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!
