Prairie River ( Book 1)

Here is a better summary of A Journey of Faith, the first book in the Prairie River series by Kristiana Gregory.

A Journey of Faith
Nessa Clemens is a thirteen-year old orphan living in an orphanage under headmaster Carey's strict rules. She doesn't know who her parents were. She only had two friends. Albert is an orphan just like Nessa. They arrived at the orphanage within days of each other. Albert is really the only kid in the orphanage who is nice to Nessa. Nessa's other friend is Miss Eva. She is the school teacher at Mr. Carey's orphanage. Miss Eva is a orphan , too, so she knows what Nessa is feeling.

Then Nessa turns fourteen. Mr. Carey has a rule that when a child in his orphanage turns fourteen they have to leave and get a job or get married. It doesn't sound so bad to Nessa until she find out that Mr. Carey plans to marry her to Reverend McDuff, one of the ministers in their town. Nessa loathes the idea because th minister never wants to have children, and one of Nessa dreams is to become a mother.

Albert tells Nessa about a town in Kansas called Prairie River. It is barely a dot on the map, he says. It sounds perfect to Nessa. A town in the middle of nowhere, where it is highly unlikely that either Mr. Carey of Reverend McDuff will find her.

So on the morning of the day that Nessa is supposed to be wed she boards a stage to Prairie River. When she arrives she is taken in by kindly Mrs. Lockett. It seems like life will be fine for Nessa, but do other surprises await her in Prairie River?