Wilderness Bride Hardcover – January 26, 2003

Was very happy to have finally found a copy of this book online. It was the last one too. I think this has been out of print for many years now but the copy I got was in excellent condition.

This Is a book I read back when I was a YA and it stuck with me. There was one sceen in particular that often ran through my mind. Throughh the magic of Goodread's What's the Name of that Book??? group I came up with the title. I still enjoyed the story. It relates to a wagon train of Mormons traveling from Illinois because of the level of persicusion there (I was interested enough by the narrative that I researched Nauvoo to see the photos of the temple there) and a young woman who was raised more as a son than a daughter by her widowed father. When he has to leave to fight in the Mexican War betroths her to a young man in the train so that she'll be safe. She tries to fit in with women who are were raised in traditional roles and the women are generous in helping her learn her new tasks. It's the story of an amazing communal undertaking. The members were broken into three main groups to head west and each group worked to make sure that the people traveling behind them would have camps and firewood to make a start. People who had already finished the journey sent wagons back for someone else to use. I want to avoid any spoilers so that's as far as I'll take the plot.I've read in other reviews that the research was inaccurate. I've read a bit about it and I don't see the inaccuracies but I haven't research the subject extensively so I'm not going to comment on that. As a story I enjoyed it very much and in this day when I've converted most of my reading to Kindle and audiobooks this is one that I'll keep in my small hardback library.

This was one of my childhood library favorites I searched out to purchase as an adult decades later. On rereading I found it just as charming. It's essentially a story of culture shock -- the girl in the story is from an independent homesteading who is torn from her life and sent by her father to join part of a large group traveling in the wagon train. She meets another pair of people, strangers at first -- who are equal misfits if in different ways -- Ethan, her intended husband, and his mother, both lately from England. They are all traveling across the country to Utah. What I remembered from the book was the details of her existance that magnified her emotions, and the sense both from the heroine and from Ethan of being children whose duty required them doing something they didn't agree with or believe in, and the choices and consequences those in the book made to reconcile themselves with this situation. It's still a good read decades later. I've read other reviews that say some more research should have been done to square all the Mormon details, but that didn't affect the story or its issues or emotions for me. I'm glad to see it is back in print.

This is a wonderful story. I am so glad it is back in print. Other than Pride and Prejudice, this was one of my favorite novels as a teen. It has held up over the years. It is still a well written, lovely coming of age story.

I HAVE LOVED THIS BOOK FOR MORE THAN 20 YEARS. A FEW YEARS AGO I PAID $50 ONLINE TO GET A BEAT UP COPY. IT WAS OUT OF PRINT. THESE TWO AUTHORS HAVE WRITTEN SEVERAL REALLY GOOD BOOKS THAT EITHER A YOUNG PERSON OR ADULT WOULD LIKE. MY FAVORITES IN ORDER ARE WILDERNESS BRIDE, AN ALIEN MUSIC, THE DANGER QUOTIENT, AND TORRIE. EXCEPT TORRIE, THEY ARE ALL ABOUT YOUNG PEOPLE WITHOUT PARENTS FACING AN UNCERTAIN FUTURE. FROM THE OLD WEST TO OUTER SPACE TO UNDERGROUND. EXTREMELY ENTERTAINING READING THAT WILL HAVE YOU ON THE EDGE OF YOUR SEAT.  An Alien Music  OR  The Danger Quotient  (CHECK THE BOOKS BY NAME. THERE IS MORE THAN ONE ENTRY ON AMAZON; SOME ARE NOT EXPENSIVE.)

I have several Morman friends and one I taught by every day who was very devout. Many of the things they mention in the book are not correct. The Johnsons have a good plot and the book has a smooth flow to it. They should have had the facts about the church correct. It ruined the book for me. By Ruth Thompson the author of "The Bluegrass Dream"

While I appreciated the story, it was well done and very readable. I am also seventh generation Mormon and she did not do enough research to get her facts straight. The whole premise that the Mormons drank tea by the gallons and yet didn't believe in Dr's and medicine is erroneous. Brigham Young sent and the church paid for women to go back East to become Dr's so that they could then come back and educate others. Medicine and education was important to them then and to us now. And we don't drink tea. The temple was not used as a wagon maker's shop. Nauvoo wasn't so lucky as to be able to "plan" their exodus. They left in the middle of winter across a frozen river, chased by mobs, their feet bloodied by the stubble of the fields. Elders aren't just the "old" men, neither then nor now, and a "Deacon" isn't exactly high up in the hierarchy. Those were only a few of the falsehoods I found. A bit of time spent in research would have made this a better book but then it would also have changed the story completely. A well told story based on false information isn't really much of a story is it?

I absolutly adored this book!!! It is a book dwelling on the powers of love and an indavidual's belifs. In the book, Coery is being forced to marry a man she does not know because her father is going away to fight a war. Her mother died when Corey was young. Along the way in this book, Corey falls in love with her betrothed Ethan. I give this book five stars for sheer ingenuity and class. I'm going to hunt down this book and add it to my personal library. enjoy this book as I have. ^_^