An Amazon Best Book of the MonthA dozen women join a secret 1850s Arctic expedition—and a sensational murder trial unfolds when some of them don’t come back.
Eccentric Lady Jane Franklin makes an outlandish offer to adventurer Virginia Reeve: take a dozen women, trek into the Arctic, and find her husband’s lost expedition. Four parties have failed to find him, and Lady Franklin wants a radical … failed to find him, and Lady Franklin wants a radical new approach: put the women in charge.
A year later, Virginia stands trial for murder. Survivors of the expedition willing to publicly support her sit in the front row. There are only five. What happened out there on the ice?
Set against the unforgiving backdrop of one of the world’s most inhospitable locations, USA Today bestselling author Greer Macallister uses the true story of Lady Jane Franklin’s tireless attempts to find her husband’s lost expedition as a jumping-off point to spin a tale of bravery, intrigue, perseverance and hope.
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This book was quite an adventure! In 1853, Virginia is asked to lead an all women’s team into the Artic to find a group of lost explorers. Virginia leads an incredible team of ladies each with their own strengths to help on the mission. When Virginia and the women’s team return not all the women are there. Where are the others? Virginia finds herself on trial for murder! This wonderful adventure is told in points of view from the expedition and from the murder trial. What really happened in the Arctic? I truly enjoyed this book and its strong incredible women! I received an advanced readers copy and all opinions are my own.
Arctic Fury by Greer Macallister is an excellent historical fiction novel that kept me entertained from beginning to end. This novel seemed to me to a breath of fresh air amongst the masses. It is so unique in its plot and also in the impressive way that the artist was able to interweave so many elements: historic events, fictional events, mystery, suspense, wonderful descriptions of Artic landscapes and elements, and also the complex character cast. I am thoroughly impressed.
I loved the full cast of female characters. I especially loved Virginia and Caprice. All of the characters (men and women) were thoughtfully constructed with complex emotions, histories, imperfections, and personalities. It was a joy to read how each interacted with one another and how several of them grew and changed throughout their hard journeys. There were several times where I teared up at the sacrifices and losses that occurred. I was relieved at other times as well. Anyone that has the privilege of reading this novel, will know exactly what I mean when they get to those parts.
I also love how the author weaved in between the expedition and the court room drama time frames to draw out and create an excellent narrative that slowly peeled back the layers of the events that unfolded during the fateful expedition.
Finally, I loved how the author took elements from the lost Franklin Expedition and the fallout thereafter, as well as the real-life women Virginia Reed and Lady Jane Franklin (wife of Captain Sir John Franklin) and weaved a tale that was inspired by many unnamed frontier women into a gem of a story that I will remember for a very long time.
This is easily one of my favorite books this year.
This is for anyone that loves an excellent historical fiction novel, well-constructed plot and characters, and a strong female-led character cast. Excellent.
5/5 stars
Thank you EW and Sourcebooks Landmark for this ARC and in return I am submitting my unbiased and voluntary review and opinion.
I am posting this review to my GR, Bookbub, and Instagram accounts immediately and will post it to my Amazon, B&N, and Instagram (again) accounts upon publication.
A very well written book that makes you feel the cold and desperation that all these women faced.
The alternating chapters sometimes for me made it hard to follow. I still enjoyed the story and definitely recommend.
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the early copy
I was disappointed with this book. I was anticipating an exciting arctic expedition. Instead there was more attention on the trial and the courtroom. I also felt that the ending was rushed so that I closed the book and thought, “Oh well. That’s all?!”
Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for my advanced review copy. All opinions and thoughts are my own.
I have to admit, I almost put this down after the first few pages. But I figured I keep trying because the story sounded intriguing. I’m so glad I did because I ended up rushing back to it any time I could.
The premise is a young woman, Virginia, who has guided treks into California (this is taking place in the mid 1800s) receives a proposal by a wealthy woman to find her husband whose party was lost in the Arctic a few months previous. Virginia accepts and heads out with a group of 12 other women. Many of whom don’t make it back
The book is set up with one chapter of the expedition (told in the past tense) and one chapter of Virginia’s trial for the murder of one of the women in the expedition (this is is told in the present tense). It’s a nice set up and the author handles it marvelously, although the first few chapters of the present tense are really clunky, then the author seems to find a rhythm and it reads far more smoothly.
The book is downright intriguing. The courtroom scenes are full of so many lies and manipulations and inept attorneys that you just want to scream. You can feel Virginia’s frustration in every exchange. And the expedition scenes are just as interesting.
The main complaint story-wise is that Virginia, other than the fact you don’t want to see an innocent person convicted, isn’t really a character I cared much about. She’s a terrible leader and does little to stand up for herself. I also found the allusions to some secret in her past a bit heavy handed. It’s fairly obvious what the secret is but the author just drags it out almost to the end of the story.
Virginia’s religion is also treated with a heavy hand. It plays no part in her story or her character and just seems overdone and at times annoying.
So, no, this isn’t a perfect book, but it did keep me turning the pages.
We cannot say what the woman might be physically, if the girl were allowed all the freedom of the boy. —Elizabeth Cady Stanton
Virginia Reece is an adventurous young woman with a tragic background that has been helping pioneers find their way westward to California.
She is approached in 1853 (after her pioneering partner dies) to lead an all-female group to the Canadian Arctic region to try to find out what happened to the missing Captain John Franklin expedition that disappeared after setting out in 1845.
This was an okay story, although rather farfetched. To me it just wasn’t too believable, in that long ago day and age, that an all-female group would have ventured out on this adventure, or even been allowed to.
The story is told from two different times – during the hunt for Franklin and then the ramifications of the trip a year after they headed out.
The characters (13 women that headed out from Boston, Massachusetts to the Arctic) could have been developed more fully. I would have liked to know more about the motivations of each of the women, rather than just Virginia.
There were shades of a couple of other books I’ve read in this one, at least for me – THE TERROR by Dan Simmons and THE HUNGER by Alma Katsu. These are both horror stories and THE ARCTIC FURY is an adventure novel but it still reminded me of these stories.
I received this book from Sourcebooks Landmark through Net Galley in the hopes that I would read it and leave an unbiased review.
An unforgiving, snow-dazzling landscape, a cast of extraordinary, fierce women, and a nail-biting courtroom drama that wrecked my nails makes this historical gem unputdownable!