A Beautiful Fall

At first glance, A BEAUTIFUL FALL appears to be that perennial staple of contemporary CBA fiction: the story of a successful young city woman who, in response to some emergency, temporarily returns to the small town where she grew up, only to discover her true home and the love of her life in the town she vowed she'd never see again. Thankfully, Chris Coppernoll handles this staple better than most. Boston attorney Emma Madison is flying high from a major courtroom victory when she receives the news that her father has suffered a heart attack. Amid predictable objections from her law partners, she takes the next flight to South Carolina, where Noel, her cousin Samantha's too-good-to-be-true son, picks her up at the airport and escorts her to her father's bedside at the hospital. What makes this especially significant for Emma --- and those she left behind in the small town of Juneberry --- is that this is her first return visit to her hometown in 12 years. For some mysterious reason, Emma had left town without explaining herself, not to her father, not to Samantha, not to her close friend Christina, and most significantly, not to her then-boyfriend Michael. Her dread is that someone will ask why, and so she treads somewhat cautiously through her first few days back in Juneberry. When Will Madison makes a swift recovery from his heart attack, Emma's law partners expect her to take the next flight back to Boston, but Emma has other plans --- plans that involve helping her father establish a home office for his own law practice. Helping her with the effort is Michael, the man she walked out on 12 years earlier. The former couple survives the initial awkwardness and ends up working well together in an effort to help Will recover. Meanwhile, Emma's friends and colleagues in Boston --- in particular a fellow lawyer named Colin, whose interest is personal --- keep after her to return quickly, hinting that her standing in the legal community is in jeopardy. Ten days after she left the city, Emma returns to Boston and the life she thought she wanted. A BEAUTIFUL FALL is truly one of those heartwarming stories that makes some readers long for a simpler way of life and a return to the small-town values that cities seem to lack. Coppernoll handles that theme in a believable way, avoiding the typical wistfulness that so often overtakes once-powerful women the moment they set foot back in their hometown. Emma maintains a measure of the woman Boston has made of her, even as she recognizes the advantages of small-town living. Her story becomes intertwined with that of two other couples: Samantha and her husband, Jim, and Christina and her boyfriend, Bo --- Michael's brother and construction company partner. Throughout most of the book, the stories of these secondary characters fit well with the main plot, but later in the book each couple, in addition to Noel, gets their own vignette --- scenes that don't involve the main characters, don't move the story

I started and finished this book in the same evening (I was up much later than I had planned...). Chris Coppernoll does a wonderful job at developing both the characters and their stories. It is easy find yourself feeling as if you've escaped into Juneberry and are right there with Emma, Michael, and all of their friends, experiencing the ups and downs of their emotions and relationships. What a joy to find an author who writes in such a way as to make you anxious for the next book!

In a world where getting ahead and having that drive to do more, be more, and get more can take us over, it is so refreshing to read a book that reminds us to let go of things and let God. To read about characters that we can actually relate to and their circumstances and struggles of the heart such as Emma and Michael, Christina and Bo, Samantha and Jim, Noel, Will: makes me wish for more small-town experiences. I loved this book and it has reminded me of what is really important in my own life.

I really can't remember the last time I read a fiction book - but it's been over a decade. A self-proclaimed learner, my paycheck usually goes to books that challenge my worldview, or that present new business principles, or something equally brainy. Recently, I moved to Nashville and was invited to an author signing for Chris Coppornoll for his second book, A Beautiful Fall. As an author myself, I recognized the need to expand my reading horizons a bit and decided take the plunge and invest in the novel...then actually read it. :) After the first 10 minutes, I knew I would have a hard time putting the book down. I won't go into storyline, or plot, or characters here -- the other reviewers have done a fine job detailing those -- but A Beautiful Fall flowed seamlessly from word to word, from chapter to chapter, and from beginning to end.

A Beautiful Fall is one of those rare books that I find myself thinking about days after I've read the last page. Emma Madison returns to her home town in South Carolina to deal with a family crisis. She hasn't returned home in almost a decade, she's invested her time and energy into her very successful career as a corporate attorney. What Emma finds when she returns to South Carolina will cause her to re-think every thing she thought to be true about success,contentment,and loyalty. A Beautiful Fall is a tender story that portrays love,acceptance,and unselfishness in a way that will leave the reader with a full heart. I loved this book!