An interesting book which discusses the courage, trust, strength, and fortutide of women who left their homes and journeyed into the frontier in the mid- to late 1800s in search of a home. Their stories did not always turn out well, but each was interesting. Unfortunately, the book was very spare and did not often give us the women's own words from their diaries (where possible). I wanted more of that and wondered about how fair the author had been in putting down their lives in a few short paragraphs or pages. I appreciated that the author did give us many newspaper accounts and newspaper ads run by the prospective brides or grooms so that we were privy to the thoughts of society on this form of matchmaking. ( )