Helpful Score: 6
Adventurous, heat-warming and well-told, this is a story of a pioneer woman's memoirs on the Arizona frontier turned into a dramatic fiction novel. Sarah has sprirt, courage, strength and wits beyond her years that enables her to survive, live and love. Touching love story, too - brought tears to my eyes more than once! One of the best reads for me this year!
Helpful Score: 4
Wow - What a wonderful book. Think Laura Ingalls with a shot gun.
The main character is an incredibly strong frontier woman who overcomes tremendous odds to survive and thrive in the Arizona Territory.
I found this book hard to read at first, but then became involved with the characters and couldn't put it down.
The main character is an incredibly strong frontier woman who overcomes tremendous odds to survive and thrive in the Arizona Territory.
I found this book hard to read at first, but then became involved with the characters and couldn't put it down.
Helpful Score: 3
This is a fictionalized version of the author's family memoirs as early settlers in the Territory of New Mexico, which includes present-day Arizona. It focuses mainly on the woman, Sarah Prine, who over the course of a difficult lifetime grew from a nearly illiterate young wife to a courageous, self-educated, and wise leader of her family and community. I found the early parts of the book, in which the author too faithfully reproduces Sarah's rough grammar and ill-chosen vocabulary - this is one of the disadvantages of writing in the first person in this kind of memoir. But that problem does lessen over time, as Sarah's writing begins to reflect her intellectual growth. I read this for my book club and most of the members found it fascinating and well worth reading.
Helpful Score: 2
I didn't expect to like this book when I started it. But I soon found that I couldn't put it down. If anyone doubts that life in the Arizona Territories was hard, read this. It's fiction, but it's based on the author's family history. The protagonist, Sarah Prine, is an incredible woman and I felt like I was missing a friend when I'd finished the book.
Helpful Score: 2
This is a must read if you are a history buff -- told in the voice of a pioneer woman, it is moving, real, and makes you feel like you are right there with her and her family. Excellent!
Helpful Score: 1
Excellant. Loved reading this after returning from Arizona, where part of the story passes thru.
Helpful Score: 1
This book takes you back in time with Sarah Agnes Prine. I could almost smell her cooking or see the land her mom and her own and watch her kids running back and forth. The love story with her and Jack was just charming and touched with just the right strength and humor. I loved her strength of spirit and character. I have already requested the books that follow this one. Can't wait to dig into them!!!!
Helpful Score: 1
I didn't know this story was based on the author's true family history until I finished the book and read reviews. Knowing that this story is woven around true events makes me respect and root for Sarah Prine even more. I loved how the story unfolded through diary entries. What a great story. Wonderful love story.
Helpful Score: 1
Novel written in diary form about the hardships of life in Arizona Territory during the 1880s and 1890s. Great love story.
Helpful Score: 1
Wonderful book. You can't stop reading. Writen like a diary/journal. Join Sarah and her family on a trip through the old west in the 1880's-1890's.
Helpful Score: 1
The dedication says it all, "For everyone who has ever stood alone on a hill in a storm." Great reading
Helpful Score: 1
A very good read!
One of the best read I had in a long time. Wonderful love story...I fell in love with Jack.
This was a really great book. Easy to read, yet very vivid in detail. You will fall in love with Sarah's strength.
A page turner - one of those books you really don't want to end.
This is one of the best books I've read in this genre. I've recommended it & it's sequel to several people, who in turn loved it!
I really liked this book! Turner did an excellent job showing the reader how the main character, Sarah, matures through the growing literacy of her journals. So although this first person narrative does limit the reader's perspective, I believe it to be a necessary tool to make the concept of this book work.
I absolutely loved this book. I couldn't put it down!
I absolutely loved this book and had trouble putting it down; will definitely read the sequels as soon as they are available here. Struggling to survive the wagon trail trip and life in the new territory, we meet an incredibly strong willed, compassionate woman who steals our hearts, as do the rest of the characters. Wonderful historical relevance and a great story.
