I wish to thank Net Galley and the publisher Simon & Schuster for allowing me to read an advanced copy of this book. I have voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

This is a wonderfully written book about the shipment of women from London to the gold fields in British Columbia. These women are to become wives of the early settlers located there. I did not know much about this process but Leslie did extensive research and was able to locate the manifest of one of the actual ships upon which she based her fictitious story. History comes to life as you learn why the women came, their journey across the seas and what happens to them once they arrive in a strange place and meet the prospective husbands. She covers all topics pertinent to that period of history and I found myself involved with the characters and just could not put the book down. In the final chapters of the book she explains how she learned about the bride ships and the truths behind the fiction. The story flows well but is a bit predictable. In this case, in this book predictable is okay.

If you love historical fiction as I do, you will love this one. I highly recommend it and if I could give it more stars I would

A nice debut. with a very predictable plot. The main character is well-developed., but many of the others are also predictable. However, the author shows promise and I'd read another.

I received a complimentary copy of The Brideship Wife from NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

I love this series, but it always leaves me wanting more! Facts and general historical information woven into a beautiful but difficult path create a very interesting novel. Drama, blackmail, danger, disease, murder, scandal, addiction, theft, prospecting, bigotry--everything was included in this book! My only wish was for a bit more romance.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC.

I enjoyed this book. I was not familiar with the bride ship from England to Canada that this book of historical fiction was based upon. It was interesting to learn about it. The book touched upon a great many social topics; the treatment of the Natives living in Canada at that time, the use of opium, the class distinctions, and the treatment of women. That's quite a bit to go into one book but the author did a good job of incorporating it into the story without getting too specific. It made you want to find out more on these topics during that time period. I found the writing easy to read and the story line flowed along at times painting a picture of what life was like then. The fire scene was so vivid to me. If you like historical fiction this is a book not to be missed.
Thanks to NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

An excellent and riveting historical fiction piece! This novel chronicled the history of Great Britain's "Brideships'. Haunting and Unforgettable. This book is going to stay with me for a long time. I will be thinking of these women. for days to come. The marking of a good historical fiction author is the ability to transport a reader to a certain era. Leslie Howard did exactly that! When I was reading this book.. I forgot where I was! I had to literally pull myself back to the present. However.. I wished I could just stay suspended in this rich, historical tale that Howard so expertly wove. Recommended! Will definitely recommend to customers.

The Brideship Wife is a captivating story from Victorian England to Canada . Charlotte the main character is forced by her brother-in law is forced to leave her home in England and travel on a ship to Canada that is carrying brides for the New World. Charlotte wants to be independent but finds this difficult in the rigid social structure of Victorian England. Charlotte traveling in first class assists a doctor on the ship, meets a minister who is trying to help the natives with the small pox outbreak, befriends the women in sterrage who are traveling to the new world to meet husbands, work and to become independent.
This historical novel depicts the political and social injustice of the times. It is a novel of enduring, friendship, loyalty , love. and a desire for independence.
These Victorian women were one off the first era of women to fight and demand women have the same rights as men.
I received this wonderful book as an ARC digital copy for an honest review.

The Brideship Wife is a nice clean love story that tells of a girl, Charlotte, who is looking forward to a home and marriage. Due to some difficult circumstances, she is forced to leave London to go with the brideship sailing for North America, While on the ship she meets John, a man she soon falls in love with.. John's father becomes ill, and he must return to England.. Charlotte is traveling with her sister, who has her own troubles, continue on to Victoria. It's an interesting story I enjoyed reading and will enjoy again and again.

Publisher's Description: Tomorrow we would dock in Victoria on the northwest coast of North America, about as far away from my home as I could imagine. Like pebbles tossed upon the beach, we would scatter, trying to make our way as best as we could. Most of us would marry; some would not.

England, 1862. Charlotte is somewhat of a wallflower. Shy and bookish, she knows her duty is to marry, but with no dowry, she has little choice in the matter. She can’t continue to live off the generosity of her sister Harriet and her wealthy brother-in-law, Charles, whose political aspirations dictate that she make an advantageous match.

When Harriet hosts a grand party, Charlotte is charged with winning the affections of one of Charles’s colleagues, but before the night is over, her reputation—her one thing of value—is at risk. In the days that follow, rumours begin to swirl. Soon Charles’s standing in society is threatened and all that Charlotte has held dear is jeopardized, even Harriet, and Charlotte is forced to leave everything she has ever known in England and embark on a treacherous voyage to the New World.

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When I first started reading it, I thought it would just be another historical romance story. There is romance but so much more. I fell hard for the main characters Char and her sister Hari. Char is a survivor. The way that the author weaves history thru the book is pretty amazing as well. There is information at the end of the book on how she came about writing the book and researching that I found very interesting.

Thank you to #NetGalley and #SimonSchuster for a free copy in exchange for an honest review. The book will be released on May 5, 2020.

I received this eARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. (Thank you!) This novel is currently set to be published in May of 2020.

"The Brideship Wife" takes us on a journey of a rarely discussed topic in Canadian history; the transport of women from Britain to British Columbia during the 19th century for prospects of marriage and land settlement. Growing up in Canada I had heard of the French "filles du roi" of the 17th century, but I did not realize that England had attempted something similar nearly 200 years later. The topic of the story pulled me in from the beginning as the historian in me wanted to learn more.

As a novel, I found that I liked this story overall, but the pacing felt dreadfully glacier. Interesting things were happening, but I often found my interest waning. The characters were bland and cliché, fitting succinctly into their black and white boxes with no morally grey areas, but the events themselves held some kernel of truth and you could tell that Howard did her research prior to writing. This is a good read to get a broad idea of the lives and stories of brideship wives, but I think there are better 19th century period novels that have been published.

The Brideship Wife follows a young girl named Charlotte in the late 1800's who leaves England when she is caught in a scandal with some very rather powerful political figures. She boards a ship bound for Victoria in the new British Colony that is now Canada. The ship holds many women who have been sent to the new colony to become wives or hopefully find a better life than what they had in England.
I did enjoy the book. I"m a sucker for a happy ending so I liked that this one had a relatively happy ending. I think it was also realistic about events that happened during the late 1800's. Women's roles were very much defined by their husbands and controlled by the men in their lives. Taking a woman who didn't have a lot left to her name provided her with some interesting obstacles.
This book definitely felt well researched and well told. It was very interesting to be reading about Canada before there was technically an official Canada. Growing up in the Pacific Northwest, I definitely know of a lot of the places that were mentioned in the book. I realized about half way through the book how frustrated I was with some of the events that were happening but I think overall, the characters were well written with a very likable main character as well. I enjoyed it.

This book is historical fiction. That is that though fiction it is based on actual events. There were ships leaving Englad called Brideships. This ships had as passengers women from all walks in life that during to circumstances had little or no money. The ships would these women half way around the world to Victoria.
Charlotte and Harriet are sisters. Harriet has made a nice marriage and is a member of high society. Charlotte has not married yet and her sister and brother-in-law are trying to find her a suitable spouse. Since she does not have a dowry she is not in the running to make a great marriage.
After being almost raped by a high society man Charlotte and her sister are sent packing by her sister's husband. That is how they ended up on the Bridesmaid shop going to British Columbia.
This story of Charlotte and Harriet tells us many things. One remarkable thing was that a lot of the women going on the ship were just going to start a new life. Whether the got husbands or not. It was a time to gain freedom. To be able to be independent and make a new chapter in their story.
Intriguing, educational and dramatic!

I love the main part of the story and wish we had left England sooner to give it more time to flourish. In fact, Id have happily spent more time with Charlotte and Harriet than anything to do with Charles and George who enraged me endlessly. As did some of the other ship passengers. Briefly touching on themes of colonialism and empirialism, I do wish the author spent more time the with First Nations story and how new beginnings from those who were marginalized and outcasts in their society meant taking so much from those people. So I guess it's a sign of a book worth readingwhen you wanted it to be longer, Fuller bc there was so much story to be told. Thank you to S&S and NetGalley for the arc and I'll be looking for more from this author and reading up on the brideship story as well

From the rigid social circles of Victorian England, The Brideship Wife takes us on a journey through a time when politics favored men and women were little more than trinkets to be bartered. I was not aware of this "brideship "history . Charlotte was likable, and amazing that at 22, she and the other girls evoked on an adventure of this magnitude--single, sailing around Cape Horn, docking in British Columbia without home, jobs, or any prospects. And yet all of it was pretty mundane. Everything just worked out.

I did not think i was Going to enjoy this novel , but I was to give feedback on it so I kept reading.
It was slow at the beginning for me. But as I got to know the characters, I started to enjoy it.
Th book is based on history and some of the events actually occurred. It it’s basically the story of two sisters who resided in England in the mid 1800’’s. They travelled together on a ship across the Atlantic ; one sister to start a new life.
This was a mixture of history and fiction based on that history.
I throughly enjoyed the book.

The Brideship Wife by Leslie Howard chronicles the story of two sisters, Charlotte & Harriet, from the late 19th century England. At this time in history a woman had minimal rights. It was the duty of a young woman to marry well so her husband could support her. Harriet had done this. Charles was an up and coming politician in line to inherit his uncle's seat in Parliament. He had taken Charlotte in because their parents were dead, but it was now time for her to marry and they wanted her to marry George, one of Charles's colleagues. Things did not happen as planned, and Charlotte ended up on a ship headed to British Columbia with women from all stations in life sent to marry and bring British culture to western Canada.

The story is filled with perils of the trip, tragedies & triumphs, heart break, love lost and regained, and separation of the classes. It is the story of women who stood strong and made their own way. It brought to life a part of North American history I did not know.

I enjoyed reading this book. It had a good story to it. I liked the variety of characters in it. In the about the author section at the end of the book it says that it is the debut book by this author. I also like that this author is from my home country of Canada. I look forward to this author putting out more good books,for sure.

As I read this book, I vacillated between thinking it was it was quite good and being quite disappointed in it. It starts off with a lot of info dumps, because obviously it's super important to know all about the main characters' lives and what their parents' marriage was like. The main character is the common cliche of a woman with today's sensibilities living in the past. I thought for sure she would get a bee in her bonnet about settling the wilderness of Western Canada and decide to ship out, but the way she reached this decision was a lot more interesting that I had assumed, so I was impressed for a bit.

Then comes the time on the ship. The description I read of the book led me to believe that it's mostly set in Canada, but more than half of the book takes place before they ever land in the New World. A lot more took place on the ship than I thought truly necessary. I was always interested in finding out what British Columbia would hold and had to wait a long time for any answers. It's not until 63% that we finally reach our destination and get off the boat for good, making this far more of a book about a boat ride than about people settling the Canadian wilderness. There's nothing inherently wrong about a book taking place aboard ship, but I wish I had known from the beginning that the word "ship" in the title was going to be much more important than either "bride" or "wife." I constantly wished we would just arrive already so the story could actually get moving.

Once we do land, the story finally gets going, but some of the main character's choices made little sense to me. I can't put them here without risking spoilers, but she turns proposals down (isn't the whole point here to become a wife?) and whenever someone hits on her or appears to possibly be hitting on her, she thinks to herself how much she isn't interested, before she even remotely gets to know them. I'm all for being choosy but the ratio of men to women is insane in this time and place (one of the other brideship wives gets proposed to the moment she's off the ship) yet our main character goes on no dates nor has any romance at all once she reaches Canada. I was so lost in the last 40%. It was like the main character just wanted to get to Canada and she was never planning on marrying anyone there, even though that was supposed to be the whole reason behind the endeavor. It made no sense. Until the end, where a completely ridiculous thing happens that makes everything up until then make more sense from a writing perspective. Obviously the writer knew this super unlikely thing would happen, but how did the main character know? Color me confused.

I was very put off by the ending, but there were enough interesting things that happened throughout the book that I didn't regret reading it. I just really wish the synopsis/description had been more clear that it's much more about crossing the Atlantic than it is about settling Canada.

I like to thank Netgally foIr a advanced copy.

The Brideship Wife is a enjoyable heartwarming story of one woman's journey from England to British Columbia. I really enjoyed books that have great growth with the characters. Charlotte grew so much through this story I loved the woman she became. The social injustice that women dealt with during that time frame was very frustrating.

This was a easy enjoyable read. The history regarding the Brideship was very interesting I think it would open up many more stories .

This novel is based has been meticulously researched and has real people interspersed with fictional characters. The characters are well defined and believable. Charlotte is a gentlewoman who is left without a dowry with which to marry so she lives with her sister and her husband. They pick out George a member of parliament who tries to rape Charlotte. While Charlotte is able to get away she can’t tell anyone because George threatens her that he will say that she tried to seduce him. During the Victorian times the women had no rights or recourse. Charlotte is forced to leave England for British Columbia with a boatload of women needed to colonize the country. Harriette her sister is forced to go with her. Her husband wants to get rid of her because she has not given him an heir. The story is about their journey to British Columbia and all the people they meet. I don’t want to give away the plot. The story is about women in mid 19th century, their rights or lack there of, independence, survival, relationships, the treatment of the native people and love. It is a very good debut historical novel . Thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for this ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

I received an Advanced Reader Copy via @netgalley for an honest review. Historical fiction is one of my favorite genres, I usually learn new things reading them. The Brideship Wife is based on the history of the British bride ships. Well researched and beautifully told, these women risked everything for freedom. *The map at the end of the book shows just how amazing these trips were- the ships sailed from England to the western coast of Canada (British Columbia) and since the Panama Canal hadn't been dug the journey was even longer having to sail around South America.