what I’m reading: the frozen river by ariel lawhon.

It’s 1789 and Martha Ballard has been summoned to examine the body of a man who was found frozen in the river. As a midwife, Martha knows the ins and outs of almost everyone in the town, just as she knows that the man whose body she is examining has been accused of raping one of the local women months earlier. Even though Martha concludes the man has been murdered, she is overruled by a young arrogant physician and Martha is forced to investigate the murder herself.

This book was so captivating and I liked it a lot. It was worth the three months I was waiting on hold for it to become available from the library.

Martha Ballard was a real person and this book is inspired by her life. It is a fabulous example of historical fiction and everything that I want when I read about times past. I love books that teach me things and there were so many things that I googled while reading to learn more about. All of the little historical tidbits that were intertwined in the story were fascinating.

I loved all of Martha’s diary entries. They were so simple but provided so much context to what life was like at that time. After reading the author’s note at the end I learned that the entries are real entries that Martha made in her diary (but with modern spellings and context). At first, you might wonder, why am I reading these tiring diary entries, but they slowly become to be a main focus of the book.

There’s a diverse group of characters in the book, some I loved and some I hated. It will be no surprise to anyone but life was not easy for women in colonial America and this book highlights a lot of injustices they faced. Still, there are some great male characters in the story, such as Martha’s husband.

This book was highly anticipated for me – I even read it before all the other books I already had checked out from the library. It did not disappoint!

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