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Book Review of Sixteen Brides

Sixteen Brides
niceladywithglasses avatar reviewed on + 21 more book reviews


Book review for Sixteen Brides, authored by Stephanie Grace Whitson
Mrs. Whitson has written another suberb historical fiction book, this time about women homesteaders
who came to claim their own land in the Nebraska Territory in 1871.
The author takes us through many experiences of what it was like, or may have been like, for women
as they left their homes and traveled by railroad to become independent land owners. We follow the stories of
6 women, and each narrative brings awareness of what it was like for them to become self-sustaining land owners.
They originally were told a lie by a man who basically was bringing women to the plains to supply men with
wives who would work hard and maybe be loved by their husbands, maybe not. The women found out, and
made up their minds to persevere and shun the men's proposals and strike out on their own, to claim the free
land promised to them originally in the newspaper ad.
I liked the King James bible verses at the beginning of each chapter, they gave an idea of what that chapter
was going to be about. There were several allusions to Christianity, and near the end, Mrs. Whitson included
more, which is how one expects Christian historical fiction to be. I hope she writes more about Jesus and the bible
in her future books.
This was a clean Christian book, the relationships were kept sincere and uncontaminated by today's overloaded
and sometimes vile suggestiveness that is in some Christian romance fiction, sad to say. I would recommend
this excellent book to anyone who enjoys reading stories about 6 different women working to create and organize their
life of autonomy in the 1800s plains of America.