You never really know what you are going to get downloading a book, and so I wasn't too sure I would like this. The blurb read okay, but I knew that there was romance and that this comes under Christian fiction, although thankfully it wasn't cloying. Although I loved this, I should point out that it does get a bit sentimental in places (although as I read lots of 19th Century fiction that doesn't personally bother me).
Ultimately 15 women are tepmpted from St Louis to travel to Nebraska by the Ladies Emmigration Society. The women have been told that they can have their own homesteads, but what the man running the society hasn't informed them is that secretly what he is running is some kind of marriage bureau, called by the Nebraskan's the Desperation Society. When another woman joins them at the station they become sixteen in total. When some of the women find out what is planned, they inform the others, and so the group seperate. It is 1871, some of the women are widowers, whilst others are still looking for a man anyway. The group that leave the society settle in Plum Grove, Dawson County, Nebraska, and this novel follows them through their troubles and glories.
Ultimately these women are in the main running away from things in their lives, and are looking for a new beginning. As they make friends in the Plum Grove area, they also start about building a home for the homestead. With not only these women running away, but others in the area still having to come to grips with their past there is a lot of soul searching going on. With some danger and adventure in this book this is okay for men as well as women, and the characters and situations really seem to come to life. With people looking for romance, some for reconcilation, and others just for a new life, will this group of women find what they are looking for?
Within the first few pages you find yourself deeply absorbed into this tale. As well as being a good story it also makes you think what women like those mentioned in this book had to go through to build themselves a home, indeed anyone who moved to such areas, where there were chances of Indian attacks, extreme weather conditions, and a not very hospitable land.
