Noelle Sickels Historical fiction Historical novels Historical fiction about WWII Historical paranormal thriller Teaneck NJ in the sixties Out of Love The Shopkeeper’s Wife The Medium Walking West In domestic Service Zone 3 Barefoot Productions Time Was Reminiscences by senior citizens Noelle Sickels Poetry Noelle Sickels Anthologies Noelle Sickels Memoir Searching for Armando
Praise from Reviewers
a stirring tale of triumph over despair
The westward expansion of the American frontier in the mid-1800’s is expertly chronicled in this heart-rending novel. Historically accurate in its scope and detail, it’s a stirring tale of triumph over despair.
Publisher’s Weekly
patches of poetry
Sickels has garbed her novel in such authenticity that she may as well have been there herself. Her approach is homespun, with patches of poetry.
Dick Roraback, Los Angeles Times
a story of great courage
The Old West remains a source for fine stories, and this one, told by a wife and mother being forced to leave everything she holds dear, is a wrenching tale. Written around Alice Muller, it is a gentle and compassionate tale that is very well written, with almost lyrical precision. Interspersed with diary entries, it is a story of great courage in the face of daunting adversity.
Rima L. Firrone, Ocala Star-Banner (Florida)
a tribute to pioneer women
A thoroughly researched tribute to pioneer women, set to the creak of wagon wheels.
Kirkus Reviews
gives a woman's perspective
“WALKING WEST gives a woman's perspective on a historical period more often portrayed through the male icons of cowboys, outlaws and gold-seekers.”
Susan Saxton D’Aoust, The River Journal (Montana)
Praise from Readers
brimming with unforgettable characters and settings and scenes
This book is brimming with unforgettable characters and settings and scenes that will take you on an emotional ride. It’s full of family, love, joy, hardship, pain, and loss --- a story about strong women and strong wills. WALKING WEST will break your heart, but also warm it.
A Customer, Amazon
kept me riveted
I loved this book SO much that I hated to finish it. I miss the wonderful characters who absolutely came to life on the pages. Every spare moment I had, I grabbed it to read more. It is that captivating! Not a predictable story in the least; there are unexpected twists, heartbreaking losses and turns that kept me riveted. This is one book that I will read again and again.
Mimi, Amazon
The story made me think, and it made me cry.
The story made me think, and it made me cry several times. I thought the women’s experiences on the trail were wonderfully done, their feelings and thoughts as well as their actions. The men’s characters and thoughts were captured with complexity, too.
Judy Lightfoot, Washington
intriguing and inspirational
I found this book to be intriguing and inspirational. The characters are vivid, as are the hardships that they endure. I could not put this book down. The sad moments are unbelievably touching, and the happy moments brought tears of joy to my eyes.
A Customer, Amazon
I loved this book.
You are invited to experience along with the different characters, their thoughts, fears, doubts, angers, resentments, and secrets. You’ll discover right away that the women who walked along beside the men, drove oxen, sang, toiled, gave birth, and died had inner strengths buried deep within their souls that they didn’t even know they had. I loved this book.
Judy L., Amazon
great beauty and emotion
Sickels writes with great beauty and emotion, a simple story with complex feelings and outcomes. The pioneers’ triumphs and tragedies are our own, and we cheer them along and cry for them in turn. This is a magnificent book.
Madge Walls, Amazon
The diary entries were wonderful.
I gobbled up this book. The physical descriptions of place were so clear that I felt I was there with the characters, and the doors were opened into their thoughts as well. The diary entries were wonderful.
Kathleen Worley, Oregon
character development is amazing
Even though it’s been a few weeks since I put the book down, there are so many things from it that are still popping into my head randomly --- one of the sure signs of great writing, in my opinion. The character development is amazing, especially with so many of them, and it’s so easy to connect with each one in so many different ways. I got so wrapped up in the story, I ended up doing a lot of crying!
Annie Carmona, Wisconsin
I am awaiting a sequel.
I really enjoyed this book. There was not a single part in the entire book that I was bored. It took off and historically rendered a phenomenon that has not been written about enough: the woman’s impact on the westward movement. I am awaiting a sequel.
Dana Shull, Amazon
This is a history one can believe in.
It is truly hard to isolate one passage in this book that stands out more than the rest, for there is so much fine writing here. This is a history one can believe in. What’s more this is a book for women ravenous for self-images. Alice is full-bodied, courageous, intelligent, and, amazingly, in love with a husband who does what no other literary figure has ever done: he takes time to make love to his wife, to do what pleases her. There is an amazing cast of characters, but this is not a book about character alone; this is also a book about place as well. The West is truly the frontier land and still is, and this book captures that feel of endless space, and loneliness, and beauty.
A Customer, Amazon
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