This is the story of two young women from England and Wales in the 1850s traveling by ship to colonial New Zealand at the beginning of its colonization. It's about friendship, it has a little romance, and some adventure. You will be reading about two heroines I found that I enjoyed both women. Helen is going as a mail order bride and Gwyneira a sheep Baron's young and wild daughter who was pretty much won in a Blackjack game. I enjoyed the narrative style of the author and could not put the book down. You get all of the family history for both women and it includes several decades with all the happy and terrible things that happen in their lives. The two main characters have a lot of interesting supporting characters, some are wonderful and some are not The description of New Zealand is vividly told. The end of the story flows very well and everything ended without feeling forced. The whole book was interesting if you like Sagas you will enjoy this one.~~~~~~~~~~Amazon 3.99 right now or if you have prime it's one of the loan books. I am putting up the amazon link because it is hard to find the book from the GR page they do not have the US book up yet. http://www.amazon.com/Land-Long-White-Cloud-ebook/dp/B00802UZ1E/ref=tmm_kin_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1346363746&sr=1-1Helen Davenport, governess for a wealthy London household, longs for a family of her own—but nearing her late twenties, she knows her prospects are dim. Then she spots an advertisement seeking young women to marry New Zealand’s honorable bachelors and begins an affectionate correspondence with a gentleman farmer. When her church offers to pay her travels under an unusual arrangement, she jumps at the opportunity.Meanwhile, not far away in Wales, beautiful and daring Gwyneira Silkham, daughter of a wealthy sheep breeder, is bored with high society. But when a mysterious New Zealand baron deals her father an unlucky blackjack hand, Gwyn’s hand in marriage is suddenly on the table. Her family is outraged, but Gwyn is thrilled to escape the life laid out for her.The two women meet on the ship to Christchurch—Helen traveling in steerage, Gwyn first class—and become unlikely friends. When their new husbands turn out to be very different than expected, the women must help one another find the life—and love—they’d hoped for.Set against the backdrop of colonial nineteenth-century New Zealand, In the Land of the Long White Cloud is a soaring saga of friendship, romance, and unforgettable adventure.
http://www.goodreads.com/event/show/896005-flock-to-unlock-sarah-addison-allen-s-new-coverAfter a three-year break, Sarah Addison Allen's anticipated new novel, LOST LAKE, will be published on February 11, 2014, and enthusiasm for new cover has grown so much that St. Martin's Press decided to create a Flock to Unlock for readers here on Goodreads. If 500 more people add LOST LAKE to their "to-read" shelf, St. Martin's Press has agreed to release the cover early! So please add it to your "to-read" shelf if you haven't already, so we can finally reveal this gorgeous new cover, an original drawing by renowned botanical artist Rosie Sanders.Flock to Unlock ends Monday July 8th!Click hereto add bookhttp://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13481275-the-lost-lake?ac=1
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