Next month I’ll be winding down my orphan train series with the release of the third book, Searching For You (which involves the third and youngest Neumann sister). Look for the book on shelves Dec. 4.
You may be asking (or at least I hope you are!): What are you working on next?
I’m super excited to introduce you to a brand new series involving bride-ships! In the beginning stages of researching possibilities for my next series, I landed upon some articles describing several bride-ships that left England in the early 1860s and sailed to British Columbia in Canada.
Bride-ships have always fascinated me, and as I read more about this particular endeavor I learned that Vancouver Island and British Columbia (which were colonies of England) were overflowing with male settlers, primarily because of a gold rush that had occurred in the Canadian Rockies. An 1861 census showed that females only made up 11% of the population of the colonies.
With the influx of settlers, England also sent pastors and missionaries to the Northwest. One such missionary, a man by the name of Reverend Lundin Brown, was appalled by the immorality among the mining camps and towns. He wrote home to England about the problem asked his supporters to send good, Christian women to the colony.
He said this in a letter: “Dozens of men have told me they would gladly marry if they could.”
The reverend’s letter prompted the beginning of a push to help women emigrate to Vancouver and British Columbia for the purpose of marrying and having families to help civilize the colonies. Three different ships at different times sailed from England across the Atlantic, around South America, and up the Pacific to the Northwest to the English colonies there.
Of course, as I was researching this fascinating era, the question kept surfacing: What kind of woman would join a bride-ship? In previous decades, England had sent ships of so-called prostitutes and criminals to Australia. But the ships going to the Northwest were populated with working class women as well as well-to-do middle class ladies.
Why would these women leave everything they knew to sail halfway around the world for the purpose of becoming brides to men they didn’t know?
I hope you’ll join me in exploring the various answers to this question as I delve into my new series. The first book, A Reluctant Bride, releases in June of 2019. I recently revealed the cover on my website and here is for those of you who missed it.
And here’s the blurb:
Living in London’s poorest slum, Mercy Wilkins has little hope of a better life. When she’s offered an opportunity to join a bride ship sailing to British Columbia, she agrees. After witnessing so much painful heartache and loss in the slums, the bride ship is her only prospect to escape a bleak future, not only for herself but, she hopes, someday for her sister.
Wealthy and titled Joseph Colville leaves home and takes to the sea in order to escape the pain of losing his family. As ship’s surgeon, he’s in charge of the passengers’ welfare aboard the Tynemouth, including sixty brides-to-be. He has no immediate intention of settling down, but when Mercy becomes his assistant, the two must fight against a forbidden love.
With hundreds of single men congregating on the shore eager to claim a bride from the Tynemouth, will Mercy and Joseph lose their chance at true love, or will they be able to overcome the obstacles that threaten to keep them apart?
You can pre-order the book already on Amazon. And you can add it to your to-read list on Goodreads.
So what about YOU? What’s the latest series you’ve read and enjoyed?
Jody Hedlund
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I’ve been enjoying Susan May Warren’s Montana Rescue series, Becky Wade’s Bradford Sisters series, Connilyn Cossette’s Cities of Refuge series, and your Orphan Train series!
“He wrote home to England about the problem and asked his supporters to send good, Christian women to the colony.” Ha! Wow — what an intriguing piece of history. Like you, I’m fascinated to know what might have motivated women to leave home on a bride-ship. Great series premise, Jody!
I love the cover of The Reluctant Bride. The model is beautiful. I checked it out on Amazon nut it’s only offered in paperback. Will it later be offered in ebook format ?
This series sounds so interesting . . . I do love to read series of stories and Roseanna White’s “Shadows Over England series” comes to mind.
This sounds like an intriguing series. I love historical fiction that increases my knowledge of the past. The cover is gorgeous!
I’m looking forward to the final book in Julie Klasson’s Village of Ivy Green series, the next in Tamera’s Carnton series, and am currently engrossed in Victoria Thompson’s Gaslight mysteries set in 1895 New York. Also, I’m about to begin the newly released next book in Tasha Alexander’s Lady Emily series.
This sounds like a really fascinating new book! I’ll be excited to read it when it comes out! I love diving into new books that introduce little-known points in history.
I’m currently reading through the Outlaws of Time series — wonderful, mind-bending, thought-provoking fiction. And enjoying the last book in your Medieval series, Jody, A Loyal Heart. I’ve really appreciated the human-ness of each of these characters of yours. And all the covers have been beautiful!
This looks very interesting! I will add it to my TBR list. I recently read Elizabeth Maddrey’s Peacock Hill series and really enjoyed it.
That sounds like a great series! I can’t wait to start reading the books.
It’s interesting a minister of the Gospel would encourage Christian women to come to marry the wild an seemingly unChristian men. It would seem like he wouldn’t want them to be unequally yoked. 🙂
The series I’ve most recently read is the Nantucket Legacy series by Suzanne Woods Fisher.
I just finished Lynn Austin’s Waves of Mercy and Legacy of Mercy about the Dutch settlement of Holland.
I also enjoyed your lighthouse series a lot! Keep writing, I am eagerly awaiting the last book in your current series.
This sounds like a fascinating read and a great historical setting!!
I’ve loved your Orphan Train series, Jody, and I’m looking forward to reading the 3rd book. Your new series sounds absolutely riveting. I love the cover and the premise of the first book.
I’m just starting the last book in the Montana Rescue series by Susan May Warren. It’s been a fantastic series!
Oh my word is that cover stunning!!! I cannot wait to read this new series. Sounds amazing!! 😀
This sounds like a really good series. A series I completed reading recently is Roseanna M. White’s fantastic Shadows Over England series.
I’m so intrigued by the Bride Ships…I’ve never heard of them before! I’ve been very much enjoying the Mayflower Brides series (multiple authors) as well as the Bradford Sisters by Becky Wade. Cant wait to finding out more!