I wanted to love this book more than I did....but watching a tv show and reading about their life are two very different things. I thought it was very slow moving and really covered a short amount of time - but I guess they didn't stay in Kansas very long. I probably need to go back and read the Little House series. Howerver it is still worth the read. The life that settlers lived was very hard -- not sure why anyone wanted to travel and settle in new land the way the did. A woman really needed dozens of skills to survive for both her and her family. It is also appalling how we treated Native Americans - - and what our attitudes were towards them at the time.

In this novel authorized by the Little House estate, Sarah Miller vividly recreates the beauty, hardship, and joys of the frontier in a dazzling work of historical fiction, a captivating story that illuminates one courageous, resilient, and loving pioneer woman as never before—Caroline Ingalls, "Ma" in Laura Ingalls Wilder’s beloved Little House books.

In the frigid days of February, 1870, Caroline Ingalls and her family leave the familiar comforts of the Big Woods of Wisconsin and the warm bosom of her family, for a new life in Kansas Indian Territory. Packing what they can carry in their wagon, Caroline, her husband Charles, and their little girls, Mary and Laura, head west to settle in a beautiful, unpredictable land full of promise and peril.

The pioneer life is a hard one, especially for a pregnant woman with no friends or kin to turn to for comfort or help. The burden of work must be shouldered alone, sickness tended without the aid of doctors, and babies birthed without the accustomed hands of mothers or sisters. But Caroline’s new world is also full of tender joys. In adapting to this strange new place and transforming a rough log house built by Charles’ hands into a home, Caroline must draw on untapped wells of strength she does not know she possesses.

Although I never read the original Little House on the Prairie series, I am familiar with the popular tv series loosely based upon them. None of this hindered my understanding or appreciation of this novel. I enjoyed the "voice" of Laura's famous mother, even though I felt that Sarah Miller did overlay a 21st century feminist flavor to many of her internal struggles. Overall, I would recommend this title.