The Other Side of Certain (A Love for Certain Novel)
Leaving her comfortable life in Asheville, North Carolina, at the height of the Great Depression, Mattie Mobley arrives in Certain, Kentucky, expecting to start a school and assist the local packhorse librarians. She doesn’t expect to encounter a grizzly bear on her route.
That “grizzly bear” is Daniel Barrett, who lives up on a mountain with his three young children. The town pariah, Daniel has led a lonely and guilt-ridden existence since the death of his wife four years earlier. He and Mattie hit it off quickly, but he holds her at a distance, certain she’ll reject him as soon as she learns the truth of what drove him out of town. Not one to be deterred, Mattie resolves to discover what Daniel did that earned him the town’s ire and to reconcile him to his estranged extended family.
The relationship between Mattie and Daniel makes sense because they’re both outsiders in Certain, but Daniel exhibits behaviors that today would be considered problematic at best, if not outright red flags of a man best avoided. The alternating dual first-person points of view also grew confusing. With every chapter beginning with “I” rather than a character’s name, it’s easy to mix up who’s narrating. And while it seems that the people of a small, secluded town would be eager to tell a newcomer all the gossip about the town’s outcast, both Mattie and the reader have to wait a frustratingly long time to learn why Daniel had to flee to his mountain.
However, Willoughby-Burle has a knack for making readers chuckle at all the right places, and her theme of the importance of forgiveness shines through. Inspirational but not preachy, The Other Side of Certain will likely delight fans of sweet romance.
