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    Mercer Girls
    Mercer Girls
    Mercer Girls
    Audiobook15 hours

    Mercer Girls

    Written by Libbie Hawker

    Narrated by Amy McFadden

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    It’s 1864 in downtrodden Lowell, Massachusetts. The Civil War has taken its toll on the town—leaving the economy in ruin and its women in dire straits. That is, until Asa Mercer arrives on a peculiar, but providential, errand: he seeks high-minded women who can exert an elevating influence in Seattle, where there are ten men for every woman. Mail-order brides, yes, but of a certain caliber.

    Schoolmarmish Josephine, tough-as-nails Dovey, and pious perfectionist Sophronia see their chance to exchange their bleak prospects for new lives. But the very troubles that sent them running from Lowell follow them to the muddy streets of Seattle, and the friendships forged on the cross-country trek are tested at every turn.

    Just when the journey seems to lead only to ruin, an encounter with a famous suffragist could be their salvation. But to survive both an untamed new landscape and their pasts, they’ll need all their strength—and one another.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBrilliance Audio
    Release dateMay 10, 2016
    ISBN9781511374521
    Mercer Girls
    Author

    Libbie Hawker

    Self-described as a “bona fide history nerd,” Libbie Hawker writes historical and literary fiction featuring deeply human characters, with rich details of time and place. She is the author of eleven novels, and she lives in the beautiful San Juan Islands of Washington State with her husband. Learn more about her at www.LibbieHawker.com.

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    Reviews for Mercer Girls

    4/5

    34 ratings8 reviews

    What did you think?

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    • 5/5
      What a beautifully written book! I loved the whole thing from beginning to end! Well worth a listen! I’m looking forward to reading more books by this author. This was my first!
    • 5/5
      So informative, real and compassionate. I loved learning more about our state from this story.
    • 4/5
      A group of women seeking a better life make the arduous trip from Lowell to Seattle. Among them are Dovey, only 16 years old and running away from her father's intention to force her into marriage. Sophronia, who feels strongly that a woman's only hope in life is to marry and raise children, though she has never been able to find a man who can meet her strict and stringent expectations, and Josephine, who has no intention of marrying and has a secret reason for wanting to run off to Seattle. The women face a long journey on carts, a train and ships, they deal with sea sickness and illness, and at last arrive to an unwelcoming committee who considers them to be women of low moral character. As they set out to prove themselves they each take very different paths but manage to stay friends.
      I love historical fiction and this was an engaging read, and a fantastic glimpse of what life was like in the earliest days of women's suffrage, when it was unsafe and unheard of for a woman to be out alone after dark and the excitement of going to hear Susan B Anthony speak.

      I received an advance copy for review
    • 4/5
      In 1864, in the midst of the Civil War, Asa Mercer traveled from Seattle in the Washington Territory to the mill city of Lowell, Massachusetts. His project is to recruit single women of good character to return to Seattle with him, to become wives to the loggers and and other hardworking men there.

      He hoped to recruit 200 potential brides. He returns to Seattle with just thirteen. Among them are Dovey Mason, just sixteen, and fleeing her father's efforts to marry her off to a repellent man in an attempt to restore his business fortunes; Josephine Carey, 35 years old and fleeing a secret she shares with no one; and Sophronia Brandt, a minister's daughter in her twenties, with no more marriage prospects and a strong desire to spread the Lord's Good Word.

      They are unlikely friends, but each being in her own way a bit of a misfit among the rest of the group, they find themselves bound together in the face of repeated challenges even before they reach Seattle. When they do reach Seattle, they find a rough, frontier town, and they each have to find their footing, in the face of a welcome that is sometimes not very welcoming, though they also find new friends.

      Jo just wants to teach, not find a husband, for reasons she's not inclined to explain, though along the way Dovey and Sophronia have learned the truth. Sophronia, in addition to wanting to spread the Lord's Word, wants to find a good, Christian man who meets her high standards, so that she can marry. Dovey, more than anything, is determined to earn her own living and not lose her control of her own life in marriage.

      It's a frontier town, and has its own unexpected opportunities. This is also the era when the suffragist movement is starting to gain steam, and the unlikely and sometimes contentious friends meet Susan B. Anthony and become involved in the movement themselves. It's an absorbing story of women on the American frontier, and the critical role they played in building the American West.

      Jo, Sophronia, and Dovey are fictional individuals, but the Mercer Girls were quite real, and a vital part of the history of Seattle.

      A very good story. Recommended.

      I bought this audiobook.
    • 4/5
      I listened to this book in the car while running errands. This is historical fiction based on truth of a young man, Asa Mercer who travels from the Seattle territory to Lowell, Massachusetts to bring back upstanding young ladies to marry and tame the men of this wild territory. The story is mainly about three of these women who are completely different from each other but cling together as they travel and settle down in Seattle. They have nothing to lose since the Civil War has made Lowell, Mass. a town with mostly closed mills and the men off to fight and die in the war. An interesting glimpse as well into the women's suffrage movement which was starting up as well in the western territories. Excellent and very interesting book, especially to listen to!
    • 4/5
      This novel centers around three unique women who venture west from Lowell, Massachusetts, for Seattle in the 1860s. Expected to become brides for the men of Seattle, Josephine, Dovey, and Sophronia instead make their own path, each in her own way. Sophronia, with her rigid outlook and devout faith, creates a home to reform prostitutes, Josephine is determined to become a teacher, and Dovey takes up collecting taxes for the Revenue Service in order to save up to start her own business. They also get involved in women's suffrage and help to shape the city they've adopted. I really appreciated this book for highlighting a lesser-known piece of history and also for telling a story of women on the western frontier making their own way in the world.
    • 4/5
      THE MERCER GIRLS BY LIBBIE HAWKER is an historical fiction set in a very small industrial (or what used to be) town after the Civil War. No jobs & no hope three women , each of different circumstances take a huge bet ($250.00) to travel out to Washington state with Mr. Mercer. Huge characters here each of a different social status & personality. You cant help but be absorbed in their lives & this novel. The setting is perfect, set when the entire country is reeling from the Civil War. You want to know these women & help them fight for their survival & lives. I recieved this book from goodreads in exchange for a review.
    • 3/5
      This is historical fiction based on actual events, and so it provides an interesting glimpse into US history and women's rights. The settling of the west, the difficulties of travel, and social conventions are all extremely well portrayed throughout the book.I found the characters fascinating. We have three very different women fleeing from one end of the country to the other, each for unique, personal reasons. Their ideals conflict and they have their secrets, yet they become close friends. This first part of the story, as they came together in the westward journey, was, for me, the most compelling part of the story. Once the women arrive in Seattle, I thought the pace slowed and the story lost some of its zest. The women go their separate ways, in interests and goals rather than in distance, and we lose much of the bond that drove the first part of the book. We also have a lot of detail on life in the early west. No doubt the author knows her history and did a lot of research, but the bits and pieces of each woman's life felt too disconnected. Then the last part of the story completely shifts gears, almost as if it's a different book. We skip ahead seven years and get heavy into the Suffragist movement. The three women do come back together in this, and we see their growth and how this changes them. But the jump ahead in time and the expansive material is a major jolt after the slow pace and narrow time frame of the rest of the book.For my taste, the story was perhaps a little overreaching in its content. That being said, this book does offer a compelling look at life for women back in the mid to late 1800s.*I received an advance ebook copy from the publisher, via NetGalley, in exchange for my honest review.*