Thumb Fire Desire

This started out a really interesting story! I live in Michigan's Thumb, but didn't know a whole lot about the Great Fire. I didn't realize how involved Clara Barton and the Red Cross were in helping fire victims.

The storyline keeps rolling along enough to keep you interested - the characters are well developed and relatable - you really root for them and hope for a good harvest. Ginny moves from New York to live with her brother, Joseph, and his wife, Kathleen in Michigan. Her benefactor has sent her a sewing machine and she gets immersed in her new community with sewing for the townsfolks and getting to know the families, including widower Peter. There is a big build up to the great fire, but the event itself isn't as detailed as I thought it would be. I thought there would be more of a storyline after the fire, the losses and triumphs, but that seemed glossed over fast, including a couple random love scenes that didn't seem to fit in with the rest of the story.

Thank you to NetGalley, the author and publisher for a temporary, digital ARC in return for my review.

Well written and researched novel about the Great Thumb Fire of September 5, 1881. It's also a love story between Polish immigrants Ginny Dahlke and widower Peter Nickles. Good book.

Thumb Fire Desires set in the "thumb" of Michigan during the late 1800's. Ginny Dahlke comes to live with her brother and sister-in-law in a Polish American community. I was not very familiar with the area or culture and liked how the author included lots of details about Polish culture. While the characters are fictional, it is based on a real event, a fire that devastated the area. The perseverance and faith of these people shown through in Nickles' writing. While I knew nothing of the Thumb fire, I was pleasantly surprised that there were many references to the town of Dansville, NY which is a small town in the same county where I grew up. It was a cool connection for me.


I liked Ginny a lot. She was caring and hard-working, but also had a sense of humor. Peter, her love interest, was also a good person liked to play jokes. Peter has suffered the loss of a wife and infant daughter and is naturally hesitant to start another relationship. I enjoy a romance where the relationship really develops and the characters get to know each other. You definitely get that in this story, but I would have preferred that it go a little faster. Peter's indecisiveness grew tiresome at times. Overall though, it was a sweet, slow-burn romance.

A love story of Peter and Ginny. The small Polish town in Michigan where they lived and the great Thumb Fire and it's devastation. I live in Wisconsin and was unaware of such a fire. I enjoyed the romance and also the historical fiction aspect of this story.