In 1899, an abandoned young wife and a homeless girl team up to survive in a remote sawmill town in the Appalachian Mountains. The young woman's name is May Rose Long, but in the town where she seeks refuge, she's slandered as "the girl on the mountain." With no money and no resources other than her pet sow's litter of pigs, she must find safe shelter and respectable work.

The company doctor wants to help, but he's married, and his interest is personal. The company manager offers work, but his concern for May Rose may not be proper. Then there's Suzie, operator of the brothel, who'd gladly welcome both her and the girl. As May Rose struggles to earn her keep, her troubles seem directed by others.

Soon an accident leaves the town in desperate straits. Through it all, she must protect herself and the girl who sleeps with a doll clutched tight and a knife under her pillow.

The story of May Rose and Wanda is the first book in the Mountain Women Series, bringing to life the struggles and triumphs, friendships, and families of women in a small West Virginia town in the early 1900s.

An emotionally gripping and powerful novel you won't be able to put down!

Readers are captivated by Carol Ervin's The Girl on the Mountain:

FIVE STARS: "Carol Ervin captures the triumphs, tribulations, and feel of the late 1800s perfectly in The Girl on the Mountain. Life at this time was real rough for women, and the same holds true as May Rose Long must contend with company hardliners and brothels while caring for herself and a young girl. This novel is heartfelt and powerful and I look forward to seeing where Ervin goes with it next!" - Goodreads Reviewer

FIVE STARS: "Captivating, compelling...and a whole lot of other "C" words come to mind, like: "Couldn't" put it down. Carol Ervin's writing is subtle and strong, the setting is powerfully portrayed without getting in the way, there's an undercurrent of dread that creeps along..." - Goodreads Reviewer

FIVE STARS: "...If you ever feel nostalgic for the good old days, if you long for 'simpler' times, the kind Ervin evokes with 'sounds of leaf whisper and high cricket drone' and 'hawks making lazy circles in the sky', and if you think this 'was the clean time, when the earth did not tremble with far-off crash of trees, and passing trains did not smother the air, ' read on." - Goodreads Reviewer