Darlene Porter

Lives of Our Mothers Darlene Porter

This first book of a forthcoming trilogy introduces Susannah (Mary) Wiggin as a child. We see the pivotal events of her young life that becomes a motivation for many of her life decisions. The action takes her across the Atlantic, amid life-threatening storms and through the Great Colonial hurricane of 1635. While in Boston, she experiences the harshness of the puritanical government. Later, Mary and her family trek through the Western wilderness to establish a new colony free from religious oppression. One bright, sunny morning, Mary almost loses her toddler to a fearsome Pequot warrior. That interaction carries over into the second book. This debut volume ends with Reverend Hooker's company symbolically breaking away from the Puritan rules by singing hymns of thanksgiving as the group crests the valley of their promised land, Hartford, Connecticut. The series creates a panorama of how women lived, loved, and lost in the seventeenth century.