“A Clearing in the Wild” by Jane Kirkpatrick

The summary of the book is as follows:

“Young Emma Wagner chafes at the constraints of Bethel colony, an 1850s religious community in Missouri that is determined to remain untainted by the concerns of the world. A passionate and independent thinker, she resents the limitations placed on women, who are expected to serve in quiet submission. In a community where dissent of any form is discouraged, Emma finds it difficult to rein in her tongue–and often doesn’t even try to do so, fueling the animosity between her and the colony’s charismatic and increasingly autocratic leader, Wilhelm Keil.

Eventually Emma and her husband, Christian, are sent along with eight other men to scout out a new location in the northwest where the Bethelites can prepare to await “the last days.” Christian believes they’ve found the ideal situation in Washington territory, but when Keil arrives with the rest of the community, he rejects Christian’s choice in favor of moving to Oregon.

Emma pushes her husband to take this opportunity to break away from the group, but her longed-for influence brings unexpected consequences. As she seeks a refuge for her wounded faith, she learns that her passionate nature can be her greatest strength–if she can harness it effectively.”

My review:

One thing that I have to say is that I did not like this book at all! It looked good when I first received it but it just wasn’t really that thrilling and I had to force myself to keep reading it! I just didn’t want to pick the book up at all.

The plot was very boring. There just wasn’t very many ups and downs. One thing that really grossed me out was the fact that her husband was as old as her father and he was her fathers friend. I just can’t imagine doing that so when I read that, it just grossed me out completely. I know this was based on a true story which was even more weird to me that this would actually happen.

It wasn’t the worst book I have ever read, but I didn’t enjoy reading it. Some people might like the idea of a cult, but I just didn’t. I normally love historical fiction, but this just wasn’t one of my favorites.

I gave this book 2 out of 5 stars.

I received this book courtesy of Waterbrook Multnomah in exchange for my honest review.