Reviews for Trial Valley

The average rating for Trial Valley based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2018-03-19 00:00:00 Molly Reed 1.5 "Trial Valley is an isolated hollow in the southern Appalachians and the home of Mary Call Luther, a sixteen-year-old raised in the mountain traditions of hard work and self-reliance. Following the deaths of her parents, Mary Call shoulders the burden of caring for her younger brother and sister. It is not an easy life, and it is made more complicated by the rivalry between her two suitors, one a steady, comfortable local boy, the other a social worker who brings with him all the disruptive glamor of the world beyond the mountains. Still, Mary Call manages to keep everything under control, until the day they find the little boy in the woods. His name is Jack Parsons, and he has been abandoned. Someone has to care for him, and "someone," to Jack, is Mary Call. But despite her desire to help, she sees him as one more belly to be filled, one more hand to be held, one more sign that her chances for a life of her own are slipping away. But Jack only looks at her, his eyes big and trusting, and Mary Call knows that somehow she must find the answer." I had no idea this book was so old, and I don't like reading books written too long ago because the way of speech is too different and odd. "On summer evenings when ill weather has not broken the calm of Trial Valley and comes that pure, aware hour just before the night overtakes the day I am so stones able to grab for myself a breather." "It is here, that something offered that was not here before." I stumbled through the weird and backward wording. I like that it's set in North Carolina in the mountains. I've never heard of Trial Valley. They find quartzite and flint arrowheads from Indians. They make money from medicinal plant parts, buds, pollen, bark, leaves, and moss. They sell it to the general store owner which is a 5 mile walk. Her sister's husband said she was too opinionated for a girl and no man would "grow dizzy with love" for her, that girls like her scare guys off. I didn't like him, but I didn't like Mary either. She thinks men are weak and nervous and "poor sticks." It was weird that she didn't want a guy to love her, because there's enough nonsense in the world and she thinks guys should be strong enough not to lose themselves in love. Who doesn't want to be loved? Bizarre. From one paragraph to the next she went from talking about her family and taking care of them, and then mentioned finding the boy with absolutely no fanfare. The summary made it sound like they found him during the book, not that they'd found him before the book even started. She was talking from a future point. That was a bad setup. I like the mention of the downy woodpecker. I've had them come to my feeders and they're probably my favorite woodpecker. I have a real problem reading unintelligent speaking, especially combined with a character I don't like. The boy, Jack Parsons, was annoying as soon as he appeared. He was sly, evasive, wouldn't answer questions. And when he opened his mouth he got worse. The "Widder-Man" left him in the cage and told him his brother (all people are brother and sisters in Christ) would take him in. Ugh. Two guys came on the mountain. One was bold and looked at her in a way that made her feel uncomfortable. Her sister Ima Dean and brother Romey both knew what had happened. He said it was because her clothes were too tight; she's too full for them and that's why they looked at her like that. It was admirable that she wanted her siblings' "curiosities stirred," for them to find greatness and honor. She values education, unlike her sister and brother in law. I sympathized that she was overwhelmed with being orphaned at 16 and having to care for her two siblings, and now another boy. She wondered when she got to live herself, or where her savior was. She wondered if she'd be working every day, taking care of them, and asked God didn't she count for anything with Him. I didn't like the name Gaither. I liked that Gaither told her he was going to get a place of his own and raise pigs and he asked if she liked pigs. And he brings her his mom's cake. I loved that Mary mentioned Brown Mountain Lights! I've been wanting to see them for years. "He's seen those lights up on the ridge a hundred times if he's seen them once but still can't get it through his head they might be natural. Caused by electricity in the air or something like that. He says they're ghosts looking for each other. Well, I don't think he'll see much of them tonight. Fall is the best time for that." It sucked that her sibs and Kiser were going and not her. I couldn't believe Gaither left without the author writing his leaving. They were talking about the widower who dropped Jack off, and the next paragraph she was waking up at night when the group got back. The humor was really appreciated, because boy I didn't like the writing. I couldn't stand the way they talked. It grated because it's so illiterate. Kiser told her to fix herself up, that Gaither came to look at a girl so show him one. She needed to hear that and start valuing appearance more. I was so mad that she continued mopping when he was over and didn't stop to eat the cake. What is wrong with this girl? But it was funny how the only reason she didn't throw a book at Kiser for saying that was because it was her teacher's book. She was out picking flowers with Jack and saw Thad coming up, and asked Jack for a comb. He didn't have one so she combed with her fingers. I wish she would have put in as much effort with Gaither. I was shocked that she noticed Thad's chest hair through the unbuttoned area of his shirt. And that he looked at her with such yearning "that the child in me drew back, shocked." You're not a child! And I could see the writing was going to ruin the time with the boys. Gaither went nowhere then ended without telling us. Thad could barely talk to Mary, got up and walked away without saying anything. It was bizarre. You can't end scenes like that. Terrible format. I didn't like that Mary imagined Thad's fancy house and lavish lifestyle, and them having their own wing and "pressed hands and touched lips." It sounded like she just wanted a rich life. I know she wants to get out of the poor, creaky cabin, but I don't want a gold digger heroine. She had told Jack that Thad likes her and she likes him. And not once did she think of Gaither. How did she go from saying Gaither and Thad were her friends and they weren't "wooing" her, to admitting outright she likes Thad and imagining being with him? Fast turnaround. Poor people use salt and wintergreen as toothpaste. "There are balds, strange open summit pastures where no trees ever grow. A Cherokee Indian legend, appearing in one of Miss Breathitt's old and treasured volumes, offers explanation for these isolated knobs. In the folklore of the Cherokee the mystery of the balds is linked to the great horned serpent, The Uktena. In The Uktena's forehead there glittered a crystal talisman, a valuable charm much coveted for its power to avert evil and bring good fortune in hunting, fishing, rainmaking and every other kind of business. One day The Uktena was sunning himself on one of the balds and a medicine man known as The Ground Hogs' Mother stole up the mountainside. It was his intention to kill The Uktena and take the talisman for his own. He succeeded but before the serpent fell over dead he reared up and spit a great stream of poison. The venom was far-reaching and the destruction it wreaked was forever. On the balds no timber ever grew again." It was funny when she imagined an ideal evening with her sister and brother reading and wanting these important jobs to humanity. It was just a daydream because they're nothing like that. Gaither and Thad came over at the same time and there was a definite standoff between the two guys for her. It was sweet how Gaither went back inside and got a chair for her. And when Romey and Ima started dancing, Mary said it looked pretty and he asked if she wanted to try it. But it was form for Thad to snatch her up when it was Gaither's idea. Of course the scene ended with Devola, Kiser and Jack coming-like usual. Any time you don't know how to end a scene, have an interruption. And in here that was always her siblings. I was so sick of Jack having a fit being with Kiser and Devola, and them trying to win him over through presents. Gosh that was so aggravating. It was rude of Mary to think that Gaither would have the grace to leave since it was family business. And then he went and got Jack some water and comforted him, and took him out to see his horse. That was nice, and you could definitely see the difference from Thad, who didn't like the kid and didn't want kids of his own. It was interesting that Kiser told her Thad had class and she'd always liked that but class is hard to warm up to. Kids and pigs are something you can warm up to and they'll warm you back. He said if she picked Gaither they'd all be neighbors and it's important to pick a family person. I was so upset that Gaither came, and it was sweet he fixed all the mistakes she had made on Ima's dress, but he just asked about Jack because the kid was all anyone ever wanted to talk about. Devola asked him to stay for dinner but he didn't and then he just left with the author not writing out any goodbyes. I had to put the book down and stop reading for a while. Writing back then was so bare bones and sparse, only the necessities and not enough dialogue and descriptions of what people look like. The "Dwellers Anywhere" were interesting, little spirit people who play music and drums. Hunters would hear the music but it stopped when they tried to find it, and then would pick up again. Mary had some cool thoughts that came from living in the mountains. She'd stand on the ridge and think that someone long ago stood right there. Indians and whites camped out on the rivers while they fought their wars. I didn't like that Romey said Thad was sweet on her and she was sweet on him too. They didn't even mention Gaither. And all Mary said was thats his problem. What are her feelings? Which guy does she like more? The only one who thought she'd get with Gaither was Devola. Gaither brought her a horse and had supper waiting for them when they got back. His dad owes him money and Gaither took it in livestock. He got a saddle and stuff for the horse by offering to paint the store. She had never rode a horse and she said she could die and Romey and Ima don't want to live with Kiser and Devola, and he said they could live with him, he wouldn't mind being their dad. Nice, but he's so young to say that. He wanted them to come and look at his building site on the land he's buying from his dad and tell him which way to face his house. I wanted to jump up and down I was so excited at the prospect of a change in scenery. Around 75% of the book took place at her and Kiser and Devola's house. And the woods, but that didn't really count. That's 2 places. And I was so glad when Ima and Romey weren't coming. I couldn't wait to see what his land looked like. For them to talk about his future. To have some progress between them. I read as they rode on horses. And then they wrote what time it was when she returned home, and that he put Dan in the barn for her and galloped off-again. Every time he left he just rode off, no fanfare. I was pissed the freak off. Wtf is the matter with you? Like readers want to read 2 whole places for the setting. I was going stir crazy reading through this drivel. And how about having the girl make up her freaking mind about the boys, to do that you might actually want to put them together for more than a paragraph at a time. Jack went missing because the kid just had to keep causing trouble. This was like the third big problem except it was way bigger than all the rest and I was way over it and didn't care what had happened to him as long as he was out of the story. It was high time Mary's love life came to a head. Constable Cheek had two deputies come. Mary kept asking him to go along, saying she knows about plants and likes dogs barking; it didn't fascinate him, and it didn't Mary either but she likes it. And he went after a tusk hog when he was younger and wtf. It went on for over 4 pages and I was losing my mind knowing it was nearing the end of the book had nothing had happened in the way of love. I was losing my mind. They kept wasting time on unimportant crap that didn't matter. At the end she asked if she'd changed his mind, and he said she hadn't, but "The way you cut them eyes at me makes my heart go pit-a-pat I will admit and if the occasion wasn't so sober and if I didn't have grandkids your age and if you wasn't already spoke for I might be tempted but that is not the way it stands." Whoa. Whoa. Whoa. I couldn't believe I read that. This is a 16 year old girl, and a man who could be her grandpa just made a comment like that. I wanted to freaking rage that the most progress came from a freaking old man while the two love interests were as brief as a shooting star passing through the sky and as stale as a piece of month old bread. She asked who said she was spoken for and he said the day he and Thad went to look for Jack's mom, Thad said he was going to marry her and take her to Virginia to live. It was sweet that while Thad, Gaither and Mary were out looking for Jack, Gaither tried to get her to take his raincoat. There were times when I had no freaking idea what she was talking about. She kept having these thoughts that I could not wrap my head around. But I knew it was going to come down to that freaking kid. I saw it from the beginning. Whoever cares about that freaking dumb kid would be who she got with. Who makes a decision like that? How about finding a quality you like about the guy other than he wants to be a dad? What in the ever loving crap was I reading? Of course Mary fell in the river, and Jack for some reason felt the need to singlehandedly save her despite two grown guys being there, so he jumped in too and then they both needed saving. Except of course tough Mary didn't want to be saved. Gaither looked at her and chose to save Jack, which I didn't like, but of course Mary the mother of three approved of. Thad, on the other hand, chose to save her despite Gaither and Mary telling him to save Jack. "It all ended there, all that other that might have turned my life around and made it a different kind of affair. What happened in the creek that day gave me back to myself. It set things in place. The belief, never fully explored up to that time, that knowledge and wish could become one and work for me, I left to the water." Wtf are you talking about? Could you find a more confusing and meaningful way to say that? So, because Thad cared enough about you to save you from the raging river, the girl he planned to marry, you don't want him? Because he didn't care about a suspicious, lying orphan kid he didn't know and shouldn't have to care about, he's done for? And I didn't even want her with Thad; before I even started reading the local boy was the clear choice, but I hate easy way outs. Some dumb test the author creates that the one she gets with has to pass. It's bullcrap. She realized that what pulled and held her here was too much of a mystery for Thad. He brought a telescope and tried to teach her about the stars, asked her to marry him and she said she couldn't because they don't believe in the same things. She believes in her kids and he doesn't. He got mad and said her views were elemental and base and out of style. It made me wonder as I had been wondering why he liked her in the first place. It was disturbing when Jack said when he got big he was going to marry her. He said Gaither told him he likes Mary. He asked if she would marry Gaither and she said Idk, I don't think so and asked what would they talk about, married ppl have to have something to talk about. WTF. It ended on the dumb note it started with. Gaither and Jack had looked for something, Jack didn't know what but Gaither had said it's what Mary sees when she looks out but they didn't see it and Gaither wanted to see it so maybe they would see it next time because he wanted to see it because she saw it. "So this, then, is the promise, clean and simple. It is a strange one, this compensation that speaks of life ongoing. There is no confusion in its consolation. It is positive." Wtf ever. These deep stupid thoughts that were supposed to be profound but I think actually meant nothing. The summary mentioned 2 suitors and so clearly love would be present. That was a freaking joke. Not one conversation about marriage between Gaither and Mary. Thad didn't even being it up until the end, but his disinterest in her "kids" had him out of the running because if you're a young person you'd better want to be a parent or else. Both guys told other people how they felt but never told her. Mary didn't even admit that she liked Gaither, like a 5 year old. What 16 year old is that out of touch with their feelings? I don't want to guess when and how characters get together especially after the load of crap like I just went through. They need to be together by the end. At the very least we deserved for them to at least talk about it once. This story sucked. It was 90% Jack then 8% her managing the other two kids and getting them to work and everything else, and 2% love. I hate old books and the writing was so awful and dumb. It's a shame, because the authors had a sense of humor. There was no resolution to anything. When things first started I wondered who the widower really was, and who his mom was. I expected to find out. We should have found out. I wanted to know what he really knew and what he was lying about. We also never learned why he didn't like Kiser and Devola. Or what Mary wanted to do with her life. School, job, what kind of house, anything? Other than picking plants and taking care of kids?? Also, I expected her to make herself pretty by combing her hair or wearing something nice. Or changing her outlook on love and marriage. There was no growth. There was no point to this. A girl thought she didn't want to take care of kids and wanted a life of her own, took on another kid and realized she did want to take care of them after all. And the "rivalry" between the suitors...no. They there was no rivalry between them because they met after Jack got there, and they were only around each other 2 times. One scene only consisted of them looking stiff and the other was at the end of the book when they were looking for Jack and weren't thinking of anything else. Bad story. Boring, no-plotter. Unlikable characters. And the worst: no love. The humor got it this far.

Review # 2 was written on 2015-01-22 00:00:00 Frank Zabaly Now out of print, this book is a follow up continuation of Where The Lilies Bloom. The writing is very good and the story is heartwarming. The setting is the Trail Valley of the Appalachian Great Smokey Mountains of NE North Carolina where poverty abounds. After her father's death, the oldest Luther child, Mary Call, is responsible for her two younger siblings. Her older sister is married to a kind, sensitive man who is the legal guardian of the family. A young boy is abandoned and found in a cage in the woods. While Mary Call's older sister and her husband vow to raise the child, he is attached to Mary. Weary from raising two other children, at first she is reluctant to assume the responsibility. When her heart is warmed by the little boy, she is then open to the experience of love from two suitors. In the end, she must choose between a wealthy man who can whisk her away and a sensitive down-home man who knows her well. While the plot is not earth shattering, this is a book that is worth the read. As a side note, the authors profess to learning how to write because of their love of libraries and their insatiable desire to read.