Mercer Girls Audiobook By Libbie Hawker cover art

Mercer Girls

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Mercer Girls

By: Libbie Hawker
Narrated by: Amy McFadden
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Buy for $23.20

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It's 1864 in downtrodden Lowell, Massachusetts. The Civil War has taken its toll on the town - leaving the economy in ruin and its women in dire straits. That is, until Asa Mercer arrives on a peculiar, but providential, errand: he seeks high-minded women who can exert an elevating influence in Seattle, where there are ten men for every woman. Mail-order brides, yes, but of a certain caliber.

Schoolmarmish Josephine, tough-as-nails Dovey, and pious perfectionist Sophronia see their chance to exchange their bleak prospects for new lives. But the very troubles that sent them running from Lowell follow them to the muddy streets of Seattle, and the friendships forged on the cross-country trek are tested at every turn.

Just when the journey seems to lead only to ruin, an encounter with a famous suffragist could be their salvation. But to survive both an untamed new landscape and their pasts, they'll need all their strength - and one another.

©2016 Libbie Hawker (P)2016 Brilliance Audio, all rights reserved. Historical Fiction Fiction Literary Fiction Genre Fiction
Historical Context • Interesting Premise • Distinct Character Voices • Educational Value • Pleasant Voice

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Not only is this a good book but the narrators voice is easy to listen to..... pleasant may I dare say. Often times the story of a book is great but I can't get over the narrators voice so I don't listen. But in the case of this audiobook, I've listened to it 3 times.

Love her voice

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I never expected my first audio book to be such a delight both in its beautiful prose as well as its enactment. ThAnk you to author and actress.

Mercer Girls

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Kept me interested throughout. The characters are interesting and believable. Loved it to the end.

Amazing

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The story make me curious of the real historical account, which is also an interesting story. While I found some of the dialogue cheesy and a few of the characters a little over the top, I was very entertained.

Fun story

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I found the historical elements of this tale interesting, but the telling was disappointing. Modern political sensibilities and cultural mores are all too obviously projected onto this earlier era, even to fanciful extremes. Prostitutes are robustly healthy young women who love their work and earn vast sums, with nary a pregnancy, STD, or pimp in sight. And a schoolteacher carries on a years-long clandestine affair without discovery in a small town. Simply not believable.

I was offended by the portrayal of religious values as either relentlessly puritanical or irrelevant. I don't doubt the presence of temperance and anti-prostitution crusades, as the historical notes at the end point out, but this portrayal is completely one-sided, making the overtly Christian key character a thoroughly insufferable prig.

The writing style also lacks. At times the writer shows a gift with words, but the characters are too stereotypical and the metaphors are often strained.

I'm not sorry I listened to the book because it was enjoyable enough to be worthwhile, especially for the history of the Mercer girls, of Seattle, and of the suffragist movement, but I won't be seeking out anything else by the same author either.

Interesting History, Mediocre Telling

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