Eliza Waite

Eliza Waite is a good read for historical fiction fans who like their characters gritty, honest, and flawed. Food history buffs will enjoy the many historical recipes sprinkled throughout. Widowed Eliza is alone and grief stricken on what is essentially a deserted island in Washington’s Strait of Juan de Fuca. She forages the island’s slim bounty and homesteads by herself, treating herself to the small joys of baking. Working through her grief, she eventually leaves her island to return to the mainland, broke and on her own, to forge a new life as a baker in Alaska during the Klondike gold rush. Hardscrabble Alaska is filled with miners and prostitutes, and now one plucky feminist baker. Debut author Ashley E. Sweeney’s Alaska feels authentic, muddy and cold, exciting and scary, and teeming with the sort of characters you’d expect to find in a boomtown.