Westering Women: A Novel

by Sandra Dallas

Overview

From the bestselling author of Prayers for Sale, Sandra Dallas' Westering Women is an inspiring celebration of sisterhood on the perilous Overland Trail

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“Exciting novel ... difficult to put down.” —Booklist


"If you are an adventuresome young woman of high moral character and fine health, are you willing to travel to California in search of a good husband?"

It's February, 1852, and all around Chicago, Maggie sees postings soliciting "eligible women" to travel to the gold mines of Goosetown. A young seamstress with a small daughter, she has nothing to lose. She joins forty-three other women and two pious reverends on the dangerous 2,000-mile journey west.

None are prepared for the hardships they face on the trek or for the strengths they didn't know they possessed. Maggie discovers she’s not the only one looking to leave dark secrets behind. And when her past catches up with her, it becomes clear a band of sisters will do whatever it takes to protect one of their own.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781250239662
Publisher:	St. Martin's Publishing Group
Publication date:	01/07/2020
Pages:	336
Sales rank:	137,525
Product dimensions:	5.30(w) x 8.30(h) x 1.40(d)

About the Author

Award-winning author Sandra Dallas was dubbed “a quintessential American voice” by Jane Smiley in Vogue. She's the author of several novels—including The Bride’s House, Whiter Than Snow, The Persian Pickle Club, and Tallgrass—which have been translated into a dozen languages and optioned for film. She has won the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum Wrangler Award, the Western Writers of America Spur Award, and the Women Writing the West Willa Award multiple times. She lives in Colorado.

Editorial Reviews

10/14/2019

The entertaining latest from Dallas (Some Place to Call Home) focuses on a motley group of women who form a bond traveling to California on the Overland Trail. In 1852 Chicago, Maggie sees a notice posted by a minister offering to lead “moral” women to the western mines of Goosetown in order to find husbands. Having been abused by her husband, Maggie sees the chance for a better life for herself and her four-year-old daughter, Clara. She’s encouraged to join by Mary, a kind and capable woman who becomes one of her closest friends and a leader on the trail. After Mary concocts a story to help her bypass the requirements, Maggie sets off on a taxing journey during which the women are plagued by disease, attacks from Native warriors, and other hardships that bring them together. As trust grows, the others reveal their own agendas for having joined, such as a search for a sibling and a hidden pregnancy. The women learn to shoot, move their wagons through arduous routes, and fight off threats. There’s not much nuance in the way the villains are portrayed, but readers will enjoy this modern take on the journey West that’s rife with girl power. (Jan.)

Publishers Weekly

12/01/2019

Maggie Kaiser and her daughter leave Chicago for what she hopes will be a better life out West. They join a wagon train of potential wives to gold miners led by Rev. William Parnell and his brother-in-law, Rev. Joseph Swain. As the group of women become more comfortable with one another, Maggie realizes that many of them are running away from past lives and secrets. The women learn to drive the wagons, tend the oxen, cook over campfires, and shoot guns, coalescing into a close-knit band of sisters. When the teamsters desert the wagon train, it is up to the women and two ministers to continue. Pregnancies, raging rivers, Indian attacks, rocky cliffs, blizzards, and 40-mile-long deserts are perilous obstacles that force the women to grow and learn more about themselves and one another along the way. VERDICT Though the dialog can be stilted at times, Dallas (The Bride's House) has written an engaging historical fiction about the strength of women in times of adversity. Though the women were all intended to be brides, we see each as much more than her connection to a man—a unique perspective in the 1850s. Purchase where women's and historical fiction is popular. [See Prepub Alert, 7/15/19.]—Brooke Bolton, Boonville-Warrick Cty. P.L., IN

Library Journal

Named one of "10 New Books By Colorado Authors That Deserve More Attention" by the Denver Post

"Dallas' 'quintessential American voice' (as Vogue once called it) still resonates, perhaps even more loudly in our newly disconnected caves." —Denver Post

"Exhilarating and hard to resist." —Katherine Powers, The Washington Post

"Dallas has written an engaging historical fiction about the strength of women in times of adversity." —Library Journal

"Dallas focuses on a motley group of women who form a bond traveling to California on the Overland Trail... Readers will enjoy this modern take on the journey West that’s rife with girl power." —Publisher's Weekly

"A great historical fiction novel with strong female characters that come together and form a bond ... A true testament to their survival. " —Red Carpet Crash

"The story is a heartwarming and at the same time, sorrowful, tale of the power of friendship, trust, and family. A wonderful read for lovers of historical fiction! ... The characters, the sense of camaraderie and adventure, and the unity of the women. Take this perilous trip to the California goldfields with this group of 44 women." —the novel gnome

"Female bonding in the nineteenth century had dangers unique to the era. Maggie’s 'unsuitable' friendships, forged over shared hardships and the impossibility of returning home, make this exciting novel difficult to put down." —Jeanne Greene, Booklist

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