A Dream In The Wilderness

By: Jean Hackensmith

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

If you liked the poignancy and wholesome nature of “The Promise,” you will LOVE “A Dream In the Wilderness.”

Unable to find a teaching position in the flooded job market that is New York City, twenty-one-year-old Sarah Bentley accepts the position of nanny to Caleb Wachsmann’s three children after the farmer’s wife, parents, and infant son die in the Cholera epidemic of 1834. The twist? The job is in Superior, Wisconsin in the Michigan Territory, an unsettled wilderness located on the northwestern tip of Lake Superior.

Caleb is not looking for love; his heart will always belong to his beloved Annie. What he does need is a woman to watch after the children while he toils in the fields making a living for his family. Sarah turns out to be that woman. She raises his children with a gentle and loving hand and also helps Caleb to overcome an unbearable loss. As Wisconsin vies for statehood, the young couple will face challenge after challenge as they struggle to tame a wilderness that really doesn’t want to be tamed at all.

I rarely listen to AI narration as I feel it reduces the story and characters with its ignorance of correct speech.

The author inserted modern language into 1800s living which was very offsetting.

The story was a little dry, but I like old history stories so I kept listening and I sped up the narration which helped.