As someone who's very familiar with Cades Cove and the history there, I was excited to read this book. The story was tender, touching and heartwarming, but also very predictable and had many comparisons to Catherine Marshall's Christy. From the first few chapters, I already knew how the story would end. There were no surprises in my opinion and no true struggle, for the struggles that were mentioned seemed to be resolved within a chapter...The main character, Anna, had moments where I felt she was a little on the immature side, but since her age isn't mentioned in the book, I'm assuming she was still in her teens. About 1/3 of the way through, I started losing interest but kept on reading in hopes the story would become deeper. Unfortunately it didn't and it looks me weeks to finish the book. The only reason I did was because I don't like to leave things unfinished.

On the up side, I believe the author portrayed life in the mountains at that time very well, especially if you don't mind reading Appalachian dialect (I struggled a bit with that personally however). If you're looking for a feel-good story, this is one for you!