Once an Outcast
Jane ToombsHistorical romance
Available from Champagne Books
ISBN: 978-1-897445-86-0
May 2009
| Jehenna Scovia is put on an orphan train believing her father no longer loves her. In her young life she's lost her home twice. Offered a job with a farmer and his wife she leaves the train to help the Carter family. Marge Johnson, a logging camp cook, helps her escape from the drunken Ralph Carter to northern Michigan. Every time she gets settled something happens and she has to travel on. Nathan Cohen follows. He's trying to convince her that her father had nothing to do with putting her on the train, that he wants her to come home. Her gypsy grandmother taught her to be self sufficient. She proves up to the task until love convinces her there may be a few people in life she can trust.
Jane Toombs does an exceptional job crafting this tale of a young woman who earns her way and her friends in the late nineteenth century. We hear a lot about the men of the times but none of them are any better than this wonderful historical about a woman's ingenuity. Jehenna uses the strengths she finds along the way to earn a living. From nursing a sick older woman to being a cook's helper in the logging camps, waitressing, performing in a traveling show or just being a friend, nothing is too menial or impossible. She meets some villains along the way but most of the people she meets are a testimony to the goodness of those who built this country. The love story is almost secondary to the character building the author does. She brings to life the harsh times but also the fortitude and joy in living of people who had so little but were always willing to share. As Jehenna and Nathan meet those early settlers of northern Wisconsin and Michigan we get a small taste of what life was like in a time we can only read about. This looks like it may be the beginning of a series about the six women who meet on the orphan train. If so it's a great start with a book I couldn't put down.
Overall rating:
Reviewer: Dee Dailey |
