ANSWER CREEK by Ashley Sweeney

I was not expecting to like this book as much as I did. The only reason being that I had read another book that is along the same lines as this one. The wagon train from Missouri to California. While this one is quite a bit different and delves into things that the other did not, both are great books. This book literally had me holding my breath in places.

What would you do to survive? To live or allow others to live. When you are surrounded by death everyday and have such limited choices. What would you do? I don’t think any of us knows unless we are faced with the desperate, horrific, unheard of, challenges that these people where faced with. Day in and day out they marched on. So many didn’t make it. Such heartache. So much death and despair. Then to choose to go a different route and be stranded for months on end with nothing to eat, nothing to keep you warm, nothing to assure you that things will get better. Life during these times were so awful yet many people chose to go west. To go where they thought life would be better. Life would be easier. Giving not thought to what they would face.

Ada was only nineteen years old and had already had a lifetime of loss. A lifetime of heartache. She didn’t need anymore yet here she was facing the worst life imaginable. Stranded on a snowed over mountain with people who became her family. Friends who she thought would last a lifetime. A love she looked forward to seeing through. She had no idea what lay ahead for her. For any of them. Ada wanted a life, a family.

This book is so well written you will feel like you are right there in this wagon train heading west. The tiredness, the dust, the sickness and sadness. Losing friends to such horrible accidents. You will feel the freezing cold of the many feet of snow covering the mountain. The hunger from not having anything to eat. The pain of losing more than you ever thought imaginable. This story brought out so many feelings for me. From some laughter and deep sadness. Emotions that will stay with me for a good while every time I think of what these people endured. This author did a wonderful job with the descriptions in this book. You will love the characters, cry with them, laugh with them and feel the emptiness they felt. The hopelessness that some felt. The desperation to live. Sometimes we do things we never ever thought possible just to survive. Don’t judge until you have walked a mile in their shoes.

Thank you so much to #NetGalley, #SheWritesPress, #AshleyESweeney for the ARC of this book. This is my own true review.

I gave it a big 5 stars and a very high recommendation.. Enjoy with an open mind and open heart.