I looooove historical fiction! This book was no different. The way it makes you feel as if you're actually there with the characters in 1917 Montana was terrific!

Most of our stories and images of mining towns are about men, so I was intrigued by this novel about women in Butte, Montana. Copper Sky, by Milana Marsenich, tells the connected stories of two very different women in this town.

The novel starts off slowly, with a lot of repetition of the key facts. We also see our main characters considering their lives… Their choices are hard, but someone walking around town dithering isn’t a page-turner. Stay with the slow scenes and lack of character agency, though, for a worthwhile payoff in the compelling second half of the novel. Those slow-moving scenes helped develop these two women into vivid characters. Readers will care for these two so much by the time their secrets are revealed, and this mining town holds loads of secrets.

After growing up in town’s orphan home and tragically losing her sister, Kaly Shane is a sex worker. There are a lot of working girls in town, serving the miners who don’t have wives or who haven’t brought their families out west. Kaly’s newly pregnant, and basically everyone in town knows, except the baby’s father. I was intrigued by the drama, but also wanted to see where this was going.

At the same time, Marika is dealing with an arranged marriage by not dealing with it. She doesn’t refuse and she doesn’t accept and try to make the best of it, she just kind of drags her feet. Again, I was intrigued, but wanted some action. Marika wants to be a doctor, blending the herbal concoctions and folk remedies from her grandmother with modern medicine, but of course this isn’t an easy option for a young woman.

What seemed like a slow beginning and lack of character agency actually highlights the powerlessness of women in this city. The men are engaged in dangerous, grueling, and occasionally very profitable work, while the women try to cope as their husbands, fathers, fiances and friends risk going to work one day and never coming back. Every woman’s life has been touched by tragedy in the mines. They’re only reacting, not controlling these events.

In addition to Kaly and Marika, we also meet Bethie, another prostitute with an opium habit. Like Kaly, she turned to sex work as the only way to support herself, and she relies on her friendship with Kaly, opium, and an unsuitable “romance” to keep herself happy. Her madam is blunt about hiring only the youngest, prettiest girls,and blunt about the work they do. While she’s meant to be unsympathetic, I couldn’t help seeing the hard realities of mining town life in her practical money-making. Even the harsh orphanage matron reveals her reasons for what she’s done, and they’re a result of her own tragedies in life.

I enjoyed the scenes of daily life in Butte so much. This novel showed so many new aspects of life in a mining town. I also found the novel’s ending satisfying and believable, without being overwhelmingly positive, since that wouldn’t have been sense for this setting. At the end of the book, our heroines are on realistic but uplifting paths. ( )

Sorry I never received Copper Sky. Thanks ( )

"No one had ever been there when she needed them."

1917. Copper Camp of Butte, Montana. Growing up as an orphan and losing her twin sister to a murder at the age of 10, Kaly Shane had a lot of ghosts and a lot of secrets. Over the years she tried to live a decent life, but now as a prostitute living on her own in a destitute area of town, she finds herself pregnant by the man who murdered her sister. But did he? What really happened that night and what secrets will she find out about her family?

"They wanted her to marry a man she had never met."

Back in the Balkans Marika Lailich's grandmother, Baba, taught her how to heal and Marika's only wish was to become a doctor, but her father has other plans for her life. At seventeen, Marika does not want to marry a union man for the mines. She "has no intention of giving up her dreams, not to feed the Company fodder, which oppressed the men and fueled the mines." How can she convince the town and her papa that she is serious about healing? What does Marika's future hold?

See my complete review at The Eclectic Review ( )

This book was followed two very different girls living in a mining town in Montana in the early 1900s. I liked reading the book well enough since it gave me a look into other people's lives but it was not a page turner. I also didn't like a lot of the decisions that were made but I know that's what makes it somebody else's life. I'd recommend it as change-of-pace read. ( )

First time novelist Milana Marsenich has produced an overly wrought romantic melodrama set against the backdrop of the boisterous and storied Copper Camp mining metropolis of Butte Montana. A complicated plot line follows the travails of two young women, one a pregnant prostitute, the other a Montenegrin immigrant struggling to break free of her traditional patriarchal community. The storyline of Maria Lailich rings truest. She has inherited the traditional Montenegrin folk healing practices of her ancestors and struggles to become a modern day medical practitioner. Marsenich brings new gender and ethnic perspectives to the western frontier genre. For this reader the current novel features too much melodrama and not enough Montenegro and would encourage the writer to reverse the emphasis in the future. Hvala-Thanks! ( )

Copper Sky by Milana Marsenich

I received a free copy of this ebook through The Library Thing. I am sorry that I cannot agree with other reviewers who have given the book positive reviews. The time period in which it was written sounded interesting to me and that's why I requested a reviewer's copy. However I never got a true feel for the time period in which the events happened. I did not find many of the characters likable with the exception of Marika and Dan and finally Michael toward the end of the book. There seemed to be a lack of character development, and the dialog and interactions between characters seemed unrealistic. ( )

I would like to thank the publishers of Copper Sky, Open Books, for allowing me to have a preview copy of this book.
I don't read a lot of historical fiction, so, I'm not sure what initially drew me to request Copper Sky. The premise of two women trying to better themselves in the rowdy, pre-regulation mining town of Butte Montana sounded like someone's idea of a feminist western. However, after a few chapters I began to warm to the characters, and couldn't put it down.
Kaly Shane, who was abandoned as an infant along with her twin sister Anne Marie, became a prostitute after Anne Marie's murder left her emotionally unstable. Now she is pregnant and she is wondering if she could somehow keep the child in spite of her current status. Slavic immigrant Marika knows her family feels that an arranged marriage is the safest course for her life, but, she wants to be a doctor and choose her own husband.
Butte Montana, too, seems to be ripe for change with its ghosts, blood-soaked history, and gloomy, polluted air.
Secrets are gradually revealed that may bring closure to Kaly and Marika, if looming disaster doesn't take away all they know and love. ( )

Fascinating look at the challenges of life in the copper mining town of Butte, Montana, in the late 1800's and early 1900's. Although the characters are fictional, some of the events in the story are factual. Interesting contrast between the life of a young girl struggling as a prostitute and her friendship with a young woman yearning to be a doctor. Excellent character development makes you truly connect with women and their complicated lives. Thank you to Librarything for the free copy of this book. ( )

I had a hard time getting into this book. It was a bit slow and the characters just didn't resonate with me. ( )

This book was slow to get started and it was hard to like the characters. Once I got past all that I found the history interesting as it was copper mining in the late 1800's. It showed how difficult life was in the mining camps of those days for both men and women. Nothing seemed to come easy and there was no reason to count on "tomorrow". The story was very twisting and took careful reading to keep track of characters. The ending tied up loose ends but left me wanting a bit more. I guess that is the way life happens tho. Well worth my time to read and enjoy and I will probably read more by this author. ( )

The book seems researched and had interesting and meaningful stories. There was just too many of stories and the author didn't seem to be able to connect them up. I would get involved with one story line and then it would stop and I would be back with a different set of characters. It started off very slow - I kept reading waiting for the story to develop. It took a long time. At the same time the characters were engaging. I didn't think it was a terrible or even boring book. I was just hoping for better. ( )

I received a free copy of this book through LibraryThing's Early Reader Scheme.

This is not a book I would normally read and it's certainly not one to make you feel happy. I agree with previous reviewers that the old miner and the white dog were a little at odds with the rest of the book.

The book follows two girls struggling to survive in an early mining settlement in Montana, one having a slightly better life than the other. The beginning was a little clunky, but once I settled into the book I found the alternative chapters of each girl easy enough to read. I did have to be careful when the date changed, but other than that it was easy enough to follow. The descriptions worked well for me and I could picture where the girls were living and the mining accidents were not overworked. I finished the book feeling slightly more hopeful for their lives. ( )

Early Reviewer Book. I liked the story line of this book and how well it tied everything together. The writing was a bit uneven in places and too flowery in others. I realize that life was hard for people back then and this was a good portrayal of those hardships. The part with the old miner and the white dog might have been overdoing it a little bit. Overall a good read. ( )

The introduction is confusing and full of symbols. It didn't lead into the first chapter or the 2nd. Chapter 1 is about Kayla a pregnant, orphaned hooker who somehow knows who the father is? The 2nd chapter you start all over again with another female slated for marriage but described as interested in herbal medicine. These are parallel stories running a chapter at a time about 2 women which intermingle as the story proceeds. The characters, dialogues, settings and descriptions are well developed but somewhat confusing. I think lots of western romance genre' readers will enjoy this book. It didn't hold my attention very well but I don't generally read this kind of book. I found the description interesting amd hoped for a Dr. Quinn sort of character I guess. ( )

Marsenich has written a very gritty novel of an early mining-days settlement in Montana. It is not a light read. The story was evocative of the poverty and mining safety abuses in West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Kentucky. The opening chapters were confusing, with references to a miner and a dog that both seemed spirit-like and a brief dip into the childhood events of the main characters. The latter half of the book was much better and settled into a rhythm that was more readable . It was confusing towards the end when both the miner and dog reappeared in their spirit-like form and detracted from the conclusion. ( )