Where The Sea Turns A Corner: A Victorian Cycling Club Story

by Sarah A. Chrisman

640 pages, Paperback

Published May 11, 2025

About the author

Sarah A. Chrisman grew up in Renton, Washington, in the late twentieth-century, but always felt she should have been born in the 1800's. (When she was a young child, her mother took her to visit the Flavel House Victorian Museum in Astoria, Oregon, and Sarah begged to be left there.) Like any good Victorian lady, she has an advanced education in the humanities: she holds degrees in both International Studies and in French from the University of Washington (c/o 2002.) She has found a way to combine her interest in cultural studies with her lifelong love of history by helping people understand the culture and everyday details of the Victorian era. She has presented to groups at numerous museums, libraries, and schools. She wears Victorian clothing every day and her book, Victorian Secrets: What A Corset Taught Me About The Past, The Present, and Myself, chronicles her first year of wearing a Victorian-style corset twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. She lives with her husband in Port Townsend, Washington, a beautiful Victorian seaport northwest of Seattle.

Reviews

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I just finished reading the last book of Mrs. Chrisman’s Tales of Chetzemoka. This is a wonderful series that I highly recommend. I should have written reviews earlier because they are wonderful stories. That being said, I’ll try to make up for lost time by writing this review.

There’s so many wonderful things about this series. Let me see if I can try to capture a few of them. First of all, if you enjoy reading books that take you back in time, and accurately portray the late Victorian era focusing on the Pacific Northwest, well, this is the series for you. The series starts in the summer of 1881 and ends in the fall of 1896. The location of the story takes place in Washington territory, and brings us through when Washington became the 42nd State of the United States of America in 1889, up through the height of the bicycle craze of 1896. The story revolves around a cycling club in the small town of Chetzemoka (this town is based off of Port Townsend, Washington). In each of the nine books you get to know all the characters in the cycling club. There’s so much I could say about this, but I don’t want to spoil the story before you get a chance to read her books.


However, I will give you some of my favorite highlights of her books. Mrs. Chrisman provides historically accurate details of her books. She puts a lot of time and energy in researching the details to give a realistic and accurate view of the 1880s and 90s. For example, in the first book, “First Wheel in Town,” she describes how Dr. Brown receives a mysterious package and it turns out to be a “Pennyfarthing” bicycle. To a modern day reader, receiving a bicycle is normal item to receive. Yet, in 1881. It was actually a little controversial. You have to read the book to find out why. In another scene in the same book, she talks about her character, Kitty, trying to cook on a two burner parlor stove. I know from personal experience this is a very difficult thing to do. It’s possible, but it’s not like cooking on a full size wood stove. And the description in her book explains beautifully the challenges of trying to cook on a two burner parlor stove.

And I will add one last thing. It happens to be my favorite quote from “Three Women and a Wheel.” Characters Lizzie and Addie are talking about Nurse McCoy and her decision regarding staying as a private duty nurse versus going into a hospital and being a Matron (a.k.a. charge nurse). Addie can’t understand why Nurse McCoy not only stays to care for Silas as a private duty nurse, but why she would want to continue being a private duty nurse. And Lizzie says “Not everyone’s ambitious enough to forgo their own happiness for the sake of what other people consider success.” These are just a few of my favorites. There are many other gems in all of her books. I feel Mrs. Chrisman‘s writing style is delightful. She writes as if she is telling you a story in person. I live and grew up in Michigan, and when I read Chrisman’s tales about her friends and the Pacific Northwest, it is if they come to life. I highly recommend you read all nine books of this series.

And how could I forget a couple more of my favorite things. In everyone the nine books in this series, Mrs. Chrisman includes recipes (I should actually say receipts) and a bibliography with all of her resources. I love that she loves to share this information. The fact that she doesn’t like to keep it a secret from the rest of the world is fantastic. In fact, I have looked up many of the resources that she has given at the back of her books and I have found them very valuable in my own love for history. Again, I’m very glad I’ve read this series and I plan on rereading all of the books again, I’ve enjoyed them that much. I know that Mrs. Chrisman is a writer through and through, and I look forward to see what she writes in the future. Maybe it will be in her new hometown.