The Enchantment

So my goal is to read everything Kristin Hannah wrote. However, starting from her first book, A HANDFUL OF HEAVEN, wasn't possible. The cheapest copy available on Amazon is almost $70. My husband collects books and he hasn't found it much cheaper anywhere else. So. . . on to book #2, THE ENCHANTMENT.

Her style has evolved, but it's evident this is Kristin Hannah from the get-go. She has the deep characters and phenomenal settings, as always. It's a little heavier on the side-stories than her writing has now, but even that is classic Hannah.

Wall-street maven Emmaline has just gone bust. Her hard-earned journey out of poverty just came to an abrupt end when the market takes a downturn in 1893. (Who even knew there was a crash in 1893?) One of her last acts as a rich women was to fund a research excursion to New Mexico for Larence Digby, a intelligent, but folly-filled scientist at Columbia University who believes in a city of gold hidden for centuries in the mesa-strewn landscape. When hard times hit Emma, she decides to recoup what she can from his expedition.

A long and arduous trip across the unforgiving landscape by two unlikely companions starts out badly and goes downhill from there. It's a trip that tests both their mettle, but mostly Emma's, since she isn't looking at the world through rose-colored glasses like the fanciful Larence. (Yes, it's really spelled that way.)

How the journey unravels both travelers gives insight into both their pasts, neither good, and their compensations for said pasts. His was to take the high road. Hers to take the one with the most money.

I won't spoil the ending, but I thought it was well worth the read. Of course, Hannah adds lots of time-sensitive details about clothing, plants, and culture that enrich the story to my mind.

I had a hard time acquiring this book as well, but if you can get it, it's worth the bucks to see the near-beginning of an illustrious writer's career.