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This historical novel is set in the Carolinas during the 1830​s, and bears the charm of far-off days. With beautiful descriptions, quaint speech, and touching dialogue, you'll be taken back in time! 

Martitia Howland is a 16-year-old orphan who is accepted into a large Quaker family after the tragic death of her parents. As she works through her grief, she must also maneuver a new world of cooking, cleaning, weaving, farming, and teasing with the Gardners' five lively sons and one disapproving daughter. While her hands begin to learn unaccustomed skills, will she also learn the grace of heartfelt laughter?

    It was inspired by a true story: Polish parents urging their daughter to travel to America and marry a recent immigrant who wanted a wife from his homeland. The girl was already attached to a young man in her hometown, and her sister took pity on her and agreed to take her place. But what if there had been no sister...?
​    As Polish men immigrated to the United States, they longed for a wife to share their fortunes - a woman from their own homeland, who shared their language, culture, and background. So they wrote home.
    "I would like to marry Zoska," one young man penned. "So, please, send me Zoska."*
    And girls like Zoska went, to make a home in a new land, sometimes for a man they had never met before in their lives. And they not only built homes; they built America.
    The Reluctant Bride is an immigrant story, a love story, a story of hope and hardship. It's the story of America. And I can't wait to share it with all of you!
*The Story of Ellis Island by R. Conrad Stein