I was really disappointed in this book. I had heard good reviews of it...but it fell far short for me. I stayed up into the wee hours finishing this, but the only thing that spurred me onward was to see if Lissa ever repented and if Johnnie came to Christ and married Rachel.

Well, the two did marry, but I never saw any indication that he returned to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ before he did so. And after Rachel so firmly stating that she would not marry an unbeliever...it was disappointing More...

In an attempt to review this book, I am a little bit at a loss for words. For those of you who know the other books that I read, recommend and love, I can tell you that the humor is something similar to that found in novels of my beloved favorite author Mary Connealy. The drama is amazing and the characters rip out your heart.

Easily, this novel is powerful, funny, and full of thought-provoking plot. Throughout the entire story, I felt like I was right there along with our protagonist. In so man More...

Historical romance writers frequently give their heroines contemporary ideas and values to make them more sympathetic to the reader and I'm kind of glad Deanne Gist didn't do that with Rachel in this case. As irritating as she is, women of a certain class were absolutely held to a rigid set of standards and deviating from them resulted in horrible consequences.

The book overall is well written and entertaining, and I enjoyed all the details about life in early SF (though it annoyed me no end whe More...

Well this is the third book book I've read by this author and I now have the formula down. Headstrong oppionated girl, probably with an unusual hobby. A hardened man with a good heart, who has probably lost loved ones. Girl ends up in difficult position, stranded, homeless etc. Man is willing to help her. They fall in love, but need to overcome strong opinions either one holds like not wanting to get married , or wanting to return home. In this case Rachel and her two siblings are stranded in Ca More...

Most of the time, I liked Rachel, but her black-and-white view of the world drove me batty. You either were a prostitute for life, or you were lily white, nothing in between.

I could understand why Lissa saw her as a hypocrite. At every new development, Rachel seemed to be redefining the way things worked in order to suit her. If she lived purely by the standards she set for herself, there would not have been a single job she could have taken when they first arrived in San Francisco. She justifie More...

Audience: Adult
Genre: Romance, Historical, Inspirational
Length: 314 pages

Rating: **** (Really liked it)

The Pros: Great characters and a great story. As with MAID TO MATCH the romantic tension was superb and not one iota frustrating -- two thumbs up when I come across that in a romance. I adored the historical setting: San Francisco in the middle of the gold rush. I have a special place in my heart for that setting considering I wrote my first historical novel just up the road from San Fran. I ev More...

Set in 1849, Rachel Van Buren is the oldest of three children who set out on a boat to San Francisco California. Their father has decided to seek out the gold laying on the streets that he has read about in newspapers. During the journey, their father dies leaving Rachel in charge of the others. This unmarried "sunbonnet" is shocked when she discovers that San Francsico is not the place that they expected. This town is not civilized like the east but is filled with gambling, drinking, and ladies More...

This is the fifth book of Deeanne Gist's I've read and I think its probably my least favourite so far.

I find Rachel, the main character a little stuck up. On the other hand, she is 'nice', and even while she's stuck up, she is seeking to understand what she is doing so wrong. She's not 'stubbornly doing her own thing', she just 'doesn't get it.

Her sister seems really. . .trampy right from the start, and I don't see how a properly raised young girl from that time would so deliberately step into More...

I like this book a lot. It was nice to see the Christian influence but the moral of the story you can't measure somebody just by an action, because you don't know what is going on, why they are doing things, or other circumstances that lead them down a path. That we are hear to help and love. It takes the main character the book to realize that we are all God's children and everyone is important. This story is about Rachel and her siblings as they travel to california for the gold rush, when it More...

This is my first Deanne Gist novel and it definitely won't be the last. Rachel and her younger siblings, now orphaned, travel to San Francisco hoping to find employment and a decent life. They instead find sin and debauchery, as this is the Old West and real laws haven't yet been written for this territory. Rachel is a 'sunbonnet', that is, a decent, churchgoing woman and others notice this immediately. She sets herself up as the caretaker for a saloon/hotel owned by a former Christian who slowl More...

I really enjoyed this book. It was so much fun to read. I was expecting a frivolous love story. I felt like I got so much more. I loved the time period that the story was placed in, I found it interesting that a lot of the stories that she used were true stories from her research. It was interesting going on to goodreads and reading everyones reviews.

Some of the comments that I thought were a little strange were readers who felt it was to preachy or that Rachel was Snooty. I loved her little sp More...

I really had mixed feelings about this one. I guess by the end it all just felt a little too preachy for me. I think I could easily go off on a little tangent, so I’ll skip that and just get to the review. Rachel, Lissa and Michael find themselves in a desperate situation when they arrive in San Francisco. Their father had died on the trip over leaving them alone in the world. While Rachel tries to keep everyone together, her siblings turn their backs on her (repeatedly) and decide to go wild. A More...

Rachel becomes the protector and provider of her younger brother and sister when her father dies on their journey to reach California during the gold rush days. She finds that on her arrival to san fransisco that there aren't any reputable places to work or live because most of the town are men and saloons. She gets a job cleaning and cooking for a saloon owner and tries to still keep her etiquet of "a lady" or "bonnet" as the men call it. Through her struggles to remain faithful to her upbringi More...

The Measure of a Lady, is much luck the rest of Deeanne Gist books. That being said, I love Gist’s work. Where some might say its predictable I prefer comfortable. Yes, she follows a similar patterns in all her books, but that doesn’t make the story any less enjoyable. This particular story follows Rachel as she settles in San Francisco with her brother and sister, during the Gold Rush. She finds Johnnie and of course they fall in love.

Jonnie is a great character who has turned from God, but is More...

I read one of the author's later books, Maid to Match. Even though it's Christian historical fiction, it wasn't preachy. The Measure of a Lady, though, has much more Christianity and a main character that is kind of preachy and inflexible and at times has a "holier than thou" attitude. And yet, through the course of the book, she is made to grow as a person. I don't want to get specific- that would be a spoiler. But the author has a lot more character development in this novel than in Maid to ma More...

this is the second book i have read by this author and i've quite liked her. this story is set in San Fransisco during the Gold Rush. Rachel[18:] and her younger brother and sister are orphaned on the way to San Fransisco and have no way to return home. they find the city filthy - physically and morally. the only other women in town besides Rachel and her sister are prostitutes - or, in Rachel's mind, fallen women. the only buildings in town are saloons and gambling halls, one of which is owned More...

Speak politely, dress modestly, remain devoted to family, stand above reproach. These were all rules that had been drilled into Rachel Van Buren before her mother died. But will these rules cause her to lose her brother and sister as well as the man she loves? Rachel and her brother and sister head to the Colorado Gold Rush with their father who dies on the way. San Francisco's mud, gambling saloons and bordellos are not what Rachel expects when her ship lands there with no way to return back Ea More...

The hypocritical nature of this book is astounding. The main character, Rachel, is a rather high-handed Christian. As a character who was raised primarily by a set of staunchly religious biddies in the 1840s, this little lady struggles with the breadth of sin and the morality of forgiveness.

For people who don't like Christian romances, I would actually recommend this book. As a good glimpse into both personal constructs and differing social stratus; this book is powerful in its awareness of how More...

a very flat 2 stars

LIKES:
historical setting in gold rush San Fransisco
the spotty but fun details on what a real lady does (and doesn't ever do!)
redemption and acceptance as a theme but not a pat slogan

DISLIKES:
shallow shallow shallow main characters
very limited attraction between said MC
bugs??? she loves bugs??? not believable at all

PG13 for the said milieu -- violence, prostitution, gambling, and alcoholism run rampant, as well as the crime accompanying that lifestyle
some sensuality, an attemp More...

I have decided that Deeanne Gist is one of my new favorite authors. This is the third book that I have read by her, and they are all exquisite. A little like Eva Ibbotson's YA novels. I just fall in love with the characters right off the bat and want what is best for them (in this case, each other) all the way through the book. Rachel is a young woman/girl, recently orphaned with two younger siblings in tow, and stuck, literally, in the mud of frontier San Francisco. And she is trying very, very More...

The story of Rachel, a young lady who, along with her wonger sister and brother, are stranded in San Fransisco after their father died on the voyage over. They have arrived during the heart of the gold rush, when San Fransisco was a den of sin and immoral behavior. In fact, the only other women in town are all prostitutes.

Rachel, finding herself and her sister as the only "sunbonnets" (respectable women)in town, she struggles to try and find a way to support them without turning to sin and compr More...

I think I found my nitch in historical romances. I would love to live in the days where women were expected to be moral and modest as well as proper and educated. I sometimes think I should have been born in the early 1800's but I guess I'll settle for just reading about it.
This book was a really good book about the fine line between loving and accepting others but not loving and accepting their choices. We are asked to love those around us, but what if their actions were not something we can a More...

I would categorize this book as a historical fiction romance, maybe even add Christian to the category's name, too. It takes place in San Francisco during the gold rush which was interesting. I liked the characters but found the romance (thus big parts of the story) rather cliche. Such as, why does a man often end up make fun or put down in a teasing way his love interest right after a romantic interlude? For story progression it breaks up the tension and doesn't take the characters too far too More...

What I liked best about this well written book is the fact that the heroine is uncomfortably flawed, yet still likable. She seems human and real. The author does this in a way that no other author I've read does and I think a lot of Christian women will closely identify with the heroine's struggles. The plot line and conflict developments are interesting throughout and although not all problems come full circle and get a nice tidy bow (I actually kinda like that) there is still a satisfying endi More...

Stranded in a burgeoning San Francisco in the spring of 1849 after losing their father at sea to Cholera, Rachel Van Buren and her two young siblings are thrust into the midst of a Godless society. The city touting a “gold rush” that beckoned to countless fortune seekers, including their well-intentioned father, is nothing but a muddy village of tents and framed structures. With no ships leaving the coast, no home and no income, it is up to Rachel to protect her family from this hedonistic city More...

I was looking for a bit of fluff to read and I did find that in A Measure of a Lady. It was ok. I struggled to get through it near the end. The book felt too long, it took too long to get to where it was going. I thought there was too much back and forth between the main character and her love interest. I think it would have worked better if the attraction from afar had lasted a little longer. I struggled in believing of their deep and abiding love as it came off much more shallow being more of More...

I picked this book up from the library yesterday and had it read by this afternoon. It is a "clean" romance novel about a single lady who ends up in "sin city" San Francisco during the gold rush and must try and maintain her morality while also trying to protect her two younger siblings from the city's evils. It delves into deeper issues about hating the sin while loving the sinner, and of course, the measure of a "lady". I easily get sucked into many clean romance novels, even when they are che More...

This was a very good book with interesting and varied characters throughout. It was a good story of unexpected romance that takes you on a very up and down ride bringing about a wide range of emotions. It is an enjoyable story that had me hooked from beginning to end, it was very difficult to put down most of the time. The main theme I came away with from this story was no one should be considered so great or proper as to place themselves above others. No set of people are better than another. A More...

A good story, but it didn't keep my attention like I had hoped. I ended up skimming the last half just to get it finished.