Bookreview: Sixteen Brides

Author: Stephanie Grace Whitson
Genre: Historical
Published: 2010
Personal rating: 3.5/5
Yearly count: 6

Sixteen Civil War widows living in St. Louis respond to a series of meetings conducted by a land speculator who lures them west by promising "prime homesteads" in a "booming community." Unbeknownst to them, the speculator's true motive is to find an excuse to bring women out West in hopes they will accept marriage proposals shortly after their arrival! When the women discover the truth on the way, six of them decide to stay in the fledgling community Plum Grove, Nebraska and try to make their original plan of homesteading work anyway. But each woman carries her own burden which she must overcome to make life on the frontier a success.

The historical setting in this book is amazing. The details are part of the story, never interfering with the plot, yet they paint the picture of 1872 Nebraska in great detail. No lengthy expositions, just information sprinkled through the story in a logical fashion – something that’s hard to do and Stephanie Grace Whitson does with seeming ease.

What I also really liked was the way these women felt so real. All of them were different, had different reasons for trying to homestead alone, yet they never felt like a modern woman transposed into a historical setting. It was the same with faith – this book is technically Christian fiction – it was woven into the story in a believable way; there’s no beating anyone on the head with a stick with the moral of the story or with God. Just simple faith of people in a setting where that faith existed, and each one believing in their own way. No cookie cutter characters to be found here!

However, the amount of characters make slow reading a must to avoid getting confused. Especially in the beginning it was hard to keep track of who was who. It took me until about half-way through the book before I could easily remember, but then the story truly took off for me. Don’t get me wrong, it's not a bad book by any means, but I think it could have been so much better if there were less characters that it focused on, or if it was just told from one POV, or even if each character she uses as a POV character had her own chapter. Even just a list of characters to refer to would have helped a lot.

But, all in all, I found this a very enjoyable book. Stephanie Grace Whitson has a way of bringing the historical setting alive using nothing more than some well-placed details while telling a compelling story with realistic characters. I will definitely try more of this author’s books.