, and those emotions, we have layers of subtext and a secondary story that eventually becomes the primary one. Much like a time-split novel (although this isn’t), the past converges on the present to unravel not only history that many didn’t know, but it also sheds light on things everyone thought they did.
The argument could be made that it’s obvious from the beginning what’s behind everything. I agree, even. But that’s the point of suspense, isn’t it? To know what’s coming and dread it every step of the way?
The writing is solid, the story interesting, and while The River Beautiful does have a few weak spots (there are a couple of info-dumpy places, but they didn’t make me want to put it down, so that’s always a relief), it’s an excellent debut novel by an author I can’t wait to read more of. Am I glad that I requested and received a free review copy? Definitely. Will I be requesting her next? Do you even have to ask?
Recommended for people who enjoy both historical and contemporary fiction, suspense, and emotionally-gripping relationships all in one, hard-to-put-down story.
The River Beautiful is on tour with Celebrate Lit
About the Book
Book: The River Beautiful
Author: Andrea Carmen
Genre: Romantic Suspense
Release Date: May 26, 2020
A difficult past. A strange letter. An unsolved mystery.
Someone is following Lena, mapping her every move.
Where strength can be weakness and vulnerability-an asset, the greatest danger that threatens Lena may just be herself.
After the death of her father years ago, Lena ran from the quiet community of Kennerdell, but she’s back, forced to face a past she’d rather forget.
To make things more difficult, awkward, and terrifying, her old friend, Will, is back in her life. Even worse, she needs him there if she hopes to figure out what the letter she found in her father’s study means. They’re on a mission to find answers before her stalker does.
The River Beautiful mingles history and legend in a fast-paced ride through the deceptively peaceful Allegheny Mountains on a quest for answers amid loss, strength in the face of love, a whirlwind of self-discovery, and learning to use faith to illuminate even the darkest places.
About the Author
Andrea Carmen enjoys writing Romantic Suspense and Sweet Romance from a Christian perspective. A lover of bygone times, her modern-day novels contain a spark of history, a hint of mystery, or a little bit of both. Andrea finds inspiration by getting outdoors every chance she gets to explore and enjoy nature, but her favorite pastime is spending time with her family and best canine friend, Zoey.
More from Andrea
The River Beautiful is my first novel. The story means so much to me, and I am so happy to finally share it with you all.
This book has been years in the making and covers so many topics that are important to me. Many of them were fun to write about, but a few were hard to deal with at times.
Three elements stand out to me when I think of Lena’s story:
Love, Loss, and Legend.
Love-
Love is a beautiful gift. In fact, I would say it is the most precious gift God ever gave us. Love, in its correct form, is free, unconditional, and the basis our salvation. God’s love for us cannot be altered or blocked by darkness, not even the paralyzing darkness of grief. So, when love comes into play in this story, it comes from that perspective. Lena struggles to accept love, but I think that is a place many of us have been at one time or another.
Loss-
Loss can be lifechanging and usually not for the better. To turn The River Beautiful into the story it is, I had to bring up emotions from my own experiences with grief. Churning up those feelings after I’d had them tucked away for so long resulted in many tearful typing sessions. But at the end of the day, I think it brought unexpected healing and a level of authenticity to the story that it would not have had otherwise.
Legend-
Researching the legends of the Lenni Lenape people was enlightening. I have always felt a connection to history and the past intrigues me so that I could not help but bring in some element of mystery from the area’s indigenous inhabitants. My usual go-to when it comes to history tends to be Early American and European, but for this project I was able to bring in a blend of all three for a fictional retelling of key events—and that was exciting!
By combining the elements of Love, Loss, and Legend, I hope I have created a story that not only entertains but moves readers as well. And I hope you love it!
Blog Stops
Book Reviews From an Avid Reader, June 25
Reading Is My SuperPower, June 26
For the Love of Literature, June 27 (Author Interview)
Mary Hake, June 27
Just the Write Escape, June 28
Debbie’s Dusty Deliberations, June 29
Texas Book-aholic, June 30
A Baker’s Perspective, July 1 (Author Interview)
April Hayman, Author, July 1
Inklings and notions, July 2
For Him and My Family, July 3
Vicky Sluiter, July 4 (Author Interview)
Truth and Grace Homeschool Academy, July 5
Betti Mace, July 6
Book Love, July 7 (Guest Review from Joni Truex)
deb’s Book Review, July 8
Giveaway
To celebrate her tour, Andrea is giving away the grand prize of a $75 Amazon gift card!!
Be sure to comment on the blog stops for nine extra entries into the giveaway! Click the link below to enter.
https://promosimple.com/ps/fcd7/the-river-beautiful-celebration-tour-giveaway
Wonderful review! I’m looking forward to reading this debut novel.
Thank you for your review, Chauntona! I really appreciate the feedback and just love that you felt the emotion behind Lena’s volatile disposition! ?
I appreciate getting to hear about your book. Thank you for sharing!
The setting of this one sounds fascinating!
Congrats to the author on publishing her first novel!
Thank you so much! ?
I like how you broke this down into elements.
I’m glad this has emotion to make you think.
I’m glad it has a real faith thread. And I love layers.
This sounds like a really great read. Nice cover!
Sounds like a book I would enjoy reading. Adding to my TBR list.
Thanks for the review!