New York City is one of my very favorite places and I am always intrigued by the Brooklyn Bridge and it's intriguing history. The Engineer's Wife was a fascinating read with strong, developed characters. Some of the description and terminology were hard to follow, but overall a highly enjoyable book.

Many of us have walked over the Brooklyn Bridge, but probably most of us don’t know the story behind this bridge and what an enormous achievement back then it was to build such grand bridge and to take on such massive project. And the dedication it took.

1865, Emily Warren marries Captain Washington ‘Wash’ Roebling. She marries into the family of engineers. Father and son are working on finishing “the Cincinnati-Covington Bridge, which had been long delayed by the war (…),” linking Ohio and Kentucky. And this “is just a prototype. The real challenge is the East River.”

And that’s when Emily is asked to help with “Speeches, meetings, dinner receptions, whatever necessary. We have to raise about seven million dollars.”

She is left speechless. “They were responsible for finding the project as well as building it?”

An office is established to run all the logistics pertaining to building the bridge. And the most qualified person to manage the office turns out to be Mrs. Roebling.

She meets challenges with officials as she performs man’s job. But she is not afraid to put man’s pants on, even if it means punishable offense.

An accident happens at the work site and she becomes a messenger, bearing a journal with drawings and instructions. Further events push her to get even more involved with the construction.

Richly imagined and beautifully woven story of a woman who refuses to bend to old conventions. A woman who craves changes and progress and makes a difference by taking part in it.

She is not a bystander. She is a woman of action. She wants to see more and do more, and “meet people pushing in new directions.”

But in a world when a woman meddles where she shouldn’t be, it usually results in some consequences, including being shunned by other woman and disrespected by men. Nevertheless, she is a woman of great strength. She tilts her head up and she lives her life as best as she can.

With intelligent prose, this expertly detailed account weaves a touching story of how a famous bridge comes to be and a marriage that is tested through its ups and downs like the construction of a bridge. It seems to be a parallel story (maybe not meant to be, maybe it just came through that way) that paints a powerful picture what it takes to build a bridge – a solid foundation. And what it takes to build a successful relationship – trust.

The story interestingly weaves many aspects including heart-touching story of what led Wash to become an engineer, through detailed construction and its challenges including caisson disease (decompression sickness), to undeniable determination of a woman to see completion of a bridge.

Rating (on a scale of 1 to 5, 5 being excellent)
Quality of writing: 5
Pace: 4
Plot development: 5
Characters: 4
Enjoyability: 4
Ease of Reading: 5

Overall rating: 4 out of 5

Fascinating! Did not know anything about the building of the Brooklyn Bridge and particularly the woman who was do important to getting it done. Will be recommending this book a lot, also plan to read other books about this topic.

Emily fell in love with her brother's aid-de-camp at a military ball during the War Between the States. Washington Roebling was an engineer, and the son of an engineer and bridge designer. To say Emily was strong-willed and a non-conformist women of that day would be an understatement. After the war was over, Emily and Wash moved to Cincinnati to help build a bridge over the Ohio river. This was a test run for building the Brooklyn Bridge. After Pop Roebling's passing, and Wash's contracting crippling caisson disease, it fell to Emily to become Wash's messenger and a self-taught engineer of the bridge. In a time when women's suffrage was just beginning to pick up steam, Emily wore bloomers to work among men on the bridge. Scandalous! She was also befriended by P.T. Barham, and was reputed to be more than his friend.

The Engineer's Wife by Tracy Enerson Wood, is a fictional account the life of the Roeblings. This is a story ,not only of the building of the Brooklyn Bridge, but of a couple who struggled to hold their marriage together even though they loved one another. It is not the easiest of reads because there is some technical information about the building of bridges. It does make one appreciate the masterful engineering of this amazing bridge.

The Engineer’s Wife by Tracey Enerson Wood

This is a well written tale of the Roeblings who engineered and built the Brooklyn Bridge. This monumental task spanned almost two decades in the 1800s, making a connector between Manhattan and Brooklyn.

The dream of John Roebling, this bridge was ultimately finished by his son, Washington Roebling. Oh, wait a minute. Wash Roebling? I meant to say Emily Roebling, Wash’s wife, who found herself deeply entrenched in a man’s world when Wash became too ill to finish the job. Behind every successful man...and so forth.

Torn between her two worlds-that of a homemaker and that of a working woman before women’s suffrage, self-taught Emily got the job done with the help of some open minded men, including her friend PT Barnum of circus fame.

The many facets of this story come together to let you see the hardships and societal pressures that affected everyone of the Roeblings. Cheer on Emily as she champions women to prove their worth in all things.

My thanks to #NetGalley and #SOURCEBOOKS Landmark for an ARC for this review.

This was my first book by this author, It was pretty enjoyable. I would give this book a 3.5 star rating! It was a pretty Quick and easy read!

The Engineer’s Wife is a new book that will be released in April, 7 2020. I have been fortunate enough to get a copy to read and review.
I have been lucky to visit the Brooklyn Bridge a few times and look on it in awe but I had no idea about the story behind its building. This book is fiction based on the real lives of the builders of the bridge. In an era that didn’t encourage women to do more than look after their home and attend parties on the arms of their husbands, Emily Roebling defies that stereotype. The book dives in to what life could have been like for this family during the building of the Brooklyn Bridge. I have the utmost respect for Emily Roebling for building this great bridge. .
The book slowed at times but I never lost interest. I give this historical fiction 4/5 ⭐️ I recommend reading this book!

I thought this book was good. It was nice learning about the engineers who built the Brooklyn bridge. I didn’t know that the engineer’s wife had a hand in building the bridge. I thought the book started out strong but it got kind of boring towards the end. I would recommend it to a friend based on the fact that it gives insight into a topic most people don’t know of: the Brooklyn Bridge and it is historical fiction because that’s my favorite genre.

Historical fiction gathers its strength from the abundance of research necessary and the introduction of an ordinary person into an extraordinary adventure. The author does an excellent job of both, teaching and entertaining.

Knowing almost nothing about the Brooklyn Bridge, this was informative and interesting. Reading about the limitations placed on women in the 1800s makes how far we've come seem unbelievable, but we still have so far to go in the women's rights movement.

I had high hopes for Tracey Enerson Wood’s The Engineer's Wife, but my reading it revealed I was not a good fit for the narrative.

I can only speak for myself, but I found the characters underdeveloped. They didn’t resonate with me and I struggled to rouse my enthusiasm through their trials and tribulations. Wood relays on stock notions (sewing is bored, suffragette meetings are where the cool kids hang out, etc.), ideas and archetypes that have been done so many times that they’ve lost all novelty. I needed Wood to bring something more to the table, but the story never took kicked it to the next level.

Atmospherically, I found The Engineer’s Wife on the lighter side of the historical fiction market and the pacing decidedly slow. This brand of soft storytelling has a market, I’m simply not a part of it and that has more to do with me than it does anything else.

Roebling’s history is interesting, but The Engineer’s Wife didn’t strike the chords I needed it to. Not for me and not something I see myself recommending forward.

The Engineer’s Wife by Tracey Enerson Wood is an amazing and fascinating historical fiction that focusses on Mrs. Emily Warren Roebling, as the main character, as the woman that should have been standing next to the men, Captain Washington Roebling and his father John, as the chief engineers that created and built the stunning and ingenious Brooklyn Bridge that was completed in 1883.

This story recounts the life dedicated to the creation and building of this breathtaking monument of human ingenuity and perseverance, as well as the numerous obstacles that were placed in front of an intelligent, fiesty, and unique woman that was present during this time.

I loved learning about Emily, her story of struggles, and her path to hard-won success. I loved learning more about the Brooklyn bridge and the construction that took place for it to be. I never realized how many years it took for completion.

I feel it is important to learn of all the adversities for this bridge to be built, as well as all the lives forever changed and lost in the process. Caisson disease (decompression sickness), as well as the danger of bridge building, are both very real and serious occurrences during this time.

I also feel the discussion of women’s trials and suffrage is important to discuss as well and I am so glad that the author was able to bring this struggle to light with due justice.

The author’s note at the end was fabulous and discussed what was real and what was fictional that was intertwined with history to make this book the beauty that it is. This is the first book written by this author, and I feel she has a fabulous career ahead of her. It kept my interest and attention till the end. Bravo.

5/5 stars

Thank you NetGalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for this ARC and in return I am submitting my unbiased and voluntary review and opinion.

I am posting this review to my GR account immediately and will post it to my Bookbub, Amazon, and B&N accounts upon publication.