Rating: 
Summary: ABSOLUTELY CAPTIVATING
Review: This is a beautiful book,very well written.It pulls you in and holds you inside its covers.Since I live in the foothills of North Carolina the story was almost as though i was walking each step with Inman,and feeling the journey unfold.I challenge you to put this book down. AAA+++
Rating:
Summary: What a journey!
Review: This is a wonderful story told in the manner of the time it was set in - the nineteenth century. For those who are interested in sound bytes and quick fixes, read People Magazine. Inman and Ada draw you in, slowly, as do the variety of characters they meet up with. It makes me want to hike along the Appalachian Trail!
Rating:
Summary: Beautifully Written
Review: I found Cold Mountain to be an exquistely written, wonderful novel. Frazier paints a lovely canvas with his words, conjuring up powerful images of geography, emotion and indominable spirit. But the novel goes well beyond clever wordsmithing, evolving into a history lesson, a travelogue, an anti-war testament, and a love story. This is a terrific book.
Rating:
Summary: beautiful writing & a beautiful story
Review: i agree with Toledo 100%: this novel takes you to another time & place. the writing is so beautiful and smooth -- impossible to put down.
Rating: 
Summary: Hauntingly beautiful
Review: I started this book twice and put it down in favor of other books, but on the third try, I decided this was worth my time. My husband and I usually read only non-fiction, but he had read the book and said I really should read it also. After I read the second chapter, I was totally hooked. I was captivated by the metaphor of the whole story and by the imagery. I also appreciated the themes seemingly borrowed from Homer -- I kept thinking of Odysseus as he returned to Ithaca and Penelope and of Penelope's own struggles as she waited for his return. The prose is so rich and beautiful, I plan to use some passages to illustrate writing techniques to my Advanced Lit./Comp. classes this fall. Even though this cannot be classed as an "easy read," I put everything on hold and read the novel in a day and a half. One must stop and think about aspects of the novel, and I must admit that after I invested an entire night and day to the book, I was disappointed when I read the conclusion. I immediately went to my husband and asked, "Why did you tell I should read this?" I was furious and hurt that Inman went through all he did just to arrive at the end he did. Still, I would recommend the book to anyone and it will stand in my memory as one of the best novels I have read.
Rating:
Summary: exquisite, gorgeous, heatachingly beautiful
Review: As Rick Bass said,"This book is so magnificent... it will fall over every book I ever read." And this reading of it... Charles Frazier breathes life into each and every character, most specifically Ada and Inman, and brings them alive in a way that haunts my soul and imbues my life with poignancy, and with joy.
Rating:
Summary: Not as great as some insist
Review: A book shouldn't have to be read four times before it can be appreciated. "The Triumph and the Glory" was stunning the first time around. "Gates of Fire" was vividly real the first time around. "Memoirs of a Geisha" was captivating from the first page. I could go on and on. This is a good novel but those of us who consider it dull in spots or tediously over-descriptive of a bunch of plants need not be classified as idiots who don't know good literature when they see it. In my mind this is four star material. The fine novels I mentioned at the top are five star material because they are riveting from the start, graced with characters just as memorable, and don't rhapsodize about leaves and twigs for 180 pages.
Rating:
Summary: intriguing but ultimately depressing
Review: I tried starting this book about four times before I finally got into it, and while it was intriguing and kept me wanting to read it, it also left me feeling a bit empty and wanting. If a chapter on Inman finished and a new chapter started up on Ada, I was miffed that we were putting Inman aside for a bit. But when Ada's chapter ended and Inman's began, I wanted to keep reading about Ada. Mostly, I felt like I did when I first read "Gone with the Wind" and got to the part where Scarlett finally makes it to Tara after the Yankees have burned Atlanta, etc. Then the hopeless, desolate period of the book (GWTW) begins and I felt like I was there, depressed, hopeless, and utterly miserable. I had much the same feeling throughout "Cold Mountain" but, geez, at least at the end of "GWTW" there is some hope that Scarlett will continue living her life with hope! Not so in "Cold Mountain." I felt rather betrayed and scammed at the end of "Cold Mountain." I even felt like saying "I stayed up all night two nights in a row to have the book end like *that*?!"
Rating:
Summary: A spare, elegant story...beautifully told
Review: Having just finished Cold Mountain, I am... ...taken by its poetic lyricism ...struck by the beauty of its prose ...on the fence over the pacing -- it tended to get bogged down by agrarian minutae.There are many memorable passages and scenes...the hallmark of a great book, I think. Yet the one that stirs me is the few paragraphs toward the end of the protagonist's journey...when he comes over a ridge and finally sees the faint hazed outline of his beloved Cold Mountain among the Southern Appalachians. A heartfelt book, full of Life and the simple, ineffable things that strengthen the spirit. Years from now, this epic story will stand prominently when all the other current books about "small" topics and "emotional interiors" have hit the srcap bin. Simply, an elegant story...poetically told.
Rating:
Summary: A Memorable Epic!
Review: Cold Mountain is a beautifully written story about the struggles of two people who hope, against all odds, to reunite with each other. Set in the Blue Ridge Mountains during the Civil War, it is a tragic and emotional tale of a man's will to go on in the harshest of environments and a woman who never gives up hope that one day he will return to her to continue with the life that the war has temporarily stolen from them. The characters are believable, the imagery is beautiful, and the ending is unforgetable. Cold Mountain is a must-read.
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