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Book Summary and Reviews of Caroline by Sarah Miller

Caroline by Sarah Miller

Caroline

Little House, Revisited

by Sarah Miller

  • Critics' Consensus (1):
  • Readers' Rating (1):
  • Published:
  • Sep 2017, 384 pages
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About this book

Book Summary

Sarah Miller vividly recreates the beauty, hardship, and joys of the frontier in a dazzling work of historical fiction, a captivating story that illuminates one courageous, resilient, and loving pioneer woman as never before - Caroline Ingalls, "Ma" in Laura Ingalls Wilder's beloved Little House books.

In the frigid days of February, 1870, Caroline Ingalls and her family leave the familiar comforts of the Big Woods of Wisconsin and the warm bosom of her family, for a new life in Kansas Indian Territory. Packing what they can carry in their wagon, Caroline, her husband Charles, and their little girls, Mary and Laura, head west to settle in a beautiful, unpredictable land full of promise and peril.

The pioneer life is a hard one, especially for a pregnant woman with no friends or kin to turn to for comfort or help. The burden of work must be shouldered alone, sickness tended without the aid of doctors, and babies birthed without the accustomed hands of mothers or sisters. But Caroline's new world is also full of tender joys. In adapting to this strange new place and transforming a rough log house built by Charles' hands into a home, Caroline must draw on untapped wells of strength she does not know she possesses.

For more than eighty years, generations of readers have been enchanted by the adventures of the American frontier's most famous child, Laura Ingalls Wilder, in the Little House books. Now, that familiar story is retold in this captivating tale of family, fidelity, hardship, love, and survival that vividly reimagines our past.

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Reviews

Media Reviews

"A master of historical fiction, Miller forges Caroline Ingalls into a formidable, complex pioneer woman, and adult fans of Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House series will delight in this portrayal of 'Ma.' Beguiling, pulse-pounding historical fiction." - Kirkus

"Not to be missed by Wilder's grown-up fans or those who enjoy historical fiction about the settling of the American West in the late 1800s." - Library Journal

"Miller excels at verisimilitude, bringing her setting to vivid life, including her exposition of the extraordinary difficulties of the pioneers' lot. She is less successful with her characters, who are so unrelievedly good as to rob the story of conflict, and, hence, drama. Nevertheless, Little House fans will welcome this new perspective even as it attracts new readers to the beloved series." - Booklist

"I was entertained, transported, and inspired by Sarah Miller's Caroline. Each passage was written with so much care and love, I now can't imagine reading Laura Ingalls Wilder's series without a copy of Caroline close at hand." - New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Shelley Shepard Gray

This information about Caroline was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.

Reader Reviews

Write your own reviewwrite your own review

GF

Not worthy of Little House recognition
I am a huge fan of Little House books and TV series and have been since the early 1960's. I have all of the books re: Little House in my personal library. I love re-reading them as they give an appreciation for the conveniences of today. I love the pioneer and western settings.

I was very, very disappointed in this book. It was too wordy and just dragged on and on. I had also hoped that the reviewers on Amazon and numerous other places were exaggerating about the sex scenes. Well, they were not. The numerous sex scenes were totally unnecessary and awkward - definitely NOT in good taste for a Little House book. Charles getting turned on by Caroline's braid? I should have just stopped reading right there. They had sex back then but leave it to the imagination. We didn't need to read about it all like a cheap romance novel.
This was definitely a weird, strange twist on Little House pioneer experience. Definitely NOT worthy of my Little House collection. I bought the Kindle copy of it when it was on sale on Amazon just before reading the large print book from the library. When I found that it was nothing but a cheap, trashy sex pioneer story, I deleted it from my Kindle library. I should have just not read the book - period. It was deceiving on the inside, having such a beautiful and innocent looking cover. The author took what could have been a great book about Caroline's perspective and made Caroline seem to be a mess.
I definitely will not be reading any of this author's books in the future. What a waste of time. If you want pioneer experience, there are plenty of other good books out there.

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Author Information

Sarah Miller

Sarah Miller began writing her first novel at the age of ten, and has spent the last two decades working in libraries and bookstores. She is the author of two previous historical novels, Miss Spitfire: Reaching Helen Keller and The Lost Crown. Her nonfiction debut, The Borden Murders: Lizzie Borden and the Trial of the Century, was hailed by the New York Times as "a historical version of Law & Order." She lives in Michigan.

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