Avoiding love and entanglements has been easy for Hank Barringer since losing his wife and young son to influenza. An outrider on the wagon train, his only job is to keep the mail order brides and passengers safe until they reach their destination. Then he meets Eliza Tanner. She’s different than other women. Seemingly fearless—her feisty manner disrupts his well-ordered idea of how a woman … should behave. He doesn’t approve, so why can’t he stop thinking about her?
Eliza has secrets and a past that could destroy any chance she has of building a new life. When an opportunity arises to join a wagon train full of mail-order brides headed to Oregon City, she flees from her old life. Little does she know that danger from her past stalks her, or that a killer’s obsession will be strong enough to follow her to the other side of the country.
When Eliza’s past catches up with her, she’ll need a real hero…a man who can accept the truth, and love her despite the circumstances of her past.
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Good read
This was an okay read. Some details seemed a stretch for 19th century behavior.
Although I read every word of this book, I thought it was inconsistent and reality challenged; for example at the end the author gave 2 different ages for the same person! The villain was totally improbable and too far fetched for me. I did enjoy some aspects of the details of wagon train travel.
i have never read a bad book from this author
Yes was a clean romance story with the touch of mystery. It was somewhat predictable but still enjoyed. It was a solid four star book.
I find this author’s books a relaxing interlude in a stressful time.
Thoroughly enjoyed the characters …. not so perfect but believable.
Eliza is just the book for you if you love sweet romances with a HEA ending. Cynthia Woolf takes you on adventure full of love and suspense. I really enjoyed this book.
Eliza
Brides of the Oregon Trail book 4
by Cynthia Woolf
Life for a prostitute isn’t easy especially when it’s forced on you. Eliza was sold by her father the person who’s supposed to cherish and protect you. Sold from one man then to another, her trust in humanity gone. Finally after saving every penny she bought her freedom. Joining a wagon train with mail order brides, Eliza sets for a new beginning, a new life where her nightmarish past will be left behind the wagon trails dust. Eliza has been given a gift, the gift of motherhood in the little baby she finds. The trail is full of adventure for Eliza especially when her feelings for Hank become more than friendship. But she never thought the nightmare she left behind would follow her with a vengeance!
I absolutely loved this! Cynthia Woolf did an outstanding job in portraying the turbulent lives of women in the 1800s. Plenty of intrigue, emotional turmoil, likeable characters a heroine that deserved a happy life. A wonderful well deserved ending!
I love this series. The brides all have their own interesting story. This one has so much to keep you reading. Excitement, suspense, intrigue, drama, emotional situations, danger and so much more. I highly recommend this. It was so much fun to read. I received a review copy and voluntarily review it.
I enjoy all of this author’s writings. This book was good , realistic and so enjoyable
This series by Cynthia Woolf makes me happy I do not have to traverse the country by wagon train. While I haven’t traveled the Oregon Trail, I have traveled from Texas to and across all the states (except Maine) and I complain about driving for 8-10 hours a day. I can’t imagine walking. The characters are well-developed and I love the honest reaction Hank has to Eliza’s former life. I have enjoyed meeting these travelers.
A former prostitute escapes her previous life in a wagon train and in the process discovers and adopts an abandoned infant. An endearing and suspenseful romance that captures the heart.
I received a complimentary copy of this book and am voluntarily leaving an honest review.
This book is the fourth book in Cynthia Woolfe’s “Brides of the Oregon Trail” series. However this is the best book so far! One part of this book that makes it so fascinating is that the entire book takes place on the Oregon Trail. This means that the reader is able to experience life as if she were actually traveling from Independence, Missouri to Oregon City on the Oregon Trail in 1852. The reader is able to face the realism of life on the trail as she makes her way through the book.
Another interesting part of this book is that Eliza’s life is based on the reality of a child’s life during that erea. A young girl was dependent on her family and had no choice in how she would live her life. In fact at 15, Eliza’s father sells her as a slave to an unknown man. Eliza spent the rest of her young life as a prostitute. Unfortunately, this was the reality for many young girls who had no say in what happened to her.
Eventually, Eliza had saved up money for years so she could buy her way out of her contract with her “boss.” However, she knew that he would still hunt her down and bring her back. Therefore, she chose to become a mail-order bride and move as far away as she could. She hoped to move far enough away that she could escape her owner and her background.
Meanwhile, on her first night on the wagon train, she found a baby left out in the wilderness. She picked up the baby and decided to raise her as her own. Since she heard someone hiding while she was taking the baby, she understood that the mother was unable to keep her baby and had no choice but to give it away. This is another reality of life at that time.
This is a fascinating story that Ms. Woolfe based on the realities of life in the 1850s. In spite of the realism, this is still a love-story with a happy ending. It is just that Cynthia Woolfe has chosen to create a heroine with a more realistic life. However, she is still a young woman who wants to marry, have children and have a “happily ever after” ending.
This is Book #4 in the series and is Eliza and Hank’s story with a HEA. The character development is very good and there is lots of action as well as some very interesting facts about the Oregon Trail included in the story. I really enjoyed this story and highly recommend it.
I enjoy historical romance stories, it makes me appreciate the trials I have now days. I don’t think I’d make it, let alone survive what Eliza, Millicent, Hank, & Cooper had to face and endure especially while traveling, living on beans, biscuits, occasional rabbit or deer, bathing in the very cold creek very seldom, also washing clothes in the same creek, then drying them inside your wagon to keep some of the dust and other debris.
And add to that a psycho who’s out to kidnap &/or kill you, leaving some of them with bullet wounds and bleeding from being hit over the head.
Thank goodness their is love in their families for each other.
Romance, adventure and suspense are all part of this Oregon trail series. Eliza is making her escape from a life that demeaned her, and even though she is within her rights to do so, not everyone feels the same way. Hank, on the other hand, has no interest in finding the permanence of marriage, but the allure of Eliza’s beauty keeps drawing him in. Discovering her past throws him, but with the mounting danger, Hank realises that Eliza is the only woman he wants in his life. The addition of little Jessie added to the mix has him letting go on his firmly held beliefs. This novel is part of a series and whilst some of the characters from previous books appear in this one as well, it is nevertheless a standalone and comes to a happy close. I received a copy of this book as a gift and this is my honest and voluntary review.
Eliza wants to leave her old life behind and joins a wagon train. She makes fast friends and discovers something that will change her life forever. Hank isn’t looking for a new wife, in contrary, but they still end up together. Then strange things happen, is the wagon train save?
Loved to read a wagon train story, a lot of adventure, friendship and love.
Eliza Tanner was a prostitute, she did not choose this. She ran away from Simon and is on a wagon train of mail order brides going to Oregon City, Eliza is partnered with Millicent these two are not mail order brides. But they have in common the need to put their old life away and get as far away as they can get. While getting fresh water from a steam they were close to Eliza found a baby. Hank one of the guards who had introduced himself to Millicent and Eliza helped take her into the town to purchase items needed for the baby. They instantly liked each other but Eliza had sworn off men and never would she allow a man to tell her what to do. Someone is sabotaging the wagon train and she thought that Simon was the one who was doing this, because he wanted her to continue to be a prostitute and she had run away. Eliza should tell Hank about her being a prostitute and about Simon coming after her, but Eliza wanted to liked and loved for who she was not what she was. But things were escalating between her and Hank, and the wagons were being sabotaged nightly. What will happen?
This is The Very Basic Beginning….I loved this story…wonderfully written very intriguing suspenseful romantic mystery thriller you just can’t put down. I was given this and I voluntarily leave this review
1851 Independence, Missouri to Oregon City, Oregon
Can you imagine? Fifty-five wagons making a two-thousand-mile journey and Eliza Tanner was part of the one hundred and three mail order brides making their way out west to start a new life. She was getting away from her life as and starting a new one, but fate had it so she found a baby the very first day that had been abandoned!
Hank Barringer was one of the men helping with the wagon train and he seemed like the first man that hadnt’t wanted something from her. Of course he had his sadness from losing his wife and child years ago. But he was attracted to Eliza and she to him.
Follow this adventure as too people take a journey on the trail and together as they try to find happiness. Unfortunately it is not a smooth ride but you won’t be able to stop turning the pages to find out what will happen next!! I highly recommend!