From This Day Forward

After defying all the teachings of the rural home and church she grew up in, Marissa lands in Chicago and becomes a saloon "girl", her health fails, and she finds herself literally in the gutter. A handsome young doctor treats her back to health, but what's next? Meantime, the other twin Molly, woefully heartbroken when her dream man falls instead for her older sister, decides the only way she can stand this is to leave the area. She takes a desperate step and agrees to become a mail order bride---but no one meets her when she arrives. Where is he and why? The series shifts from Illinois to Minnesota as Molly establishes a new life for herself there as a cook and waitress at a hotel, hoping to spare the poor owner's wife some hard labor as she awaits the birth of her seventh or eighth child. Marissa had written one letter....a whole year before, .....asking for forgiveness and being allowed to return home, but Molly never got it.....and when Molly goes looking for her identical twin, she misses her in the big city of Chicago...assuming her to be dead. So, both sisters are mourning the apparent loss of the other, and both are alone, almost 1000 miles apart. How will they ever meet, or will they? This was a great book and caused me to immediately reach for book number 6 in the series!