Callie Whitaker is travelling in 1851, cooking for her family as they trail a hundred head of cattle from Tennessee to California. She's got two older step-sisters, attractive girls who don't do any work, and her step- mother thinks of her as just a servant. This is why the story is called WAGON TRAIN CINDERELLA.

I enjoyed the setup and kept finding comical moments as Callie encounters a man bathing in the stream, or a homesteader mother displays practical pantaloons under her skirt. Callie's not strictly a step-child as she was abandoned and taken in by the Whitakers, while step implies a remarriage. Probably people used whatever terms suited them. Callie's Pa dislikes travelling in a wagon train, which may carry disputes, people of various sorts and an obligation to stay at the pace of the slowest. But the safety in numbers, companionship and support outweighs disadvantages for most.

Luke McGraw is escorting his sister's family and acts as a guide. He's impressed by the hard-working young woman and realises that Callie's family treat her unfairly. Still, there's nothing anyone can do and Callie knows her place. She didn't get sent to school, like the others, and she constantly underestimates herself. She's twenty-two, but comes across as younger.

I liked the detail about life for women at this time. I also liked that we are given some backstory about the Whitakers to explain why the respectable farmer's wife has the attitudes that she displays. Among other characters is a boy with a learning disability, who improves with the new stimuli on the trail. We also see how the supposedly God- fearing pioneers don't always consider Native people to be human. This allows them to justify taking over the tribal lands. Callie has an instinctive understanding of the wrongness of this attitude, which helps her to recognise inappropriate attitudes she encounters. Beyond the Missouri River, the pioneers are not in the United States and are responsible for enacting law. The tale is occasionally tragic, as were the times.

We can all learn from the growth of Callie's character in this fascinating, lively and well-constructed historical romance. I enjoyed every word of WAGON TRAIN CINDERELLA and thanks to Shirley Kennedy I now know how to yoke an ox to a wagon. I'll definitely look out for more of this author's work.