I found The Engineer's Wife a compelling read. Those who enjoy historical fiction, or books with strong women characters will certainly be drawn to this well researched and richly drawn story of the family responsible for the building of the Brooklyn Bridge.

The story, covering the years 1864 - 1884, is told through the voice of Emily Warren Roebling, wife of Washington Roebling, who with his father John, designed and built the bridge. Emily is definitely an independent woman with a mind of her own. She chafes at the commonly held notion of a woman's place and worth, and works with the women's suffrage movement. Emily meets her future husband through her older brother, Major General G. K. Warren, a civil war hero (Captain Washington Roebling is Warren's aide). Though wishing she had more time on her own before marriage, given the war situation and truly in love with Wash, she agrees to marry him when he proposes. It is the first, but not the last time she will set aside her wants and dreams to support his.

After the Civil War ends, Wash returns to the family business of building bridges. Eager to learn all she can about her husband's work, Emily asks him to explain his project to her. Flattered by her interest, Wash enjoys teaching her about engineering and the various things that must be taken into consideration. Emily often hides at the work site to watch, listen, and better understand his days. As pressure surrounding the project escalates, Wash becomes consumed with his work to the detriment of his marriage. When he becomes disabled due to the effects of decompression sickness and confined to home, Emily becomes his messenger, carrying his instructions to the crew at the work site. Soon she is his eyes and ears, staying all day at the site with the workers.

Emily is a woman at odds with herself for giving up her own dreams to pursue the love and favor of a husband who is becoming ever more distant. With little acknowledgment from her husband or others for her efforts and sacrifices, and scorned for acting like a man (against the laws of the day), she fights an uphill battle to see that the bridge is completed and to repair her marriage.

Wood is skilled at transporting the reader to the place and time in which the book takes place. Her characters are very complex and interesting. The detailed information regarding building the bridge show the author's meticulous research.

I thoroughly enjoyed this read and highly recommend it to others. My thanks to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for allowing me to read a copy of this book in exchange for an unbiased review. All opinions stated here are my own.

I love the Historical Fiction genre because I get to learn about different people and eras while enjoying a compelling story. I'm often enticed by books featuring strong female characters and The Engineer's Wife sounded like it fit the bill on both counts.

Emily Roebling isn't a name many people will recognize but she is a woman who became increasingly vital to the building of the iconic Brooklyn Bridge back in the late 19th century. This story revolves around her personal and professional lives as the wife of the chief architect of the Brooklyn Bridge.

Unfortunately, this book fell flat for me. I tried to connect with Emily and her husband Wash but they were a hard couple to like and didn't have enough depth. But my main issue was the detailed technical information about the building of the bridge that took over the story. These facts were unnecessary and too technical for the average reader who wants a good story but not necessarily comprehensive engineering info.

I liked that Enerson Wood included historical aspects including the suffrage movement, the human toll and working conditions the workers endured during the bridge construction and the limitations faced by women. Those additions give readers a good view of the era but with the weak characterizations and unnecessary clinical text, this became a tedious read for me. Roebling was an interesting historical character and her story, and the history of the Brooklyn Bridge are stories that should be shared, but I didn't enjoy how these stories were told within this book.

Disclaimer: My sincere thanks to the publisher for providing me with a complimentary digital copy of this title in exchange for my honest review.

This was a wonderful and wonderfully enlightening novel based on the life of Emily Warren Roebling, wife of Washington Roebling and daughter in law of John Roebling who designed both the Cincinnati-Covington Bridge and the Brooklyn Bridge.

With John’s untimely death and Washington’s unfortunate incapacity due to the bends, Emily finds herself tasked with not only supervising the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge but verifying the integrity of the supplies and components necessary. She is also the one who must meet with the politicians and various committees who provide funds, oversee the project, etc.

Due to Washington’s guidance, mentoring and her own diligence in studying his engineering texts, she does an incredible job.

One of the major historical characters injected into this story was P. T. Barnum. Our author depicted him as being in love with Emily and rescuing her time and time again when she encountered unexpected obstacles. Our author also depicted Emily as being in love with PT, although she didn’t go so far as to proclaim physical intimacy. However in the Afterward, our author says that that entire relationship was imagined and fictitious. She says she put that in the book as Barnum was a very rich and influential New Yorker at that time. She admits that there is no historical nor documented basis – whatsoever – for that relationship. I take issue with the fact that she falsified the actions of historical figures in that manner. Apparently there was no evidence that Emily had any interest, at all, in any paramour. I appreciate the fact that she owned up to her deception, but that completely negated my enjoyment of the book, and I will not read anything further by this perpetrator of “fake news.”

I appreciate the ARC from NetGalley and the publisher, Sourcebooks Landmark, in exchange for an honest review. I only hope that the publisher will be more diligent in demanding facts about historical people.

Many readers know that Emily Roebling carried out the dreams of her husband, Washington, suffering from caisson disease, and his late father, John, dead from a freak accident, to build the Brooklyn Bridge. They also know how taxing and dangerous it was to all involved, especially in the loss of life. What Tracey Enerson Wood gives us in her fictional account of this woman’s life are the possible events and emotions that she experienced. Shy and suffering from childhood trauma, Emily watches her ill husband slowly detach himself from her, physically and emotionally. A mother of an only child, she worries about him as she is forced to forge her way through an all-male command and crew, despite jeers and nasty comments. It took years to complete this structure, years filled with disappointments and potential shut-downs. Her husband spends much time in Trenton with the family business and she seeks male companionship. Symptoms of his disease make him a changed man and she often doubts their future together. The descriptions of the actual construction and problem-solving are clear; my interest held throughout. This is a lovely testimony to an American achievement and the woman who helped bring it about.

This book started off interesting, but it lost me for a while in the middle. It felt like it dragged a lot and a few things could have been omitted. The ending was pretty good, though. Overall, I still learned a lot and liked reading about the woman behind the building of the Brooklyn Bridge.

Every now and then a book comes along that grabs the reader, pulls them into the plot, and drags them through the twists and turns, ups and downs, and then at the end, turns the readers loose rather worn out and feeling like they have been drug through a knot-hole backwards. The Engineer's Wife by Tracey Enerson Wood is one such novel.

Based in fact, this novel reads like a diary, detailing the step-by-step building of the Brooklyn Bridge and the people involved--especially Emily Warren Roebling; her husband, Washington Roebling; and all their families and employees.

What starts as a dream by Washington's father becomes an obsession for Wash and his wife Emily. While Wash was a certified engineer, Emily became one by teaching herself when circumstances dictated that she must.

I've never encountered Tracey's writings before this, but I must say her research is spot on, her characters are three dimensional, and her descriptions of the work done on the bridge are historically accurate, even to the point where PT Barnum paraded elephants across the bridge to show how strong it was.

This is a five-star book, with two thumbs up, and an elephant to test the strength of your endeavors.

NetGalley.com and SourcebooksLandmark Publishing provided the copy I read for this review. The opinions expressed here are my own.

This novel is an historical fiction about the woman, who built the Brooklyn Bridge wearing voluminous skirts that almost prevented her from getting the job done! Well, not really, but it is about the Chief Engineer, Washington Roebling, and his wife, Emily Warren Roebling who managed the building of the structure together. Initially, it was Emily’s father-in-law who designed the bridge, but the building of it fell to her husband Washington Roebling, after an accident But when Wash also became injured, then ill, the jobs fell to Emily. The bridge still had many years of work left before completion, and with Wash’s instructions, Emily filled in a lot of the necessary work.

This book was a fascinating look at everything that went into a project of this size at this time period. There were problems - Caisson’s Disease, Women’s suffragette movement, issues with expectations of appropriate dress, and death, injuries, mental health issues, and harrassment. Oh, and circuses and elephants as well, since one of the characters in the book was PT Barnum.

Emily had her own dreams of making the world a better place for women. Although the back of the book said that she had to put her own dreams aside to make her husbands work a reality, I don’t think she was sorry. She managed it all, and saved her marriage too.

I have never seen this Bridge, did not know very much about it. And that’s why I read it. To go to a place and a time, and find out about it. This book taught me a lot about the realities of those times, and I enjoyed my journey through the building of it. I didn’t know the hardships that took place in those times, and I was sad for those who had to endure them.

My favourite character was Emily, which is not surprising, since it is told through her point of view. I liked her willingness to defy the norms. I really liked Wash as well, and could also relate to how he felt throughout. I thought perhaps he suffered a bit from PTSD at the beginning of the story, and his feelings of his inadequacy guided the story. The love story between Emily and Wash and the details of characters lives is an other great thing about historical ficiton.

I was unsure about the title. At first I thought it didn’t do Emily’s character justice, but the more I think about it, it was right. Emily was the wife of the engineer, and had she not been, she could not have accomplished what she did.

Thanks to SourceBooks and NetGalley for this Advanced Reader’s Copy. I loved it.

Emily is married to Washington (Wash) Roebling, an engineer that builds bridges in the 1800s. When Wash’s health is effected by the dangerous aspects of bridge building, Emily has a more prominent position in the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge. All of this is at a time where women do not have rights and there is much pushback from her male counterparts.
A story of perserverence, love, and finding ones-self, The Engineer’s Wife is a wonderful piece of historical fiction! Emily is a character I found easy to connect with. She is a free spirit, a fighter, and quite the adventurous lady! She discovers the trials and tribulations of marriage, and questions the sanctity and commitment of it.
I loved knowing that this story was based on the building of the Brooklyn Bridge and while the author took some liberties, I like to think the real Emily was just like the fictional one! I love reading aspects of fictional stories I know to be true in real life (for ex. Jumbo the elephant was mentioned with relation to PT Barnum and Jumbo was actually killed in the city next to mine!!) as it has the ability to bring a personal element to the story for the reader!!!
I highly recommend this book for those that are drawn to historical fiction and strong female characters!!!!

What a delightful book! The Engineer’s Wife is a fictional account, centering around the true story of the Roebling family and the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge. The book gives a unique account of everything that went into the planning, funding, building, and behind the scenes happenings of the bridge, in that it is written in the perspective of Emily Roebling. This is especially fitting because it is only because of Emily’s involvement that the bridge was successfully built, at least as a Roebling project. John Roebling died before construction began, and Washington, Emily’s husband, was basically incapacitated at home due to the caisson disease he contracted during his time building the bridge. Emily, during a time when women were not allowed to work, relayed messages from her husband to the workers at the bridge, and basically became the chief engineer herself. She worked tirelessly for over a decade to make sure the bridge was completed, and was the best it could be.

I recently walked across the Brooklyn Bridge myself, and it was an incredible experience. While walking, I listened to a guided tour and was fascinated by what I learned. When I discovered this book, I knew I had to read it. It didn’t disappoint. I enjoyed learning about more of the story, and even though many parts of the story were obviously fiction, I knew many details, especially about the building processes, to be true. Some readers could find the book a little bogged down with details about the bridge construction, especially towards the middle of the novel, but again, I find it all really interesting. I also enjoyed the family components, the portions about the women’s suffrage movement, and Emily’s personality and spunk.

P.T. Barnum plays a large supporting role in the story, and I enjoyed that storyline as well. I don’t want to give anything away, but I appreciated where the author went with their relationship.

The Engineer’s Wife, by Tracey Enerson Wood, is a great read about something I don’t often get to read about. I loved the characters and setting, and would recommend the book if you would like to learn more about the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge.

Between 3 and 4 stars. I'll round up for the ultimate history lesson.

The Brooklyn Bridge. I have walked it and didn't know the story of how it came to be. This book tells that story.

Emily Warren married Captain Washington Roebling, an aid to her older brother, after the Civil War. Wash joins his family company after the war, which is a bridge building business. Using the design of his father, Washington pushes forward and begins the build on this unique structure. After serious side-effects of the bends (a condition not understood at the time), Washington is no longer able to be at the construction site. Emily is given the opportunity to share all her husband's desires by running back and forth to the site. Soon Emily studies and understands what is happening and is able to run the site without her husband's assistance. The only problem is, it is illegal for a woman to work, especially in that capacity. Not one to shrink from a challenge, Emily is a huge success and a huge part of the success of this bridge. Barnum shows up in this story as well, which is an interesting addition to the story.

Fascinating story. Loved to hear about all she was able to do, even with the prejudice of the time against women. At times the story did bog down with the technical engineering jargon. Overall I love that I learned the story of this amazing bridge.

Thank you NetGalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for an ARC for my honest opinion.

Thank you for the opportunity to read this. I will be posting a full review to Goodreads, Amazon, and Instagram.

We often take for granted things that exist. We don't question how they came to be or what life was like for the people who were involved in their creation. The creation of the Brooklyn Bridge is one such creation that millions of people utilize, and probably never think about the history of. The Engineer's Wife tells the story of the difficulties faced in the bridge's creation, with a focus on Emily Roebling, the woman married to the bridge's engineer, Wash Roebling . During the bridge's 13 year construction, she stood by, supporting her husband, offering helpful insight, setting aside her own desires, all in order to help create the Brooklyn Bridge.

When Wash comes down with a case of caisson disease, Emily takes a lead role in managing the bridge's construction - a role that was unheard of for women in the late 1800's. As expected, this was not a role that was readily accepted by all the men involved. The strength of the Roeblings as they faced many tribulations in both their personal and work lives is admirable.

This book discusses the creation of bridges before the Brooklyn Bridge, how the Brooklyn Bridge was different, and explores the many dangers that workers faced, including caisson disease. The book also imagines some less factual information such as the family's involvement with PT Barnum and the creation of roasted peanuts as snacks for people. There are also insights into other inventions of the time such as the evolution of the hair pin, events of the suffrage movement and PTSD in soldiers - at the time referred to as "Soldier's Heart."

The only quip I have with the book is the amount of factual things that the author changed. When I read the afterward, I was slightly disappointed with a few things, but the book was still very much enjoyable.

This is my most favorite type of historical fiction. I learned so much about the history of the world at this time. When an author can educate as well as entertain, they are superb in my mind! I will never again be able to cross an old bridge without thinking about all the time and work that went into it's creation, as well as thinking about all people who were injured, died, or permanently disabled during it's creation.

Many thanks to NetGalley, Sourcebooks Landmark, and and Tracey Enerson Wood for the ARC of The Engineer's Wife in exchange for my honest review.

This is a compelling novel of historical fiction about Emily Watson Roebling, a fascinating woman who was instrumental in the building of the Brooklyn Bridge. In 1864 Emily Warren meets Captain Washington “Wash” Roebling, a civil engineer. After they marry Emily leaves her own ambitions behind to help her husband and father-in-law, John Roebling, fulfill their dream of building a bridge connecting Brooklyn to Manhattan. During the project John Roebling dies of tetanus, and Wash is stricken with “caisson disease”. It is up to Emily to take charge of the project. She begins by running back and forth with messages between her husband and those at the work site, but she eventually becomes an integral part of the processes. From handling the PR, to coming up with creative ways to solve technical problems, Emily is soon the person keeping the project going.

Emily is a pioneer for working women, overcoming her own fears and insecurities, she earns the respect and admiration of many of the men around her. She must balance her role as a wife and mother, with a career in a time with few role models to guide her. The characters in this novel, and their many strengths and weaknesses, are richly drawn, especially the portrayal of P. T. Barnum. This is a well-researched, richly detailed novel evoking the sights and smells of New York City in the later part of the 19th century. There are detailed descriptions of the engineering behind bridge building, and the innovative design behind the Brooklyn Bridge. We are given a compelling portrait of Emily Warren Roebling and her contributions to engineering and history. I highly recommend this book to historical fiction fans and fans of the history of bridges, especially for those who enjoy the books of Marie Benedict and Melanie Benjamin.

Spanning 1864–1884, this impeccably researched debut narrates the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge from the viewpoint of a woman central to its creation. It's a richly satisfying historical novel that feels true to its era yet also powerfully relevant to women’s lives today. It will have particular fascination to lovers of Brooklyn and New York City, but it's also a novel with themes—personal growth and fulfillment, women's roles and history, marriage, caregiving—that have wide appeal.

This is a great read and a current back story on the bridges in Manhattan. I really enjoyed reading this other side of history. Not my usual pick for a theme but I was happy to have the opportunity to read this book and it did not disappoint.

I had high hopes for this book, as I love historical fiction, and am myself an Engineer's Wife :-), but I couldn't get very far through the story. It seemed to be very dull and predictable. I did not finish the book, which rarely happens for me.

Designing and building a bridge is quite a feat-even for an engineer and all the skilled laborers involved. But especially for the “engineer’s wife!”

Washington D.C. 1864- At a ball attended by Union soldiers, Miss Emily Warren is introduced to Captain Washington Roebling. The rest, as they say, is history. Washington Roebling had already worked with his German father to design and build a bridge connecting Kentucky and Ohio and announced at the ball that they would be designing an even grander bridge connecting New York and Brooklyn.

That fateful night links the two families, including their “baggage.” Emily and “Wash” embark on a journey to not only survive the Battle of Gettysburg, but to continue as man and wife working side by side to build the Brooklyn Bridge. Wash’s father, Papa, sends them to Germany, France, and England to learn the latest technology in underwater foundation. Readers will delight in the Roeble’s travels to see the architecture of Christopher Wren at the Royal Navy Observatory, and in Scotland, the new clipper ship being made ready for launch, the Cutty Sark. By 1869 in order to raise funds and improve public relations, Papa has arranged meetings with consultants: engineers, political leaders, and the contractor William Kingsley. Straddling the political lines, the stock market investors, and the railroad engineers turns into quite an undertaking for the now ailing Wash and his suffragette wife, Emily. The infusion of trigonometry, geometry, chemistry, physics, and architectural concepts combined with the daily struggles of financially continuing the bridge building as a woman, makes for not only an educational experience for Emily, but an emotional journey as she explores her own feelings for Wash and the infamous, PT. Barnum. Yes, him.

Tracey Wood constructs a perfect blend of history and science; and readers will easily relate to the relationships and memories that haunt both Emily and Wash- the physical and emotional turmoil that shadow a soldier and his wife. Will Emily follow her heart or her brain?

The Engineer’s Wife will transport readers with a bit of anxiousness as bridge laborers live and die; marriages are taxed, presidents come and go and women fight for the right to vote-all while perched with a bird’s eye view of the progress on the stone towers and wired cables of a bridge spanning the East River from Brooklyn to Manhattan. Nothing is simple. Face that fear of heights- Emily did. Climb the tower and read Tracey Wood’s The Engineer’s Wife! GR

The Engineer's Wife was just an okay read for me. It was hard to get into at times. I am giving it two stars.

After reading this book, I so much want to go look at the Brooklyn Bridge up close and personal! I am entirely fascinated with this story, so much so that this is the second book in 2 years I've read about the building of the bridge and Emily Warren Roebling's crucial role in its completion! Reading a book like this makes me happy that I'm a librarian who has access to the advanced copies of forthcoming books like this one!

This book publishes in early April. Can't wait to put it in the hands of library patrons!

When I mentioned this book in the company of an engineer friend, she immediately knew Emily Warren Roebling's role in the building of that magnificent bridge.

There is an extensive author's note at the end which separates facts from fiction regarding the relationships that Emily developed with various well-known people of the day.

The Engineer's Wife was a really well written historical novel about a woman setting aside her own dreams to support the dream of her husband only to have his dream actually become her own. Emily Warren Roebling was not really going to be one of those women who sat at home waiting for her life to happen to her. She was a bold woman for her time, and a suffragette when she met her husband, Wash, and his family of prominent engineers. Wash had a destiny and his destiny was to endure. He would design the Brooklyn Bridge. When he fell ill, his wife had to relay his intentions, and after a while, she arguably more instrumental in the completion of this landmark than her husband.

This was a fast though rather dull read. I read it in the course of an afternoon. It was descriptive and not overly flourished. The prose wasn't heavy and I found myself zipping through it, but I did find it dry. I didn't connect with Emily or her story. I'm not sure why, but there wasn't any emotional depth to the story and I didn't feel anything for the characters. It read more like a history book than a fictionalized historical accounting of E.W. Roebling's life. I wanted more. It was a good book but just a bit dry for my tastes. Emma Donoghue is one of my favorite historical fiction authors because she takes the facts and wraps them in textures and weaves a narrative that one can get lost in. I couldn't get lost in The Engineer's Wife, and I wanted to.

3.5/5