GILDED MOUNTAIN by Kate Manning

Sylvie Pelletier is a 17-year-old in 1907, living in a Colorado mining community where the workers, including her father, desperately need to unionize.  The work is dangerous, and the pay is miniscule, when the Company actually deigns to pay the workers at all.  Sylvie catches a break when she lands a job in town with the local newspaper, owned by K.T. Redmond, who has no qualms about telling the truth.  Because she speaks French, Sylvie then lands a summer job at the home of the mine’s owner, Duke Padgett, and gets a first-hand glimpse of how the other half lives.  K.T.’s advice?  Take notes.  Even as she develops a crush on Jasper, the Padgett heir, Sylvie becomes a valuable information source for K.T.  The content of this novel is largely serious, focusing on the deplorable conditions at the mine, but sometimes the author provides some much-appreciated comic relief, particularly in the witty banter between Sylvie and union organizer, George Lonahan.  On page 367, George makes this cheeky comment about the mining company president, whose name the miners jokingly mispronounce among themselves as “Bowels:”

“’Today Bowles made the union an offer of air and threw in daylight as a bonus.’”

Sylvie enjoys some wordplay of her own, inventing the word “underdonkey” and adding her own unspoken comment in a conversation with George on page 359:

“’Hackles!’  He slapped his thigh. ‘You’re a stitch, Sylvie Pelletier.’

I was a stitch.  A dropped stitch, which results in a great unraveling.”

Speaking of stitches, Sylvie can’t help laughing at George’s jokes, and neither could I.  At times this novel feels like a Cinderella story, and I could have done without the hints of future tragedies on the horizon.  Sometimes I think authors, including this one, convey a sense of foreboding as a way to soften the blow when the hammer eventually falls.  I would prefer to be surprised, especially by bad news.  Sylvie herself, however, is what makes this novel special.  She occasionally falters in the common sense department, especially when it comes to matters of the heart, but her commitment to justice, particularly for the underdonkey, never wavers.  Thank you to Book Club Favorites at Simon & Schuster for the free copy for review.