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.

A Dream in the Wilderness is available at https://www.amazon.com/Dream-Wilderness-Saga-Book-ebook/dp/B0DJS19HMH.

I am so loving this book cover for so many reasons. One, it reminds me of Little House of the Prairie. Two, it's exciting all my going back to nature senses. Third, it looks like warm weather and right now out my door we're almost nearing winter and already it's freezing. And who wouldn't mind chucking it all and living in the middle of the forest in a log cabin? Yes, I love this cover!

"It was always next year in the farming business. Next year, he would clear another field, so they had a more abundant harvest. Next year, he would buy better equipment. Next year, he would add on an addition to the house so he and Annie could have their own bedroom instead of sharing a loft with the children. He sobered. Next year would never come, because Annie was gone."

Caleb loses his wife and all of his children except for the two oldest to cholera. It devastates him. His wife, Annie, did so much for the family that he felt like life was never going to be the same. He doesn't know how he's going to earn a living as a farmer and take care of two kids at the same time. Caleb cries himself to sleep not letting the children hear him. He realizes that he can't do it all and keep sane so on the suggestion of a friend, he puts an ad in the paper to advertise for a nanny. Sarah Bentley had just graduated college and couldn't find a job no matter how hard she tried. She knows she has to get out of New York in order to find work when she sees an ad for a nanny in the newspaper from a man in Wisconsin. She figures Wisconsin is getting ready to be a state and there will be tons of teacher jobs which is what she went to school for. She mails the man to inquire about the job. 

I'm leaving so much out. Hackensmith's beautiful words do this story much more justice than I can. Caleb sounds like a trusting man. And I can understand him needing help with the kids who mean so much to him. And Sarah Bentley sounds perfect for the kids. I hear the winters in Wisconsin can be brutal so this makes for an interesting first chapter. I can't wait to see what happens now.

Oh definitely definitely definitely yes. Just the whole scenario is something that touches the heart, you know? Oh, plus I love a good historical romance set in 1834. I can't imagine what's going to happen after this and I'm dying to know!