The Journal of Callie Wade
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5.0 • 3 Ratings
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- $15.99
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- $15.99
Publisher Description
Dawn Miller's marvelous debut novel is a grand adventure -- and a glorious love story -- experienced with all the passion and yearning of a heroine you'll never forget: eighteen-year-old Callie Wade, whose hopeful heart is as rich with promise as the frontier, which calls her family from their Missouri farm to a new life out West. The Journal Of Callie Wade invites us into a world long vanished, brought to life once more in the pages of a young pioneer woman's diary.
April 12, 1859: "What you can't duck, you best welcome." That's what Mama used to always say, anyway....Even though it was in me to fight going West, I couldn't; there's a light in Pa's eyes, a kind of hope that our Rose will find health and I see it in Jack's eyes, too. As wild and reckless as my brother can be, I know he dreams of better. When I look into Quinn's eyes I feel my own dreams, too...and the love. But everything is so unsure on the trail. Sitting here, staring at the scattered campfires of the train, I can almost hear the prayers to make it through another dust-choked mile, over another river, another birth...another death. Maybe Pa is right, maybe we'll all have a new chance at life in the West. But at what price?
From bitter hardships to moments of shining joy, from unexpected friendships to Callie's blossoming love for Irishman Quinn McGregor, The Journal Of Callie Wade is a chronicle of courage and faith, an inspiring tale of hope and endurance to treasure for years to come.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Miller adds a feminine touch to the frontier in the voice of 18-year-old Callie Wade, who describes a wagon-train journey from Missouri to California in 1859. In a diary given to her by her late mother and in letters to a friend back home, Callie records daily routines, dangerous encounters and illnesses and tragedies. In addition to her family--her father, her brother, Jack, and her sickly sister, Rose--the entourage includes Zach Koch, a preacher's devilish son; blacksmith Quinn McGregor, Callie's eventual soul mate; and Grace Hollister, courageous widow and mother of four. Soon, Callie is torn between her budding love for Quinn and her responsibility for tending Rose. The journey is perilous, and sometimes even the resilient Callie has trouble maintaining her faith. But the wheels of the wagon train grind relentlessly on, stopping for nothing--not childbirth, nor cholera, not even heroic death. Homespun epigraphs from Callie's late mother intrude on the story, and Zach's sudden change of heart after he attempts to rape Callie is not entirely credible. While pleasant, Callie's simple, homespun voice is rather flat, and the narrative carries none of the lyric beauty of another recent epistolary novel of a wagon train journey, Karen Osborne's Between Earth and Sky.
Customer Reviews
GREAT READ!
This was my first book by this author, and that's all it took for me to become a HUGE fan! As I got to the end, I couldn't put it down and literally finished it by car light because thats all I had available! SERIOUSLY! I can't wait to read the rest of the series!