Title: In Need of a Good Wife
Author: Kelly O'Connor McNees
ISBN: 9780425257920
Type: Trade Paperback
Genre: Historical Fiction
Publisher: Berkley Trade
Synopsis: Richly detailed, vivid, and unforgettable, this is an extraordinary novel
about three women challenging the American West—and unpredictable fate—for a
future only the most daring can secure…
For Clara Bixby, brokering
mail-order brides is a golden business opportunity—and a desperately needed
chance to start again. If she can help New York women find husbands in a far-off
Nebraska town, she can build an independent new life away from her own loss and
grief.
Clara’s ambitions are shared by two other women, who are also willing to take any risk. Quiet immigrant Elsa hopes to escape her life of servitude and at last shape her own destiny. And Rowena, the willful, impoverished heiress, jumps at the chance to marry a humble stranger and repay a heartbreaking debt. All three struggle to find their true place in the world, leaving behind who they were in order to lay claim to the person they want to be. Along the way, each must face unexpected obstacles and dangerous choices, but they also help to forge a nation unlike any that came before.
Clara’s ambitions are shared by two other women, who are also willing to take any risk. Quiet immigrant Elsa hopes to escape her life of servitude and at last shape her own destiny. And Rowena, the willful, impoverished heiress, jumps at the chance to marry a humble stranger and repay a heartbreaking debt. All three struggle to find their true place in the world, leaving behind who they were in order to lay claim to the person they want to be. Along the way, each must face unexpected obstacles and dangerous choices, but they also help to forge a nation unlike any that came before.
Review: This book jumped out at me as it is set in Nebraska for a main part of the story and I enjoy books set there as I am from Nebraska. The bonus for me is that it is a historical fiction book which is one of my favorite genres to read.
Imagine the war is over and you are widowed or yet never married but there are no men to be "had" - what to do? Well you join a group of women headed to Nebraska to meet the man who you have in been in a long distance courtship with as a mail-order bride - as that is what some women had to do then - at least the women in this story.
This is the story of three very different women and how they handled this. Each of the women were strong in their own way not to mention that they had to leave their homes to travel to a new state where they were strangers to find a husband. No matter how many books I have read about mail-order brides I look for more as the subject is interesting to me. The author did a good job in the making and describing of each of the character as they came to life on the pages and I felt as if I knew each of them personally. I found myself wanting to not put the book down so I could just keep the story going.
I think this book is a good one to read if you would like to know how it was for some women to have to survive after the war. I received this book in exchange for a fair and honest review.
Check out the author's website for more about her books: Kelly O'Connor McNees's Website
Check out the author's website for more about her books: Kelly O'Connor McNees's Website
Kelly O’Connor McNees is the author of two novels, The Lost Summer of
Louisa May Alcott and In Need of a Good Wife. Born and raised in
Michigan, Kelly found that books made good friends. Mary Lennox, Winnie Foster,
Kit Tyler, Will Stanton, and a dozen other characters were as real to her as any
of the kids on her block. Later she found Jane Eyre, Nick Carraway, Alexandra
Bergson, John Berry . . .
Kelly received her first rejection letter in tenth grade, from the fiction editor at Seventeen, and has been writing her way back ever since. In the meantime, she has worked as a teacher and editor, and lives with her husband and daughter in Chicago.
Kelly received her first rejection letter in tenth grade, from the fiction editor at Seventeen, and has been writing her way back ever since. In the meantime, she has worked as a teacher and editor, and lives with her husband and daughter in Chicago.
Kelly O’Connor McNees is the author of two novels, The Lost Summer of
Louisa May Alcott and In Need of a Good Wife. Born and raised in
Michigan, Kelly found that books made good friends. Mary Lennox, Winnie Foster,
Kit Tyler, Will Stanton, and a dozen other characters were as real to her as any
of the kids on her block. Later she found Jane Eyre, Nick Carraway, Alexandra
Bergson, John Berry . . .
Kelly received her first rejection letter in tenth grade, from the fiction editor at Seventeen, and has been writing her way back ever since. In the meantime, she has worked as a teacher and editor, and lives with her husband and daughter in Chicago.
Kelly received her first rejection letter in tenth grade, from the fiction editor at Seventeen, and has been writing her way back ever since. In the meantime, she has worked as a teacher and editor, and lives with her husband and daughter in Chicago.
Kelly O’Connor McNees is the author of two novels, The Lost Summer of
Louisa May Alcott and In Need of a Good Wife. Born and raised in
Michigan, Kelly found that books made good friends. Mary Lennox, Winnie Foster,
Kit Tyler, Will Stanton, and a dozen other characters were as real to her as any
of the kids on her block. Later she found Jane Eyre, Nick Carraway, Alexandra
Bergson, John Berry . . .
Kelly received her first rejection letter in tenth grade, from the fiction editor at Seventeen, and has been writing her way back ever since. In the meantime, she has worked as a teacher and editor, and lives with her husband and daughter in Chicago.
Kelly received her first rejection letter in tenth grade, from the fiction editor at Seventeen, and has been writing her way back ever since. In the meantime, she has worked as a teacher and editor, and lives with her husband and daughter in Chicago.
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