Thank you to @netgalley and @simonandschuster for a copy to read and review. This book tells the story of Charlotte as she travels to England on the Brideship to British Columbia. The historical aspect of it was interesting and the details that described their voyage. There was a lot of drama that happens in the book as well. It was an interesting book but a little too much drama for me. Comes our May 5. ⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Brideship Wife by Leslie Howard is her first novel, bravo! It is a pleasure to discover a new Canadian author and it's a bonus that its about a little known chapter of Canadian history. A wonderful read, the story moves from England to British Colombia. This story is weaved through a beautiful story and historical facts seamlessly. Its the story of a young woman who has to leave behind a world with social norms that leave women vulnerable and at a disadvantage. While having no choice but to relocate in an unknown new land, she plans on deciding for herself what her future will be. Thank you Netgalley for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

The Brideship Wife by Leslie Howard is an excellent book - perfect escapism during these crazy, uncertain times. Charlotte is a twenty-one year old spinster, living with her well-to-do older sister, Harriet, in Victorian England. Their mother died young, with gambling debts and their father passed away when they were older - poor business decisions leaving them almost penniless. Victorian Society dictates that Charlotte must be married soon or resign herself to spinsterhood and life as a governess or nanny on the edges of the elite. Fortunately Harriet made a successful match in Charles Baldwin, but he's much more interested in politics than money and cares very little about Charlotte. The Baldwins are hosting a garden party in hopes to set Charlotte up with the portly, self-absorbed George Chalmers and settling her fate for good. Things go horribly wrong and Charlotte's only recourse is to flee England on a "Brideship" headed to Victoria, Canada. There are scores of unmarried men there thanks to the gold rush and its Charlotte's last chance to make a suitable match. Sadly, Harriet is forced to join her as she has been able to provide Charles with an heir and he soon files for divorce. But Charlotte is not your typical Victorian society woman. She has other interests like veterinary medicine - gasp! - and soon finds herself assisting the ship's doctor on the three and a half month voyage to Victoria. Charlotte is enjoying some independence but is shocked to find that life in Victoria is not quite what it was presented to be.

Howard obviously did loads of research for this book which is her debut novel. I was transported to Victorian England and even got a little seasick reading about the voyage. I know next to nothing about Canadian history and found the discussion on colonization and the politics very interesting, even as I was horrified by the treatment of the indigenous people and women of all races. This is an entertaining and very enjoyable book. There is a discussion with the author at the end as well as citations for sources Howard used in crafting the tale. She was also kind to include book club discussion questions. The Brideship Wife is an excellent book for anyone who enjoys a great read. I highly recommend it!!! Another great Mother's Day gift if you're so inclined.

The Brideship Wife tells a part of history I feel embarrassed to have not realized even existed. Loads of women from England boarded boats for Victoria, looking for husbands and a better life. Realistically, it makes sense to realize a disproportionate amount of men would have initially settled in the area, needing women to join to keep building civilization.

Enter Charlotte. She wants more from life than is socially acceptable in England, and is the exact opposite of her already married sister, Harriet. After a scandal she was entirely blameless in, Charlotte is forced to leave on the ship to Victoria. It is during this journey that Charlotte discovers what she is capable of and what she expects out her life, socially acceptable or not.

Although I found Harriet frustrating, I appreciated that women didn't have many desirable options and she was a product of her time. Her character was charming in a protective older sister manner, and she grew to realize her little sister was a grown woman and admire her.

The Brideship Wife is a strong story of fact and fiction woven together. It is heartbreaking, inspiring, and informative. I recommend readers take time to read Leslie Howard's notes and Q&A at the end of book, as it is truly incredible how much research she put into this DEBUT novel. A strong historical fiction read!

Thank you to Netgalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This story was interesting to me as I am not familiar with Canadian history at that time. The story follows Charlotte, after the death of her sister, leaves on a Brideship to British Columbia to find a husband. I don’t recommend you go into this thinking this is a typical historical romance. It’s a little more real and raw than most. I enjoyed this book and thought it was a nice read. I would recommend it!

The Brideship Wife by Leslie Howard is inspired by the British brideships that arrived in the New World back in the 1800s.

Charlotte knows her duty is to marry. However, she is a bit introverted and has no dowry to offer a husband, which leaves her little choice in the matter. When her sister and brother-in-law set her up with a wealthy colleague, she must win his affection at a grand party. But the night doesn’t go as planned and Charlotte’s reputation is at risk. Rumors begin flying around town and before she knows it, she is forced to leave everything in England to start fresh in the New World. Charlotte embarks on a treacherous voyage on a ship headed for British Columbia in search for love, land and a life of her own.

I knew very little about this part of North America’s history and was fascinated by the women who took this journey. The plot is what instantly drew me into this book – you don’t typically get to read about this part of history. At first I was taken aback by how the women are treated – but I know this is how it used to be. There’s a certain status you must uphold with marriage. A certain way to look, act, think, love. Charlotte is very independent and refuses to settle, so I enjoyed following her as she made decisions based off what she wanted and not what was expected of her. This definitely added tension throughout with various characters.

I also enjoyed the different settings in this. First you have the social circles of Victorian England, then the different classes aboard the ship, followed by the lawless lands of British Columbia bursting with gold. There’s so much history packed into this book, spanning across two continents and the ocean in between. And by the title alone, you could probably guess there’s some love stories throughout. I will say the beginning of the book has some violent parts that took me by surprise, but I thoroughly enjoyed this once Charlotte made her decision to leave England (which isn’t too far into it).

TL;DR – a great historical fiction novel if you’re looking for a different part of history that isn’t typically written about.

Definitely a story set in a period of history I knew little to nothing about. The thought of so many women coming to Canada on ships, destined to be wives for strangers, is at once appalling, intriguing, and romantic, in the adventurous sense of the word.

Charlotte is living with her sister, Harriet, and Harriets husband, Charles, Charles is a prominent, well-to-do man, hoping to inherit his uncles title of 'lord" one day, but he needs an heir. And he needs his sister-in-law to marry. He can't have a spinster on his hands. He sets up a marriage with her and one of his prominent friends, and gives Charlotte an ultimatum: either marry George, or leave his home, seeking a governess position.

During a party that Harriet gives, Charlotte and George wander away at Charles urging, and hi insistence that Charlotte make him propose. When George ends up attempting to rape Charlotte, her brother-in-law forces her and her sister both to leave on the bride ship her old spinster governess told her about, but not as brides, as mere passengers, being banished to the colony.

The journey is fraught with interesting characters and perils of the sea. Harriet is sick and Charlotte must help her overcome the addiction. John is a sweet man, who's desire to help is admirable. And Charlotte blossoms as she sets aside convention and the rules of the day and helps the doctor on board care for the sick.

When her sister dies and she joins the bride ship women, she joins forces with one of them and goes on to live with her and her father. Together, they make a new life for themselves.

The romance in this book is fairly light. There were a couple of intense kisses, but over all, nothing too cringeworthy. There is an attempted rape scene, which is more detailed than I generally care for, and I skimmed over parts of it.

But, over-all, the story is endearing and sweet.

I am thankful to NetGalley and the publisher for gifting me a copy of this book.

I received The Brideship Wife by Leslie Howard from NetGalley and Simon and Schuster in exchange for a fair review.
Charlotte lived with her sister Harriet and Harriet's husband in London. Charlotte was supposed to make a good marriage and make her family proud. When unfortunate circumstances take the choices away from Charlotte, she is on a bride ship headed for British Columbia to find a husband and raise good Christian children for her country. Harriet goes along with her to help her get settled. Life on the ship was not what either woman expected but as Charlotte began helping the Doctor on board and she began to think maybe she didn't want to find a husband but, maybe do what she chose for a change.
If I tell you very much more, I will end up spoiling certain things so I am just going to say go read this book! I had heard of several countries that sent women to new homes to find husbands but, did not know about this program until I read this book. The details were great and the writing kept me engrossed the whole time. I didn't want to put it down until I had finished the book.

So good. A period of time I have not read much about. Really easy, quick and interesting read. I highly recommend it. I don't want to post too much. Just read it!

I received this as an ARC from NetGalley.

Nice read. Story captured my attention immediately. Never knew anything about this history. Even though the story was predictable, I really enjoyed it. Charlotte is just a normal woman faced with an extraordinary circumstance. I was hoping for a showdown with George or Charles but it was not meant to be. I would pick up another book by this author.

I was fascinated by this story and simply could not put it down. Very well done! Thank you netgalley and publisher for this arc in exchange of an honest review.

This is such a beautiful tale of a life I hardly knew existed long ago. I loved this and how I found myself often putting myself in Charlottle and Harriet's shoes. There were parts that we painfully sad and I felt deeply for the character in question, but this was only due to how realistic the events in this book were. There were moments of racism and lots of misogynistic men, fitting of this time frame. It was quite interesting watching it all unfold and I found it pleasantly surprising that this book don't end how I had planned.

The story flowed wonderfully and made reading this book easy, aside from the just the content. Charlottle was so realistic and misfortune, but I adored her and understood her motives and how deeply they were based on the time she lived in. I do find that I was a little bothered by how things just continued to go wrong, but as i think about it, I wonder if life was just simply that way in that time. Houses catch fire, people pass from now simple illnesses, addiction to medicines not quite understood. This story is so real and still fits to me for present life in some ways despite the years passed.

Thank you so much for the wonderful opportunity to read this book! I absolutely loved the trip to the past and would happily do so again, if she wrote any further novels. Thank you.

I couldn't put this book down. It's a little rougher (read: more realistic) than many historical romance novels, but it wasn't over the top. I felt the tension of constraints on women but also possible changing tides. It was a fascinating time period to read about and I -felt- the research in the way that the settings came alive. The harsh realities for women in the mid 1800s are not new to me, but reading about them this way always strikes me anew and fills me with fresh gratitude for the time I live in and the women who paved the way before me. But I digress.

Charlotte's (and her sister's) story is interesting. There is pain, suffering, sadness, and struggle, but there is also relentless hope. Charlotte's priorities and eventual choices are unorthodox, but not unbelievable. And there was plenty of sweetness in restoration and relationships.

Thank you Net galley for the advance reader copy of this novel. This was a historical fiction about a woman embarking on a journey to the British Columbia colony in the 1860s. She is forced from London by a man who tried to take her to a brideship. Adventure and hardship ensue as one would expect. The growth of Charlotte, main character, is great in this novel. It took a bit to get into this but was a well written and researched novel.

Finding freedom for a woman in the late 1800s wasn’t an easy feat, but it could be done in the Northwestern most British colonies. This society sister without marital prospects has quite an adventure throughout her ordeal surrounding the British Brideship and its journey. The story is interesting enough, yet is also a bit shallow, gliding over depth in order to move the timeline along. A full picture is seen, but I wish Howard had gone a bit deeper with the details.
This is definitely a light, feel-good read with some conflict to keep it interesting.

Charlotte Harding is a young woman in mid-19th-century London. She is upper-class, but her father spent all their money before dying, leaving her without a dowry with which to get married. So she lives with her sister Harriet and her brother-in-law Charles, who try to get her married. But when a scandal erupts around her, she gets sent to British Columbia on a so-called brideship, a ship full of women of a marriageable age off to populate the British colonies with good Christian English children. The story is told in three parts, first in England, then on the ship, and finally in Victoria.

This was an interesting bit of history I didn’t know much about. I know of the “filles du Roy,” women sent from France to populate New France, but I had no idea the same thing happened on the other side of the country too. It was interesting to read in the author's note also than some characters and events in the book were real historial people/events.

As interesting as it was on the surface, though, that’s just it, it always stayed on the surface for me, I never felt sucked in and actually interested in the characters and their predicaments. I felt things happened too quickly, people’s feelings were rarely explored, I felt a bit removed from everything.

I also couldn’t help comparing it to [book:At the Mountain’s Edge|40539184] by Genevieve Graham, another historical romance set in BC not far from the same time, and it came short. GG’s main character was a young woman determined to grasp her fate in her own hands, and while Charlotte often <i>says</i> and <i>thinks</i> she wants to step away from what is expected of her—a good marriage, having children, being quiet and meek—, we don’t see her do anything to actually fight these expectations until well past half the book.

So a rating of three stars from me, meaning it wasn’t terrible, but neither was it phenomenal.

The Brideship Wife was an interesting read about British women Imported to British Columbia as wives during the nineteenth century. I've heard of these events in other countries, but was unaware that Canada had a program too. Howard depicts the slim choices gentry women had. They could either marry well or go into service. Charlotte botches her chances for a suitable marriage and is forced to sail to Canada in search of a husband. The novel is rich in detail. I enjoyed the author's note on the historical detail of the book.

Well, well, well! This story is about a subject matter that I knew absolutely nothing about. The story is set in the late 1800's about women from England traveling to Canada to become wives and hopefully find better lives. The better lives was not often the case.

This was a well researched and well told story of this event in history. I will say that it did take me a bit of time to really get hooked into the story, but once I was hooked, I could not stop reading until the end.

Many thanks to Netgalley and Simon & Schuster for this advanced readers copy. This book is due to release in May 2020.

What a wonderful book! Leslie Howard took us from the class conscious society of England in 1862 to the Cariboo Gold Rush in British Columbia and specifically to the town of Barkerville. Not only was the story rich in history, but her characters were well drawn and believable.

This was a debut novel of Howard’s so I will definitely look forward to more from her.

I received this ARC from NetGalley and the publisher, Simon and Schuster Canada, in exchange for an honest review.

Leslie Howard, author of the Brideship wife, grew up In Penticton British Columbia, and since childhood has always bee passionate about the history of the province. Her debut novel begins with the two sisters, Harriet and Charlotte, in mid nineteenth century England. Harriet has successfully married into a well to do family. Charlotte, the younger of the sisters, lives under the same roof, as she is still single and penniless. Harriet's husband is losing his patience with this situation and he sets Charlotte up one last time. if she is not engaged after this date, he will relinquish all responsibility. The truth is, Charlotte was never interested in marrying for the sake of being married. She was more of a wild young girl, enjoying the outdoors and she just loved caring for the animals on her family's estate (before it was left to her cousin). The problem was, that "society" in Britain had no place for women who were not "married".

When talking to her old childhood nanny, Mrs. Wiggins, about her predicament (i.e.: that she's not interested in marrying yet), Mrs. Wiggins mentions to Charlotte about an upcoming meeting in London concerning a program, (sponsored by Queen Victoria, The Columbia Emigration Society and The Anglican Church), that was taking single British women to the British Colony on Victoria Island . Charlotte decides to attended the meeting, and, the idea of starting a new life, very far away, begins to seem like a possible solution to her predicament. After all, Charlotte could not rely on her sister forever.

In actual fact, four ships of women were sent from England to the colony on Victoria Island. This was done for the simple reason that the colony's population was predominantly male Yankee, gold miners. The only way to fix that and make the colony "British", was to bring in British women. Hence the #brideships! "The girls are coming. The girls are coming!"

I do not want to spoil the book, but you could probably guess what happens to Charlotte next

I really enjoyed reading Charlotte's story in #thebrideshipwife and so, I have no qualms giving it 5 stars. Thank you #netgalley and Leslie Howard for giving me this early digital edition in exchange for my honest review. In stores May 5th, 2020.