Another Book Blog, The Daughter's Walk

My latest blogging book, once again, had me trapped.  I just love getting lost in a book.  While this one didn’t capture me quite as much as the “Sisters of the Quilt” series, it was still a very engaging story with a lot of history to tell.

The Daughter’s Walk was started by the historic tale of the mother-daughter team who walked from Spokane, Washington to New York City in 1896.  They mostly followed the railroad for their adventure, collecting signatures of various dignitaries in most major towns along the way.  They started off with $5 in their pockets and had to work or sell pictures of themselves wearing the new reform dresses they were advertising and supporting in their journey in order to continue their voyage.  The trek was made to try and earn a $10,000 prize promised them if they made it in time.  The money was desperately needed to save the family farm.  Through trials and illnesses, discoveries and heartaches, the women returned home over a year later. 

The family they left behind in the journey did not welcome them home, and the daughter, Clara, decided to go on life’s journey separately from the coldness of her family’s feelings and rejection of the walk.  The rest of the book tells the story of Clara’s ups and downs, investments and heartache; friendships and money made and lost, but a life well-lived. 

Would she ever find true love or know full acceptance anywhere?  These were the questions I continually asked myself throughout this book.  I so badly wanted Clara to find true happiness and someone to completely accept her, but this only seemed to come from the two women she came to know as family after her real family shunned her.  Truthfully, Clara needed to come to peace with God and get past wanting to control everything in life with money.

You’ll have to read this for yourself to find out what all comes to pass at the end of the book and where Clara at last finds peace, if at all.  It was undeniably a page-turner, but not one I found myself neglecting other priorities to curl up with. 

I received this book for free from Waterbrook-Multnomah Press for this review