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The Grass Widow
ASIN moved from less recent edition
Aidan Blackstone has nothing. A thousand miles from home, sent to the frontier by a family that doesn't want her back, her only hope for survival is distant relatives who say they'll take her in. As a familiar civilization fades into the distance, she is nineteen, unmarried and pregnant, and has no reason to think that the year 1876 won't be her last.
But she's not met at the Washburn, Kansas, train station by the Bodett family. Only the daughter, Jocelyn, is there to greet her. Aidan finds herself bound for the Bodett farm, where influenza has wiped out the rest of the family, leaving young joss in perilous financial straits and their only source of food and shelter at risk.
Joss, in her brother's clothes and severely lacking in social graces, has no time to mollycoddle a pampered, pregnant New England lady. It's work or starve, literally. There are no servants, no laborers - just a failing farm, impending winter and the two of them to face it together.
The Grass Widow showcases the ingenuity, determination and courage of women's frontier spirits in a passionate, sensuous love story. Originally published in 1996, Nanci Little's wonderfully detailed and researched novel picks up with the generation of women where Patience and Sarah left off.
Aidan Blackstone has nothing. A thousand miles from home, sent to the frontier by a family that doesn't want her back, her only hope for survival is distant relatives who say they'll take her in. As a familiar civilization fades into the distance, she is nineteen, unmarried and pregnant, and has no reason to think that the year 1876 won't be her last.
But she's not met at the Washburn, Kansas, train station by the Bodett family. Only the daughter, Jocelyn, is there to greet her. Aidan finds herself bound for the Bodett farm, where influenza has wiped out the rest of the family, leaving young joss in perilous financial straits and their only source of food and shelter at risk.
Joss, in her brother's clothes and severely lacking in social graces, has no time to mollycoddle a pampered, pregnant New England lady. It's work or starve, literally. There are no servants, no laborers - just a failing farm, impending winter and the two of them to face it together.
The Grass Widow showcases the ingenuity, determination and courage of women's frontier spirits in a passionate, sensuous love story. Originally published in 1996, Nanci Little's wonderfully detailed and researched novel picks up with the generation of women where Patience and Sarah left off.
266 pages, Kindle Edition
First published May 1, 1996
18 people are currently reading
221 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews
August 14, 2022
Very nice historical romance, well written and researched.
December 14, 2013
I enjoyed some of the humour in this book, the overall description and set up of the world was convincing and I warmed to both main characters. Several events were quite surprising.
It suffered from the problem that afflicts a lot of these historic lesbian novels, where no one has the right reaction to their homosexuality. Neither woman sees a problem with it for longer than half a chapter, and no one else comments on it, beyond accepting it because it makes them happy. Now, that's lovely and beautiful and everything, but it's not realistic.
The same goes for the 'one character knows the bible' trope - Joss reads the bible and reasons that Leviticus doesn't forbid homosexuality, I nearly bought it, but then it slipped into 'gee, Jesus probably wasn't white' at which point I sort of rolled my eyes - these are not thoughts that seemed period appropriate. Modern mindsets slipping into historic fiction stick out like sore cellphones.
It was also sometimes a little difficult to know what was happening, there was a lot of dialect, and the switches in perspective and place weren't well signposted, so the latter part of the novel, with fever dreams etc, was difficult to navigate.
Overall, it was alright, and enjoyable.
It suffered from the problem that afflicts a lot of these historic lesbian novels, where no one has the right reaction to their homosexuality. Neither woman sees a problem with it for longer than half a chapter, and no one else comments on it, beyond accepting it because it makes them happy. Now, that's lovely and beautiful and everything, but it's not realistic.
The same goes for the 'one character knows the bible' trope - Joss reads the bible and reasons that Leviticus doesn't forbid homosexuality, I nearly bought it, but then it slipped into 'gee, Jesus probably wasn't white' at which point I sort of rolled my eyes - these are not thoughts that seemed period appropriate. Modern mindsets slipping into historic fiction stick out like sore cellphones.
It was also sometimes a little difficult to know what was happening, there was a lot of dialect, and the switches in perspective and place weren't well signposted, so the latter part of the novel, with fever dreams etc, was difficult to navigate.
Overall, it was alright, and enjoyable.
May 30, 2019
I picked this book up a while ago and just didn’t get around to reading it until now. Historical fiction is my favorite genre. I tend to lean toward pioneer women and American Old West settings. Really anything written about life sometime during 1800-1935 will pick up and give it a go. Everything about this book told me it would be a perfect read for me. However, I didn’t love it. I have a degree in history and while I often read historical texts, I do not want to do so when reading for enjoyment. The language used in my opinion was too much. It made it difficult to read, and for me, would have been much better received had it only been a few phrases or words instead of entire paragraphs.
This book had a lot of good things going for it, but with the language used it is easy to get kind of lost, especially when more than one character is talking, and a lot is happening at the same time. I think the beginning is much better written than the end. As the book progresses, it becomes more difficult to read. A lot of jumping around, and a lot of confusing paragraphs. Just started falling apart as it went along. While it wasn’t a major concern for me, the distant relative relationship may be distasteful for some. 2.5 stars rounded up to 3 because I think we need more historical romances written, especially during this time period.
This book had a lot of good things going for it, but with the language used it is easy to get kind of lost, especially when more than one character is talking, and a lot is happening at the same time. I think the beginning is much better written than the end. As the book progresses, it becomes more difficult to read. A lot of jumping around, and a lot of confusing paragraphs. Just started falling apart as it went along. While it wasn’t a major concern for me, the distant relative relationship may be distasteful for some. 2.5 stars rounded up to 3 because I think we need more historical romances written, especially during this time period.
March 26, 2021
This was a good book, I thoroughly enjoyed it. Surprisingly, the accent didn't bother me as much as I thought it would, according to the reviews I read before I got the book.
This book is about Aidan, nineteen years old and pregnant, but not married. Back then this was considered shameful and prompted her father to kick her out of her home, where she goes next is where she meets Joss. I enjoyed both of these characters, their dynamic and the way their love blossomed, I wasn't bothered TOO much about the whole cousin thing.
I agree that towards the end, the book got a little messy, but I think that reflects a certain character's state of mind, so with a bit of careful reading I was somewhat able to unentangle it.
All in all, a very enjoyable read in my opinion. Didn't find myself rolling my eyes or yawning through much of it, so 3 stars.
This book is about Aidan, nineteen years old and pregnant, but not married. Back then this was considered shameful and prompted her father to kick her out of her home, where she goes next is where she meets Joss. I enjoyed both of these characters, their dynamic and the way their love blossomed, I wasn't bothered TOO much about the whole cousin thing.
I agree that towards the end, the book got a little messy, but I think that reflects a certain character's state of mind, so with a bit of careful reading I was somewhat able to unentangle it.
All in all, a very enjoyable read in my opinion. Didn't find myself rolling my eyes or yawning through much of it, so 3 stars.
July 26, 2024
This author does have a way with words, but I found this book confusing at times because of the diction, the pacing, and sometimes jarring scene transition.
January 23, 2022
3.5 stars ⭐️ Another example of how hard life is on the prairie. Aidan is a wealthy physician’s daughter who is assaulted by her suitor and becomes pregnant. When she refuses to marry her assaulter, her a-hole father send her to relatives in Kansas. There she meets her “cousin” Joss and finds out the entire family died of the gripe (influenza). Drama and hardship are had along with a slow burn romance. I enjoyed the story but it may have been a tad long.
March 31, 2016
Like every Nanci Little book I've read this was a joy from cover to cover. It is rare to find writing this beautiful. The story is believable and historically faithful; the two women at the center of it are nuanced, vulnerable and strong, wise and foolish, mature and naive: two young women growing together. The story-telling is so realistic that I felt transported to a dirt floor farm house, awash in lantern light and scented from wood-burning fires and baking biscuits. I didn't want to go home when the last page was turned. I have read it twice and have no doubt that I will be picking it up again.
December 23, 2017
This is probably one of my favorite books in my library. One of the rare books I actually bought in paperback after reading it in epub format.
Life for Joss and Aiden isn't easy on their little farm back in the 1800s, especially with sickness having taken the remainder of Joss's family from her, and Aiden having been sent away for the crime of becoming pregnant from her rapist (and refusing to marry him).
But they have each other, and they'll make it work. Theirs is a beautiful love story that stole my heart.
Life for Joss and Aiden isn't easy on their little farm back in the 1800s, especially with sickness having taken the remainder of Joss's family from her, and Aiden having been sent away for the crime of becoming pregnant from her rapist (and refusing to marry him).
But they have each other, and they'll make it work. Theirs is a beautiful love story that stole my heart.
July 8, 2014
I thoroughly enjoyed this novel although sometimes I had some difficulties to really get what some characters were saying; am not an expert on old Kansas speak!!! :)
This historical period is very interesting, and now I think I have to re-read "Patience&Sarah", one of the first lesbian novels I've ever read! And loved!
This historical period is very interesting, and now I think I have to re-read "Patience&Sarah", one of the first lesbian novels I've ever read! And loved!
October 21, 2023
Wonderful story of the love between two women facing the hardships and bigotry of frontier life.
Loved the strength of both women and their determination to fight for their life together against the bigotry of the frontier community and their own families.
Loved the strength of both women and their determination to fight for their life together against the bigotry of the frontier community and their own families.
August 26, 2022
I absolutely adore this book. Read it multiple times. I come back to it almost every year.
May 7, 2020
I've read this twice now. Overall the atmosphere is nice, the characters have depth and the build-up of romantic tension is well done. I do have a couple issues with it, namely:
In general the author has a habit of introducing an issue/conflict and then resolving it really quickly and pretty much never bringing it up again, which I find a bit annoying and which, since it happens with the final scene of the book as well, leaves the ending a bit unsatisfying. Stretch out your denouement a little! This is a romance novel, I'm reading it for the fluffy vibes, let me relish in the fluff for like, a few pages at least. One of the specific themes she does this with is the characters relationship to religion w/r/t their sexuality/romantic relationship. She shows us them struggling to reconcile 19th c christianity w/ being gay af a little bit, but mostly one character has like 2 monologues to the other where they're like, "I've been thinking about it, and we're fine bc [insert argument]" and the other is like, "I guess you're right?" and it comes off as a bit lecture-y instead of actual, emotionally-charged internal conflict, which would have been much more interesting and a dynamic exploration of queer relationships in a historical context. Instead it reads to me as kind of hand-waving the issue of contemporary internalized homophobia aside without just entirely ignoring it, which I would have been down for because of suspension of disbelief. As it is I'm just here like, girl, this is being sold by a small publisher on specialty websites for queer fiction. Your audience is mostly, if not entirely, queer. Spare us the sermon, we don't need it and we've heard it before.
EDIT: the edition of this I read was published in 2010 so I didn't realize this was apparently originally published in 1996, in which case this actually makes a little more sense--a lot of queer lit in the 90s had this kind of thing in it and I think maybe there was less cultural saturation of this type of argument/more need for young queers reading the work to be reassured on this level. So that's understandable I suppose, but still a bit annoying as a modern reader.
The other thing that made me a little uncomfortable is that the one named character of color is a former slave with a brain injury. He's definitely a heroic character, which is nice, but the brain injury means his dialogue is garbled. This in of itself isn't necessarily an issue but because he's the only black character (...or named nonwhite character in general) it sits uncomfortably with me because of stereotypes around intelligence/education and race, and also makes me wonder a bit if the author gave him a brain injury to get around discomfort with writing ebonics, which, fair enough, but then maybe just...have the character talk with the same folksy-isms of your other rural characters?
I did appreciate that the author included a variety of disabled characters. That's a rare treat in historical fiction.
Anyway, it's imperfect but overall I'd recommend it. It's a nice, comforting balm for whenever I watch/read/whatever western-themed media and finish it feeling like, 'wish that were less straight'.
In general the author has a habit of introducing an issue/conflict and then resolving it really quickly and pretty much never bringing it up again, which I find a bit annoying and which, since it happens with the final scene of the book as well, leaves the ending a bit unsatisfying. Stretch out your denouement a little! This is a romance novel, I'm reading it for the fluffy vibes, let me relish in the fluff for like, a few pages at least. One of the specific themes she does this with is the characters relationship to religion w/r/t their sexuality/romantic relationship. She shows us them struggling to reconcile 19th c christianity w/ being gay af a little bit, but mostly one character has like 2 monologues to the other where they're like, "I've been thinking about it, and we're fine bc [insert argument]" and the other is like, "I guess you're right?" and it comes off as a bit lecture-y instead of actual, emotionally-charged internal conflict, which would have been much more interesting and a dynamic exploration of queer relationships in a historical context. Instead it reads to me as kind of hand-waving the issue of contemporary internalized homophobia aside without just entirely ignoring it, which I would have been down for because of suspension of disbelief. As it is I'm just here like, girl, this is being sold by a small publisher on specialty websites for queer fiction. Your audience is mostly, if not entirely, queer. Spare us the sermon, we don't need it and we've heard it before.
EDIT: the edition of this I read was published in 2010 so I didn't realize this was apparently originally published in 1996, in which case this actually makes a little more sense--a lot of queer lit in the 90s had this kind of thing in it and I think maybe there was less cultural saturation of this type of argument/more need for young queers reading the work to be reassured on this level. So that's understandable I suppose, but still a bit annoying as a modern reader.
The other thing that made me a little uncomfortable is that the one named character of color is a former slave with a brain injury. He's definitely a heroic character, which is nice, but the brain injury means his dialogue is garbled. This in of itself isn't necessarily an issue but because he's the only black character (...or named nonwhite character in general) it sits uncomfortably with me because of stereotypes around intelligence/education and race, and also makes me wonder a bit if the author gave him a brain injury to get around discomfort with writing ebonics, which, fair enough, but then maybe just...have the character talk with the same folksy-isms of your other rural characters?
I did appreciate that the author included a variety of disabled characters. That's a rare treat in historical fiction.
Anyway, it's imperfect but overall I'd recommend it. It's a nice, comforting balm for whenever I watch/read/whatever western-themed media and finish it feeling like, 'wish that were less straight'.
August 21, 2024
I did like a lot of things about this book, and you can tell it was very well researched. There was just a barrier for me since it was dense (?) In some aspects I suppose. The usage of old timey slang and in detail descriptions of old farming/hunting/etc methods was interesting but also kind of hard to picture. But it had a lot of sweet moments and interesting ideas about religion and sexuality. I can't say I was the most attached to the main characters (and I was put off by the distant-cousin relationship, there was literally no reason that should be included) but I did find their chemistry fun at some points. I wish that there was just more done with the concept I suppose, the whole time they just stay on the farm and we don't learn too much about Washburn Station. Also both Aiden and Joss could be overly dramatic about things at times and it got a little irritating, especially when it feels like it's there to make things happen. Overall, I liked it, not super plot heavy but it has heart and I appreciate what it was going for. But seriously why did they have to be related in any way?
December 17, 2019
More than 3.5 stars but less than 4.
If you're looking for a lot if action, this isn't it. But it does pull you into the hard life of a farmer in 1876 Kansas. I could feel the constant sweat and grime and exhaustion.
And there is LOT of character work in this, working through stuff. Which I admire from the author to pull that off.
If you're looking for a lot if action, this isn't it. But it does pull you into the hard life of a farmer in 1876 Kansas. I could feel the constant sweat and grime and exhaustion.
And there is LOT of character work in this, working through stuff. Which I admire from the author to pull that off.
April 26, 2020
This was so hard to read. I’m not sure if the accent got to me, the formatting did or there were entire sections missing. I’m still not quite sure what happened. Somehow we go from Aidens water breaking to the baby being half born and breech. This, according to the next paragraph, took 20 hours. I’d like to check a paperback copy to find out.
March 18, 2024
Good quick story
All in all, it was good story. At first, it was a tad different to understand Joss, but soon found it easier to what she was saying. The chemistry between the two main characters was well done, along with the backdrop made it believable.
All in all, it was good story. At first, it was a tad different to understand Joss, but soon found it easier to what she was saying. The chemistry between the two main characters was well done, along with the backdrop made it believable.
September 7, 2025
Very well-realized historical setting, and convincing historical language. I don't know that this is how Kansas homesteaders would talk, but I believed it utterly while reading. The author does some interesting things with the shifting third person narration, very compelling.
September 20, 2019
the good: sweet romance! hot sex!
the bad: the race issues in this book. oof. oh boy.
the bad: the race issues in this book. oof. oh boy.
May 8, 2025
DNF: thought it was gonna be a nice lesbian western… turns out it’s lesbian cousin fuckers
December 4, 2016
Enjoyed this book.
I enjoyed reading The Grass Widow. The story moves right along. The moral of most of these historic western novels seems to be: be strong or perish. I enjoyed the setting and the characters.
I enjoyed reading The Grass Widow. The story moves right along. The moral of most of these historic western novels seems to be: be strong or perish. I enjoyed the setting and the characters.
March 25, 2015
I'm glad I read The Grass Widow, but some parts of the story come across as just a tad too convenient, like the doc being gay.
October 6, 2017
I enjoyed the story and the humour. This book is about disappointment, pain, religion, bigotry, race and a whole lot of emotional issues.
I found myself asking if the situation had an option will their loving have existed? Also I seem to find the author debating the reference to Joss sex; should u be called a man because you succeed in a man's responsibilities? And the issue of religious issues on homosexuality.
A really nice read!
I found myself asking if the situation had an option will their loving have existed? Also I seem to find the author debating the reference to Joss sex; should u be called a man because you succeed in a man's responsibilities? And the issue of religious issues on homosexuality.
A really nice read!
Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews