Diane Donovan, MidWest Review
Book 3 of the Journey of Cornelia Rose series, Pioneer Passage, continues to follow Cornelia Rose's journey on the Oregon Trail as she leaves family and familiarity to cope with the wilderness's challenges, using skills she never knew she had.
What's not to love about an early pioneer story that opens with an especially compelling "you are there" feel?: "Gritting her teeth, Cornelia Rose Entwhistle Wright clamped her mouth shut and refused to vomit her morning's breakfast as it surged up her throat. She leaned on the oxen's yoke, exhausted by the effort, but kept walking."
This tone of personal inspection is evident throughout Cornelia ("Nellie")'s story as she navigates a treacherous land, new possibilities, adversity, and her own heart: "Mercy, this scenery not only captures my breath, but it squeezes my heart full of elation! she thought. Nature presents to my view hill, valley, and mountains in every direction, changing my expectations of splendid landscape entirely from the countryside I loved in the Hudson Valley of New York. Here, I witness a more beautiful sight than I have ever beheld."
Nellie encounters many new ideas on the journey, as well, as sights are set on the Great Salt Lake City and encounters evolve between people whose religions are unfathomably different from her engrained Catholic faith.
It's unusual to see a pioneer woman depicted as not just inherently savvy, but quite educated. Nellie fits both these descriptions, and her character is quite well-rounded as she faces pioneer life and challenges with a spirit and knowledge well fitted to both her personality and her commitment to her marriage.
JF Collen's portrait of a woman who embraces changing mindsets and friendships represents a convincingly realistic account of pioneer life and Oregon Trail experiences that focuses on women's' disparate lives and motivations for undertaking the arduous journey.
As Nellie assumes roles she never envisioned and new interactions with Native Americans and all types of other people she'd never experienced before, she grows in many surprising ways.
By bringing these times and women to life, Collen provides an engrossing story that will be well suited to historical fiction library holdings; especially those strong in American pioneer experience in general and women's history in particular.
