Reviewed by Sandra Merville Hart

A Romance of Dots and Dashes

I found this book while researching the job of telegraph operators for A Not So Peaceful Journey, Book 3 in my “Second Chances” series. My heroine is a telegrapher in Hamilton, Ohio, before embarking on a train journey from Ohio to Oakland, California, in 1884.

Feisty Nattie Rogers is a telegraph operator. She meets the mysterious “C”, a telegraph operation in another station on her wire. He refuses to tell her his full name and they develop a friendship over the wire that soon has her dreaming of love.

Nattie tells her fellow boarders all about “C” and they can’t wait for the two of them to meet. But the course of true love meets some hurdles.

This book is written in the omniscient viewpoint. The reader knows what everyone is thinking all the time. Written in 1880, this story has the long conversations prevalent in writings of that day. I confess that I skimmed over some of those, but still enjoyed the story.

The author gives a thorough overview of a telegrapher’s job in the story, which I appreciated.

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