Disclosure: I received a copy of this book to review. The opinions shared here are 100% mine.

The post-Civil War era has become more interesting to me lately due to the books I’ve been reading.  The Journey of Josephine Cain was tempting to read all weekend long; I found myself choosing it over any other task.  My full sink of dishes can attest to that fact!  The beginning of the story opens with the assassination of President Lincoln, then the book continues through the building of the Transcontinental Railroad.  I’ve never been on a “real” train before, unless the trains at Tweetsie and Dollywood count.  Reading The Journey of Josephine Cain helped me to visualize the incredibly difficult manual labor that such a project required.  

My favorite character in the beginning of the story was Frieda, the nanny/cousin/companion of the main character Josephine.  Frieda had such a servant’s heart.  She devoted herself to raising Josephine the best she could, while still having to defer to Josephine’s mother and father.  Many times I wondered how Josephine might have turned out differently without Frieda.  Josephine reminded me just a bit of Scarlett O’Hara.  Spoiled and privileged, she seemed selfish and a bit tough to swallow.  As she experiences a bit of life, however, she turns out to be a very likable character.  By the end of the story, I found myself really liking Aunt Beatrice.  One of the best things about The Journey Of Josephine Cain was that it wasn’t completely predictable.  There were some elements that I guessed, but most of the story was quite original.  There was enough factual information in the book to make me want to read more about this era of history, too.

The deeper message within this book is the idea of trust.  Josephine learns to trust God to be in control of her life.  The railroad workers have to trust their general and the Indians.   Hudson trusts his family in Pennsylvania to support his decision to make their lives better by moving west.  Will all of this trust pay off?  You’ll just have to read the book to find out!