Romance, Country-Style

In her testimonial blurb, music star Amy Grant notes that The Road to Eden’s Ridge provides “the biggest unexpected cry in years.” Indeed, the book is what Nashville songwriters sometimes call a “weeper,” and it’s not for nothing that Romantic Times has designated Eden’s Ridge a Top Pick.

Set in both Nashville and the little hamlet of Eden’s Ridge, Maine, the story concerns the parallel loves and losses of three generations of the Briggs family and a legendary country music singer named Ben McBride. Lindsey Briggs, a Harvard-educated native of Eden’s Ridge, kicks the story off by leaving her wealthy fiancé standing at the altar. She then embarks on a fun-filled hejira to Nashville where she hopes to find herself and make her mark on the music world. In Nashville she finds a rollicking roommate, Gabby, and together they form a country band to begin their trek toward stardom.

At the Bluebird Café one night, Lindsey meets the aging McBride—a singer with “a voice edged in smoky-blue sadness”—who, it turns out, was her supposed grandfather’s best friend in the army. “Supposed” is the operative word here, for as the story develops it becomes clear that nothing about Lindsey’s past is as it seems. It would be unfair to reveal any more of the plot; suffice it to say that the novel takes some unexpected turns, plausible enough for a romance novel: As one character says they “don’t have to make sense to be true.” It all ends happily—and tearfully—of course.

M.L. Rose is actually a tandem of local writing teachers, Myra McLarey and Linda Weeks, who apparently know a thing or two about songwriting—and about Nashville. The locally set segments of the book are smart and entertaining, with most of Nashville’s familiar landmarks making appearances. Brown’s Diner is a favored gathering spot, for instance, and Krispy Kreme donuts function as both peace offerings and tools of seduction. Recounting the misadventures of a musician on the bottom rungs of stardom, the authors convey the bright excitement of late nights in the music business and leave a whiff of autobiography in their wake.