Gilded Mountain by Kate Manning is a historical epic set in a Colorado mining town at the turn of the 20^th century. Teenager Sylvie Pelletier has just moved from Vermont to Moonstone, Colorado, where her father, Jacques, finds work in the dangerous field of high-altitude marble mining. Colorado’s winters are harsh and the conditions of the working class toiling in and around the mountains are even harsher. Working under exploitative conditions at a company owned by industrial tycoon Jerome Padgett, Jacques and his compatriots want to unionize. Meanwhile, Sylvie finds work at a local newspaper, then gets hired as a secretary to Padgett’s wife, Inge, and is soon torn between the hardscrabble existence and values of her family, and the rarefied world she gets a glimpse of at the Padgett’s. This is a rich Gilded Age story that feels both rooted in history and timeless.