Reliance, Illinois

"Reliance, Illinois has it all-mystery, politics, war; love, death, and art. Every page is a pleasure."

-Karen Joy Fowler, author of We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves



Illinois, 1874: With a birthmark covering half her face, thirteen-year-old Madelyn Branch is accustomed to cold and awkward greetings, and expects no less in the struggling town of Reliance. After all, her mother, Rebecca, was careful not to mention a daughter in the Matrimonial Times ad that brought them there. When Rebecca weds, Madelyn poses as her mother's younger sister and earns a grudging berth in her new house. Deeply injured by her mother's deceptions, Madelyn soon leaves to enter the service of Miss Rose Werner, prodigal daughter of the town's founder. Miss Rose is a suffragette and purveyor of black market birth control who sees in Madelyn a project and potential acolyte. Madelyn, though, wants to feel beautiful and loved, and she pins her hopes on William Stark, a young photographer and haunted Civil War veteran. Praise for Reliance, Illinois

"Reliance, Illinois has it all-mystery, politics, war; love, death, and art. In finely wrought sentences, Volmer's novel follows such a lively cast of characters, first and foremost her marvelous protagonist Madelyn. Every page is a pleasure."

-Karen Joy Fowler, author of We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves

"Female protagonists in author Mary Volmer's historical fiction novels are resilient, educated, street smart, intrepid. [Reliance, Illinois] harbors unexpected twists."

-San Jose Mercury News

"Volmer's unforgettable protagonist lives through social evolution, the fight for women's rights and personal strife, yet she perseveres, and Reliance, Illinois, with its universal themes and evocative period detail, is uplifting."

-Shelf Awareness

"Complete with love, war, death and mystery, the story's characters weave their way through social evolution, gossip, crime, women's rights movements and their own personal struggles."

-The Telegraph

"Volmer's second novel paints a compelling portrait of a small Midwestern town and its residents during a period of great change."

-Library Journal 

"[Reliance, Illinois] has smart touches of humor and is well grounded in its place and time. This novel will appeal to readers curious about the lives of women in the post-Civil War Midwest." 

-Publishers Weekly

"Volmer's second novel will appeal to readers for its rich cast of characters and well-evoked setting."

-Booklist

"A genuine pleasure. Reliance, Illinois is lively, witty, and evocative, with characters who pop off the page and a protagonist you'll never forget."

-Lou Berney, author of The Long and Far Away Gone



"Mary Volmer's Reliance, Illinois grabbed me from the first page. Staggeringly beautiful prose, a poignant story, the whip smart heroine Maddy who I rooted for all the way. Volmer brings a universal theme of the reliance-all of us who search for it-to be found in ourselves. Do yourself a favor, clear your schedule and drink in Volmer's radiant Reliance, Illinois."

-Cara Black, New York Times bestselling author of Murder on the Quai

"Mary Volmer's lush prose draws the reader into an intricately detailed world." 

-Lois Leveen, author of Juliet's Nurse and The Secrets of Mary Bowser

"In Reliance, Illinois, Mary Volmer creates a world at once old and new. She evokes an entire time and place through the perfect application of richly enlivening historical detail. In her depiction of the varied and often risky recourses her characters adopt in order to live well or with dignity-or at all, Volmer tells a compelling, timeless story about exigency and survival, especially for women. A deftly written page-turner that addresses universal questions with open-heartedness and verve, Reliance, Illinois offers a captivating read about an important juncture in American history."

-Naomi J. Wi