Amelia Paperback – April 12, 2014

G. L. Gracie has written a very well done story of a young widow with her baby setting out on her own on the wagon train from Missouri to Oregon. The hardships and friendships that occur along the way show us what a strong and caring woman Amelia is. Two men are attracted to her. One is but a 17 year old boy who seems more mature than his years, and another is an older man who has lost his wife and child and now helps lead wagon trains to Oregon. When the journey is over, the real work begins for all, but Amelia is on her own to build her homestead. Her dead husband left her a nest egg to help her if something happened to him, and so she is able to buy necessary items and pay for some help although she works harder than anyone else to build a place for she and her baby boy. The two men still come into and out of her life as she builds a wonderful homestead, and eventually she must decide which man will be with her in her future. It is a well written story with many wonderful characters, and well worth reading.

(spoiler) I love books about the pioneers going west and most of the book seemed in line with all I have ever read. However, the main character was unrealistic. A young woman with a nursing baby living alone in a covered wagon and chopping wood to build fences and chicken coops etc etc as well as cooking and washing etc. What was described would have been hard for a man to do let alone a woman and a woman who was trying to keep up her strength for nursing a baby . . and what about keeping up with a baby. Where was the baby when she and the friend went rolling down the hill? Where was he when she chopped wood until noon to build the fences. On her back? She sprained her ankle and was unconscious? Sorry, I just found it all to be a bit 'far fetched' since I have raised children and doubt she could have done all of that with a baby. Just the woman's work back then would have worked her from sun to sun but she was doing that and the man's work. I am only half way through the book but will finish it. Other than that, i do like the book.

Really? This book gets three stars because the author is a pretty good story teller. I have to give her that. This is the most unrealistic, unbelievable book that I have ever read, I think. I liked all the characters. Really nice people. However, I could not begin to figure how a young girl with her infant baby could manage the trip across the Oregon Trail, caring for her animals, her wagon, her belongings, and her friends' illnesses and have everything go so well for her. She planted, hoed, laid fences, helped build her house ( with help, I acknowledge) baked, cooked, cleaned, hostessed the neighbors and friends, counseled, cared for her child, milked the cow, etc. etc. etc. Two men cared for her, but that conveniently solved when one of them took himself our of the running, and simply left her life. Even the helper that was fleeing his own ghosts (he had killed a man) just happened to be in the right place at the right time, to find out that he was not a murderer. Everyone seemed to have a pretty charmed life. One might get the idea that our forefathers....and "foremothers" just hopped a wagon train to a nicer, happier life with little hardship. There were some hard moments, but except for a couple of characters, it was a happy ending for all. Really? I doubt it. Never have I read a book with more lovely and polite folks. After all this, I confess that I finished the book, and can recommend it to anyone who likes stories where there is little tension, and lots of happy endings.

Always love reading historical stories. Amelia was such a brave , enjoyable fictional character. I couldn’t hardly put this book down. I laughed, and cried. Loved your book G.L. Gracie! Clean and heart warming, with all the adventures that make a good book.

Enjoyable. I know there were some tough females back then but for her to do all that she did as a single mother--- well, you have to get past that and realize this is Fiction.Close to the end, the author did switch ahead from planning to wed, to the wedding night + a few other jump ahead chapters.Of all the books I have read, this is the first where the female marries the man I did not think she would or should.

The remarkable life of Amelia and her trip as a young widow with a baby from Independence Missouri to Oregon territory, was a real experience for us to read about. The story spans about a 5 year period where she meets a young man Mark, who helps her with her wagon and baby boy , to a handsome widower leading the wagon train, her wonderful and not so wonderful friends, struggles with loneliness and missing her sister, to life in Oregon and her determination to claim land and build upon it. This is a real saga and has a bittersweet ending. 5 stars

I enjoyed the story, maybe because my great-granddaughter is named Amelia but mostly because I thought it was well written and kept me interest from the beginning to the end. I kind of went back and forth as to whom Amelia would choose as well as whom I wanted her to choose. I like the way her final choice in a mate was handled. I thought Gracie gave the reader a feeling of some of the hardships faced by the immigranta, both on the trail and after arriving at their destination.

Great story about a widowed young mother and her choice to.start over out west.She signs up to travel with a wagon train going to Oregon.She works hard and makes friends on the long hard trail a cross the country.She starts to like two.different men on the trip but ends up alone starting her own homestead .Through good and.bad she builds her place for.herself and her son.Soon both men come calling.She is not sure which one she loves but finally a decision is made and they marry Wonderful book and I van.not wait for more.by G.L.Gracie