When Eliza Waite chooses to leave a stagnant life in rural Washington State and join the masses traveling north to Alaska in 1898 during the tumultuous Klondike Gold Rush, she encounters challenges and successes in both business and love.
This is a lovely book – so well written and entertaining, too. I didn’t want it to end!!!
Author
barbarastarknemon
3 years ago
Ashley Sweeney’s Eliza Waite is written with a spare beauty and measured pace that give ample opportunity for Sweeney’s exquisite creation of late nineteenth century San Juan Island and gold rush Alaska to shine through. Eliza’s character lies between hopeless sorrow and burgeoning resilience, between subsistence living in isolation and the gifts of prosperity and community, between conventions of the past and her gender and her transformation into an independent fully realized woman. A stunning book!
Author
lauriebuchanan
3 years ago
ELIZA WAITE is an impressive blend of meticulous historical scholarship and riveting storytelling that takes place in the Pacific Northwest and Alaska. With each turn of the page, it’s clear that author Ashley E. Sweeney labored over each sentence, gifting her readers with a gorgeous book. The words—each one painstakingly selected and placed—are delicious!
Author
michele
3 years ago
My review of Eliza Waite written by Ashley Sweeney
Raw, emotional, brilliant! Ashley Sweeney’s debut novel, Eliza Waite, transports you to a time and place of incredible strife as well as resilience in both the human heart and physicality’s of survival. Eliza is confronted with “mountains”, yet she finds her will and determination to not just climb, but conquer them! There’s characters in this story that I loved and a couple I found myself cringing over. Ashley was able to create a beautifully stunning depiction of life in a most rugged place, the late 1800’s in the Pacific Northwest and Alaska. I highly recommend reading Eliza Waite and I look forward to reading Ashley’s second novel, Answer Creek, which was recently released this spring, 2020.
Author
romalyntilghman
3 years ago
Don’t read this book hungry! Ashley Sweeney is masterful at calling on all senses as she portrays a strong woman finding her way in Skagway’s gold country at the turn of the last century. Following Kate Chopin’s Awakening, our heroine Eliza Waite is powerful, sensitive, strong, and wanting as she buries old hurts and discovers new joy. The recipes and descriptions of buns and cakes will leave the reader craving! Book clubs could have much fun by recreating the recipes as they delve into the stories.
Author
debrathomas
3 years ago
Eliza Waite is a compelling historical novel about a woman who manages to blaze a trail for herself, from a remote island off Washington’s coast to Skagway, Alaska in the year 1898, despite every hardship imaginable. An avid reader, Eliza follows the writings of Kate Chopin and the news of the suffragettes fighting for the right to vote, as she creates a brave new life for herself in a man’s world. Clever, curious, and courageous, Eliza Waite is a character you will cheer for from tragic start to triumphant finish. A must read in this year of the Centennial of Women’s Right to Vote.
Author
rkl6
3 years ago
I feel I waste my very limited book funds on this book. The first half was so slow I almost gave it up many times. Took me days to read just because I dreaded continuing. The second half did pick up and I was able to finish it in a couple days. That’s it’s only redeeming feature. I love historical fiction but found very little of that in this story.
This is a lovely book – so well written and entertaining, too. I didn’t want it to end!!!
Ashley Sweeney’s Eliza Waite is written with a spare beauty and measured pace that give ample opportunity for Sweeney’s exquisite creation of late nineteenth century San Juan Island and gold rush Alaska to shine through. Eliza’s character lies between hopeless sorrow and burgeoning resilience, between subsistence living in isolation and the gifts of prosperity and community, between conventions of the past and her gender and her transformation into an independent fully realized woman. A stunning book!
ELIZA WAITE is an impressive blend of meticulous historical scholarship and riveting storytelling that takes place in the Pacific Northwest and Alaska. With each turn of the page, it’s clear that author Ashley E. Sweeney labored over each sentence, gifting her readers with a gorgeous book. The words—each one painstakingly selected and placed—are delicious!
My review of Eliza Waite written by Ashley Sweeney
Raw, emotional, brilliant! Ashley Sweeney’s debut novel, Eliza Waite, transports you to a time and place of incredible strife as well as resilience in both the human heart and physicality’s of survival. Eliza is confronted with “mountains”, yet she finds her will and determination to not just climb, but conquer them! There’s characters in this story that I loved and a couple I found myself cringing over. Ashley was able to create a beautifully stunning depiction of life in a most rugged place, the late 1800’s in the Pacific Northwest and Alaska. I highly recommend reading Eliza Waite and I look forward to reading Ashley’s second novel, Answer Creek, which was recently released this spring, 2020.
Don’t read this book hungry! Ashley Sweeney is masterful at calling on all senses as she portrays a strong woman finding her way in Skagway’s gold country at the turn of the last century. Following Kate Chopin’s Awakening, our heroine Eliza Waite is powerful, sensitive, strong, and wanting as she buries old hurts and discovers new joy. The recipes and descriptions of buns and cakes will leave the reader craving! Book clubs could have much fun by recreating the recipes as they delve into the stories.
Eliza Waite is a compelling historical novel about a woman who manages to blaze a trail for herself, from a remote island off Washington’s coast to Skagway, Alaska in the year 1898, despite every hardship imaginable. An avid reader, Eliza follows the writings of Kate Chopin and the news of the suffragettes fighting for the right to vote, as she creates a brave new life for herself in a man’s world. Clever, curious, and courageous, Eliza Waite is a character you will cheer for from tragic start to triumphant finish. A must read in this year of the Centennial of Women’s Right to Vote.
I feel I waste my very limited book funds on this book. The first half was so slow I almost gave it up many times. Took me days to read just because I dreaded continuing. The second half did pick up and I was able to finish it in a couple days. That’s it’s only redeeming feature. I love historical fiction but found very little of that in this story.