Sarah Agnes Prine's Reflections: A Personal Diary

Bemar44: I love this book. Since reading it, I’ve read the other 2 books of this series and I have also found and read all of Nancy E. Turner books. She is a wonderful author I wish there were more.

United States on Sep 22, 2023

EdMcK: I loved this book all the way up to the train robbery event. It was then that the author’s idealized version of the perfect man/husband/Calvary officer — Jack Elliot, the fictional hero of this story based on the western actor Sam Elliot— finally became too much for me. The realism of the story suddenly became lost and I’m afraid I put the book down. The disappointment was palpable because up until that point I could not put the book down.

United States on Aug 15, 2023

Teresa: A fabulous story about coming of age in times where living was tough. I admire the details given in this book about life in a new land. Great characters, inspiring story.

United States on Jul 11, 2023

CKCKCK: I really enjoyed this book and recommend it highly. Warning: I gave the sequel one star and couldn't even finish it. The sequel is a big disappointment as it is so boring.

Canada on Oct 26, 2022

AM: Incredible story telling in the form of a diary makes this novel feel so real, as if it were a memoir. Perhaps some of that feeling is because the book was inspired by the author’s great grandmother. For me that made it all the more meaningful. I always love reading about strong women no matter when they lived, but there is something particularly special about Sarah Agnes Prine as we follow her and her family and others on their journey to stake a claim in Arizona Territory in the late nineteenth century. What a fabulous character! Sarah is courageous, sometimes audacious, smart and loving. And what reader wouldn’t appreciate someone with a burning desire to read. If I lived there and then, I’d want her to be my friend, although it would have been awkward because I fell in love with the love of her life Captain Jack Elliott, too.

There are some beautiful things about this story - love of family, cherished friendships and a love story that I’ll remember. In spite of all of those things, this is difficult to read a lot of the time as it depicts the hardships and loss on the journey and the hardships that continue for Sarah and her family after they stake claim. There...

United States on Jul 12, 2022

Toonie: I didn’t think I would enjoy this book at first because it is very American, but, once I got past the first few pages, I found it absorbing, full of humour, and some very moving episodes. Laughter and tears!

United Kingdom on Jun 24, 2021

Cleo6: Probably my favourite book ever, bought this as paperback when it was published. It was always a book I returned too over and over again, unfortunately my paperback version is falling to bits now so I was overjoyed to find this on Kindle. I can't stand reviews that give you a synopsis so I'm not going to do that, read the info Kindle supply about the story. This is a lovely book, about grit, strength, perseverance and of course love, and is a really enjoyable read. Despite having read it more than a few times I still find it brings a tear to my eye. I've read the sequels too but this is by far the best!

United Kingdom on Dec 26, 2016

Susannah Roper: I love this book. I am about to buy my third copy having lost one through carelessness and another through lending. Having been introduced to the American expansion into the 'wild west' s a child by the Little House on the Prairie books, I was drawn by the title and the prospect of story by a slightly older narrator. Like the Little House books, I believe that this also has some roots in family history. I found this book to be immediately engaging and moving without being sentimental. To me, its joy is that you can reread it many times and enjoy it as much as its first reading.

United Kingdom on Jul 22, 2015

Laurie Pitman: If you want to know how the West was *really* won, read this book.

Sarah's story spans 20 years, from her coming-of-age as a teenager in a trek with her family across the Arizona and New Mexico territories to Texas, to her tragic farewell to the love of her life, Captain Jack Elliot, in Tucson, AZ. Between is a tale of struggle that rivals that of any woman in any century. Sarah is no feminist -- she is just determined to get herself and her family through thick and thin -- yet her struggle is no less epic than any of ours a century or so later. She has no illusions about her personal beauty or intellect, and yet through her struggles and the family that loves her, we come to see Sarah as they do, a tall thin goddess of the earth, a "General" (as her husband Jack teasingly calls her) in the face of isolation, illness, personal tragedy, and the unspeakable horror of the wars large and small fought in the southwest territories of the US in the late 19th century. She learns to hold close her friends of any color or nationality or language; she guards her children and her family with the fierceness of a mother bear; and she comes into her deep love for her husband only after...

United States on Jul 29, 2013

Leeds lass: It was the title that drew me but when i bought it and saw it involved the wild west, rattlesnakes, indians, wagon trains, guns and a love affair, i thought oh please.....
What a surprise !
It pulled me in from page one and with each page it just got better and better. You feel you are right there with sarah prine through all the horrors, sadness, trials, heartaches, hardships, downright cruelty, deaths, tears, laughter - and especially the love affair. I hate romance books with a passion, but this `romance` is so powerful you are willing it to happen ! Compelling and powerful, yet a simple read. Absolutely wonderful - i loved this book - well done Nancy Turner !!!

United Kingdom on May 09, 2008