Wonderful characters to follow on the adventure of changing their lives and moving to a different part of the country that is new and wild. There are many different twists along the way. Like the historical aspect. Good read.

Libbie Hawker’s Mercer Girls takes its name from a group of enterprising young women from around Lowell, Massachusetts, who were recruited by Asa Mercer in the 1860s to travel to Washington Territory, which suffered from a major gender imbalance. They journeyed via ship from New York via Panama and up the Pacific coast to Seattle, debarking at a grimy, half-built frontier town where they – educated women of respectable backgrounds – found their reputations challenged by a society who believed only females with low morals would leave their homes behind as they did.

Hawker smoothly shifts the viewpoints among three main characters, each of whom has different reasons for wanting a fresh start: thirtyish Josephine, fleeing a secret past; impoverished mill owner’s daughter Dovey, whose combined naivete and uncontrollable ambitions prove dangerous; and prim Sophronia, whose Christian uprightness is off-putting. Each is uniquely sympathetic yet flawed, and their personalities realistically transform over time.

This isn’t a standard heartwarming story of female cooperation during adversity, since Jo, Dovey, and Sophronia frequently clash (especially the latter two). Despite expectations they find husbands asap, the women forge their own paths. The historical background will attract fans of Western heroines and, especially, those who enjoyed Robin Oliveira’s recent A Wild and Heavenly Place, set amid the gorgeous but rough landscape of Washington Territory a bit later.

The plot unfolds with details on the early suffrage fight (this bogs down the story at the end), prostitution (seen as a lucrative career choice), and the process of tax collection (more interesting than it sounds). Overall, it’s a fast-moving portrait of the scrappiness needed for survival on the frontier, and how three “Mercer girls” found it within themselves.

This story started strong but by half way through I was rather bored. Each of the three main characters were very different but not fully fleshed out. I was interested to learn how this was based on a real expedition to settle the Washington territory. It just felt as if the story was dragging along and the characters just kept repeating the same mistakes and it got rather repetitive.

This book was a great, fun change of pace from my normal historical fiction. Hawker wrote an amazing story. Thank you so much for the review copy.

In the early days of Seattle, there were 10 men for every woman and most of the women were "seamstresses" -- a nice way to identify prostitutes. Back East, so many men had been conscripted to fight in the War Between the States and the economy was so poor in the northern industrial cities, that prospects for young women were dire. So Asa Mercer cooked up a scheme to bring "honorable" women to Seattle to marry and "civilize" the men of Seattle. This is their story.

After extensive research and with a personal connection since the author lives in the Seattle area, Hawker has created a fun and actually educational story of early Seattle and the women who took Mercer up on his offer. While the 3 main characters are very loosely based on the true stories of several Mercer Girls, they are fictional and quite endearing. She has captured the ambiance of Seattle and the spirits of women who helped tame the West. Although not the best in the genre, certainly a fun and enjoyable story that tells a story not examined in several years. Definitely recommended.

Due to family commitments, I have been unable to read this book. I thank you for the provision of it, and if I get to it in the future, I will make sure to leave public reviews on Goodreads and my personal blog. Again, apologies and thanks.

I enjoyed this for the most part! It seemed a little cliche sometimes, and I wanted more about the Mercer girls and what they meant in relation to history. I did, however, enjoy the suffragette aspect of it and liked reading about the three women.

Wasn't for me, the storyline lost my attention. The womens sufferance act was thrown in as an after thought

The Mercer Girls were real: women brought from the east coast to be brides for the men of Seattle. Ms. Hawker takes a fictional look at their trip and a trio of the "girls": spunky Dovey who will let no man decide her fate, the older Josephine who sees the trip as her escape from her secret past, and Sophronia whose puritan love of God has all but scared away any marital prospects. The journey makes these unlikely friends bond and provides a wonderful, well-rounded view of women before the turn of the century. I loved seeing Seattle in its infancy from the very diverse eyes of these women and to get a peak at the suffragette movement near the end of the book. Ultimately, this book is about solid friendship that can triumph over anything. A wonderful read!

I think this book is extremely relevant to today's culture and could help a lot of young women see the history of the fight for their rights. The three main characters are all strong women who find a way to embrace their imperfections and weaknesses in order to turn them into strengths and dreams.

I liked this book much more when I found out it was based on historical facts and events. Before that knowledge, it seemed a bit cheesy and heavy on the "girl power" theme, but knowing that it was based on reality made me much more connected to the events and characters, and even made me want to do a little research of my own on that period of time.