Review: The Engineer's Wife by Tracey Enerson Wood

The Engineer's Wife

by Tracey Enerson Wood

Publisher: Sourcebooks

Pages: 384

Format: eARC

Buy the Book: Amazon

Goodreads:  Emily Warren Roebling refuses to live conventionally--she knows who she is and what she wants, and she's determined to make change. But then her husband Wash asks the unthinkable: give up her dreams to make his possible.

Emily's fight for women's suffrage is put on hold, and her life transformed when Wash, the Chief Engineer of the Brooklyn Bridge, is injured on the job. Untrained for the task, but under his guidance, she assumes his role, despite stern resistance and overwhelming obstacles. Lines blur as Wash's vision becomes her own, and when he is unable to return to the job, Emily is consumed by it. But as the project takes shape under Emily's direction, she wonders whose legacy she is building--hers, or her husband's. As the monument rises, Emily's marriage, principles, and identity threaten to collapse. When the bridge finally stands finished, will she recognize the woman who built it?

Kritters Thoughts:  When you go back into history to read the stories they almost always focus on the men, so how refreshing to find a story where a woman can take center stage and who did and with her taking the lead something big happened - a bridge!  Did you ever wonder how the Brooklyn Bridge came to be?  Did you think that it was ahead of its time and an engineering feat of its time?!

I guess I had never really thought about bridges in general and never the hows behind the Brooklyn Bridge and how it came to be.  Emily Warren Roebling married and dropped everything to follow her husband as he pursued the family business and his dream - building bridges.  Watching her husband and her father-in-law, build a bridge or two, Emily learned a lot of things and when her husband needed her to take the lead she did and she not only innovated, but fought the authority along the way.

I love historical fiction.  This book is the perfect example.  I love a close look at something that you never questioned and with that close look you learn so much and you learn about the people who were there at a crucial time.  

After finishing reading the book and going to deep dive into the author, I was excited (and sad) to see that this was her fiction debut because she hit it out of the park, but there is no backlist to dive into!  I will not so patiently wait until her next book arrives!

Rating: absolutely loved it and want a sequel

Ebook 2020 Challenge: 76 out of 100

Disclosure of Material Connection:  I received one copy of this book free of charge from Netgalley.  I was not required to write a positive review in exchange for receipt of the book; rather, the opinions expressed in this review are my own.