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The Road to Goderich
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5 copies available
U.S. and Canada only
A tale of love, deception, and betrayal unfolds against the backdrop of the 1837 rebellion in Upper Canada.
In rural Scotland in the 1830s, fifteen-year-old Callandra is devastated by her father’s unexpected death. To save her family from destitution, she reluctantly agrees to marry Norbert Scott, a clergyman from a wealthy Glasgow family. But when her new husband and family turn out to be cruel and disdainful toward her, Callandra’s only solace in their cold, cavernous mansion is her close friendship with a household servant, Lottie.
Callandra faces more personal upheaval when her husband accepts a posting as a clergyman in the remote town of Goderich in Upper Canada. Thankfully, Lottie will accompany them to their new home, but so will her brother Sam, a carpenter whom Callandra mistrusts. After a perilous journey, they are greeted warmly by the townsfolk of Goderich, who are particularly delighted when their new pastor stands up for them in defiance of the hated colonial authorities.
But an unintentional lie spins into a web of deceit. As the sparks of rebellion flare, there are growing suspicions about the town’s charismatic new clergyman that threaten to destroy the fragile happiness Callandra has unexpectedly found.
In rural Scotland in the 1830s, fifteen-year-old Callandra is devastated by her father’s unexpected death. To save her family from destitution, she reluctantly agrees to marry Norbert Scott, a clergyman from a wealthy Glasgow family. But when her new husband and family turn out to be cruel and disdainful toward her, Callandra’s only solace in their cold, cavernous mansion is her close friendship with a household servant, Lottie.
Callandra faces more personal upheaval when her husband accepts a posting as a clergyman in the remote town of Goderich in Upper Canada. Thankfully, Lottie will accompany them to their new home, but so will her brother Sam, a carpenter whom Callandra mistrusts. After a perilous journey, they are greeted warmly by the townsfolk of Goderich, who are particularly delighted when their new pastor stands up for them in defiance of the hated colonial authorities.
But an unintentional lie spins into a web of deceit. As the sparks of rebellion flare, there are growing suspicions about the town’s charismatic new clergyman that threaten to destroy the fragile happiness Callandra has unexpectedly found.
368 pages, Paperback
Expected publication July 15, 2025
8 people are currently reading
3242 people want to read
About the author
Linda McQuaig
25 books75 followersDescribed as ‘Canada’s Michael Moore’ by the country’s National Post, Linda McQuaig is an award-winning investigative reporter and columnist for the Toronto Star. She is the author of seven Canadian bestsellers, which have earned her a reputation as a fierce critic of the establishment.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
October 7, 2024
The Road to Goderich by Linda McQuaig is an interesting historical fiction that takes us across international waters during the 19th century.
This is definitely a different and unique novel in that its setting focuses on not just Scotland in the early/mid 1800s, but also the lives of those trying to find a livelihood in Canada at that time.
There is a lot of drama, emotions, and angst, and some historical detail, but I could used more. The setting could have really been a character all unto itself.
It seemed to be a quick read, but for some reason after I finished, I still felt as if I needed a bit more.
3.5/5 stars
Thank you EW and Dundurn Press for this wonderful arc and in return I am submitting my unbiased and voluntary review and opinion.
I am posting this review to my GR and Bookbub accounts immediately and will post it to my Amazon, Instagram, and B&N accounts upon publication on 7/15/25.
This is definitely a different and unique novel in that its setting focuses on not just Scotland in the early/mid 1800s, but also the lives of those trying to find a livelihood in Canada at that time.
There is a lot of drama, emotions, and angst, and some historical detail, but I could used more. The setting could have really been a character all unto itself.
It seemed to be a quick read, but for some reason after I finished, I still felt as if I needed a bit more.
3.5/5 stars
Thank you EW and Dundurn Press for this wonderful arc and in return I am submitting my unbiased and voluntary review and opinion.
I am posting this review to my GR and Bookbub accounts immediately and will post it to my Amazon, Instagram, and B&N accounts upon publication on 7/15/25.
January 10, 2025
2.5 My main quarrel with this book is that the blurb gives most of the plot away! Instead of being curious about what would happen next, I found myself just looking out for milestones and ticking them off mentally. The only uncharted waters came in the final 30% or so!
Story and Cadence:
🍁 The language was modern which made reading this a breeze. The pace is good and I finished the book in two days.
🍁 Storytelling was telling-heavy, almost reportage in some places. It made me feel like I was reading a non-fiction at times and made me want to verify some of the terms and stuff.
🍁 I didn’t like the head-hopping in the close third person.
🍁 The passage of time was inconsistent and confusing, particularly once we get to Canada: what felt like days passing were claimed to be years, which didn’t make sense with the timeline and kept pulling me out of the story trying to reorient myself.
Characters, Setting, and Atmosphere:
🍁 The characters were pretty wooden. Callandra and Sam were 2024 transplants. Norbert and his mother were cartoon villains (all the antagonists were simply “bad”, there was no complexity or depth to them whatsoever). On the other hand, characters like Lottie had no depth either, just “good”. Blair was a creep and it was kinda gross how Callandra was egging him on out of self-interest.
🍁 Many of the character motivations made no sense to me (Did they seriously think they were going to get away with Why didn’t Callandra just leave Goderich, like, after or multiple times thereafter?! Rosalee was all over the show in terms of actions, as was Jones.)
🍁 I was disappointed by the weak sense of place. I grew up up the Lake Huron coast from Goderich and now live in West Coast Scotland - neither the Scotland or Canadian places felt developed and I wasn’t transported like I’d hoped I’d be!
🍁 Personally, I didn’t like how was used as a plot device for a last minute “gotcha”.
Writing and Presentation:
🍁 Some of the dialogue felt stilted and unnatural.
🍁 The ending felt rushed and deeply unsatisfying after the journey we made to get there. Any semblance of characterization or plot seems to kinda go off the rails. The thing surprised me but it made the whole story fall pretty flat, emotionally; it also brought in more questions about the latter’s motivations for this reader.
🍁 Consistency issues: author uses both “Glasgow University” and “University of Glasgow” - the latter is correct. I’m not a historian and didn’t investigate some of the things that made me go “hmmm” but there were a few (maybe it’s accurate but the use of “Head Office” for the church thing didn’t feel like an early 1800s term).
🍁 The book layout is beautifully presented from a design perspective.
Ultimately, I don’t regret giving this a go. I have a soft spot for books set in Ontario and Scotland - and this has both! But, I’m not sure I’d recommend it on the whole. In addition to the above, it’s a very bleak story and it’s one that you’d want to make sure you were in the right headspace to read before picking it up.
I had my request to review this book approved by Dundurn Press on NetGalley.
Story and Cadence:
🍁 The language was modern which made reading this a breeze. The pace is good and I finished the book in two days.
🍁 Storytelling was telling-heavy, almost reportage in some places. It made me feel like I was reading a non-fiction at times and made me want to verify some of the terms and stuff.
🍁 I didn’t like the head-hopping in the close third person.
🍁 The passage of time was inconsistent and confusing, particularly once we get to Canada: what felt like days passing were claimed to be years, which didn’t make sense with the timeline and kept pulling me out of the story trying to reorient myself.
Characters, Setting, and Atmosphere:
🍁 The characters were pretty wooden. Callandra and Sam were 2024 transplants. Norbert and his mother were cartoon villains (all the antagonists were simply “bad”, there was no complexity or depth to them whatsoever). On the other hand, characters like Lottie had no depth either, just “good”. Blair was a creep and it was kinda gross how Callandra was egging him on out of self-interest.
🍁 Many of the character motivations made no sense to me (Did they seriously think they were going to get away with Why didn’t Callandra just leave Goderich, like, after or multiple times thereafter?! Rosalee was all over the show in terms of actions, as was Jones.)
🍁 I was disappointed by the weak sense of place. I grew up up the Lake Huron coast from Goderich and now live in West Coast Scotland - neither the Scotland or Canadian places felt developed and I wasn’t transported like I’d hoped I’d be!
🍁 Personally, I didn’t like how was used as a plot device for a last minute “gotcha”.
Writing and Presentation:
🍁 Some of the dialogue felt stilted and unnatural.
🍁 The ending felt rushed and deeply unsatisfying after the journey we made to get there. Any semblance of characterization or plot seems to kinda go off the rails. The thing surprised me but it made the whole story fall pretty flat, emotionally; it also brought in more questions about the latter’s motivations for this reader.
🍁 Consistency issues: author uses both “Glasgow University” and “University of Glasgow” - the latter is correct. I’m not a historian and didn’t investigate some of the things that made me go “hmmm” but there were a few (maybe it’s accurate but the use of “Head Office” for the church thing didn’t feel like an early 1800s term).
🍁 The book layout is beautifully presented from a design perspective.
Ultimately, I don’t regret giving this a go. I have a soft spot for books set in Ontario and Scotland - and this has both! But, I’m not sure I’d recommend it on the whole. In addition to the above, it’s a very bleak story and it’s one that you’d want to make sure you were in the right headspace to read before picking it up.
I had my request to review this book approved by Dundurn Press on NetGalley.
Read
March 26, 2025This is a solidly written, authentically Canadian, historical fiction, covering the same broad topics of social justice and inequality as Ms. McQuaig is known for in her non-fiction (of which I am a particular fan).
It reads a little too much like Alias Grace meets Susanna Moodie meets Catherine Parr Traill meets The Massey Murder.
I had hoped that the 1837 Upper Canada Rebellion would figure more in this than it did - if only to set it apart from the above titles.
I wish also that the author - and the editor - had resisted the temptation to wrap everything up neatly in a little bow in the Epilogue.
Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for granting me access to an early digital review copy.
It reads a little too much like Alias Grace meets Susanna Moodie meets Catherine Parr Traill meets The Massey Murder.
I had hoped that the 1837 Upper Canada Rebellion would figure more in this than it did - if only to set it apart from the above titles.
I wish also that the author - and the editor - had resisted the temptation to wrap everything up neatly in a little bow in the Epilogue.
Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for granting me access to an early digital review copy.
October 2, 2024
I was given access to this ARC via Edelweiss & am very grateful! I had larger hopes for this one. Loved the concept, as I always enjoy books that are set in history in Ontario. But, this one fell flat. There were too many details that shouldn’t be in the book, and that made me angry. I often skipped pages to the next chapter just to finish talking about that one thing, and found that the story hadn’t changed much even though I skipped pages.
This is such a great concept for a book, I just wish there were more interesting themes throughout! Also, being from Ontario, I didn’t find that there was a lot of imagery of the place, and that would have been nice to include!
This is such a great concept for a book, I just wish there were more interesting themes throughout! Also, being from Ontario, I didn’t find that there was a lot of imagery of the place, and that would have been nice to include!
July 1, 2025
I received this book from Netgalley in exchange for a fair review.
While a little rough in some aspects, The Road to Goderich is nonetheless an engaging Canadian historical fiction that moves at a good pace.
I live in southern Ontario, and when I was a kid, I went camping every year for a week or two at Point Farms provincial park right outside Goderich, and I've also stayed in the town at various B&Bs in the area and along the Huron Coast. I plan on retiring there when I'm old. Because I love the area, I jumped on a book that featured it. Very disappointing to me was that there really isn’t much actually about the town/landscape, aside from a few things here and there, as it’s more a setting to feature the action than a true extrapolation into the area itself. For example, while there is mention of Tiger Dunlop in passing (a leading figure in the Canada Company who had developed the area around lake Huron; there’s a trail named after him that I’ve walked many times) he doesn’t feature in the story at all, nor does the Rebellion of 1837, really. There’s a lot of talk about why people wanted the rebellion, but we don’t really get the Rebellion itself aside from a mention near the end. To be clear, this wasn’t actually a big deal, given that the book is focused on Callandra, who wouldn’t have been involved in the action regardless, and it did show how regular people were impacted by the politics of the day. We get absolutely no mention of the amazing bluffs or Lake Huron, which was a real shame.
Callandra herself is a good character. She is too loyal to her family and struggles against the society she’s in. The book does a great job showing how and why women, even if they were exposed to stuff like women’s rights via books and pamphlets, often could or would not do anything to further it. Callandra, above all else, is an ordinary woman who just wants to live her life with a modicum of self-determination. She makes a choice at the start of the book that is based on a mix of altruism/social pressure, which haunts her the rest of her days.
The book also makes her husband, Norbert, out to be a real loser, which was helpful in driving sympathy for Callandra. Sam, the secondary male character, is interesting because while the book is third person, we don’t really get his perspective; this adds to a twist at the end of the story which, I will admit, felt more like it came out of nowhere than was hinted at throughout. As such, it had me confused more than surprised, because I was like “does that really track with said character’s personality?” Likewise, something happens at one point that the reader is privy to but later is revealed to have happened differently than described, which made it feel sort of shoehorned in and unnecessary.
Now, the storyline does move at a great clip, especially for a historical fiction, with an interesting “cover-up story” that adds tension and a forbidden romance subplot. It takes a while to build, but it’s more about “how will they make this work” vs “will it happen.” I found it very easy to follow and I was invested in the characters and how they would make their new life work. I was quite drawn into the story and enjoyed it.
The writing could have used some tightening, though. There’s a lot of passive writing and telling and not showing in the novel. Those sentences could have been reworked to be less didactic and more immersive. So many “She felt this” “she felt that” etc.
This has nothing to do with the book as it stands, but the book is woefully bereft of any mention of the Indigenous peoples of the Huron Track area. Especially during this time, when the federal government was trying to populate “Upper Canada” with colonists, the Attawandaron and Anishinaabe peoples would have been in the area, and the book does not mention how their lands were stolen or how the building of roads or farms would have impacted their lifestyle. Of course, the book isn’t about Indigenous peoples, but it seemed odd to me that they were never mentioned by anyone in the book. According to very quick research I did (no, not ChatGPT, I have integrity), by 1846 (less than ten years after this book is set), Goderich had around 1200 people, so up until that point they had to be still trading with the indigenous bands quite a bit, meaning there was likely no way Callanda couldn’t have at least heard of them, yet no mention is made. Quite frankly, writing a historical fiction and not mentioning the Indigenous peoples of the region feels like a missed opportunity to circumvent assumptions about the interaction of the colonists and indigenous peoples at the time. Especially in Canada.
Anyway, the book is an enjoyable social historical fiction that has a few faults, but overall is engaging and keeps you reading.
While a little rough in some aspects, The Road to Goderich is nonetheless an engaging Canadian historical fiction that moves at a good pace.
I live in southern Ontario, and when I was a kid, I went camping every year for a week or two at Point Farms provincial park right outside Goderich, and I've also stayed in the town at various B&Bs in the area and along the Huron Coast. I plan on retiring there when I'm old. Because I love the area, I jumped on a book that featured it. Very disappointing to me was that there really isn’t much actually about the town/landscape, aside from a few things here and there, as it’s more a setting to feature the action than a true extrapolation into the area itself. For example, while there is mention of Tiger Dunlop in passing (a leading figure in the Canada Company who had developed the area around lake Huron; there’s a trail named after him that I’ve walked many times) he doesn’t feature in the story at all, nor does the Rebellion of 1837, really. There’s a lot of talk about why people wanted the rebellion, but we don’t really get the Rebellion itself aside from a mention near the end. To be clear, this wasn’t actually a big deal, given that the book is focused on Callandra, who wouldn’t have been involved in the action regardless, and it did show how regular people were impacted by the politics of the day. We get absolutely no mention of the amazing bluffs or Lake Huron, which was a real shame.
Callandra herself is a good character. She is too loyal to her family and struggles against the society she’s in. The book does a great job showing how and why women, even if they were exposed to stuff like women’s rights via books and pamphlets, often could or would not do anything to further it. Callandra, above all else, is an ordinary woman who just wants to live her life with a modicum of self-determination. She makes a choice at the start of the book that is based on a mix of altruism/social pressure, which haunts her the rest of her days.
The book also makes her husband, Norbert, out to be a real loser, which was helpful in driving sympathy for Callandra. Sam, the secondary male character, is interesting because while the book is third person, we don’t really get his perspective; this adds to a twist at the end of the story which, I will admit, felt more like it came out of nowhere than was hinted at throughout. As such, it had me confused more than surprised, because I was like “does that really track with said character’s personality?” Likewise, something happens at one point that the reader is privy to but later is revealed to have happened differently than described, which made it feel sort of shoehorned in and unnecessary.
Now, the storyline does move at a great clip, especially for a historical fiction, with an interesting “cover-up story” that adds tension and a forbidden romance subplot. It takes a while to build, but it’s more about “how will they make this work” vs “will it happen.” I found it very easy to follow and I was invested in the characters and how they would make their new life work. I was quite drawn into the story and enjoyed it.
The writing could have used some tightening, though. There’s a lot of passive writing and telling and not showing in the novel. Those sentences could have been reworked to be less didactic and more immersive. So many “She felt this” “she felt that” etc.
This has nothing to do with the book as it stands, but the book is woefully bereft of any mention of the Indigenous peoples of the Huron Track area. Especially during this time, when the federal government was trying to populate “Upper Canada” with colonists, the Attawandaron and Anishinaabe peoples would have been in the area, and the book does not mention how their lands were stolen or how the building of roads or farms would have impacted their lifestyle. Of course, the book isn’t about Indigenous peoples, but it seemed odd to me that they were never mentioned by anyone in the book. According to very quick research I did (no, not ChatGPT, I have integrity), by 1846 (less than ten years after this book is set), Goderich had around 1200 people, so up until that point they had to be still trading with the indigenous bands quite a bit, meaning there was likely no way Callanda couldn’t have at least heard of them, yet no mention is made. Quite frankly, writing a historical fiction and not mentioning the Indigenous peoples of the region feels like a missed opportunity to circumvent assumptions about the interaction of the colonists and indigenous peoples at the time. Especially in Canada.
Anyway, the book is an enjoyable social historical fiction that has a few faults, but overall is engaging and keeps you reading.
January 10, 2025
The Road to Goderich is a story about love, heartbreak, survival, and redemption. As the oldest child in a large family, Callandra soon finds herself in a no-win situation after her father's untimely death. Without him, they will not be able to sustain their farm. A visiting minister delivers the eulogy for the father who has passed away. Taking an interest in the eldest daughter, Callandra, he proposes to Callandra's mother that he marry Callandra. In exchange, he would continue to pay for the family's farm lease. Callandra was mortified when the minister proposed to her. Callandra already had a deep affection for someone, and he was nothing to behold. She begs her mother not to force her to marry him. Fortunately, her mother agrees. Due to her family's needs, Callandra has a change of heart and marries Mr. Scott. In addition to being a clergyman, Mr. Scott comes from a wealthy family. Callandra is treated harshly by the Scotts after the wedding. Life becomes very difficult and lonely for Callandra. Due to his stuttering and pouty appearance, Norbert did not find much favor in his father's eyes. He found favor only in his mother's eyes, who caudled him. Except for traveling clergy work, he had no real job. As a husband, he was abusive and hateful to Callandra. After hearing about the need for clergy in backwoods Canadian providences, Norbert thinks this might just be his chance to escape the harshness he constantly receives at home. This news devastates Callandra. As long as Lottie the housemaid can accompany them, she takes solace in this. Sam, Lottie's brother, intervenes on his sister's behalf. Sam would travel to Canada and build the church in Goderich, which meant Lottie would also travel. During their trek across the Canadian wilderness, Norbert drowns in an accident. Sam gets confused with the Reverend Scott when he arrives in Goderich. Sam and Callandra decide to accept the misunderstanding and let the people of Goderich believe that Sam is Norbert. The men of Goderich assist Sam in building the church in Goderich. Despite not being a preacher, Sam did everything in his power to prolong preaching. As much as I would love to share more about this amazing book, I do not want to spoil the rest of the story for you.
June 28, 2025
It is a poignant and beautifully atmospheric historical novel set against the backdrop of Upper Canada in the 1830s. It opens in rural Scotland, where we meet Callandra, a spirited young woman whose sense of duty to her struggling family leads her into an arranged marriage with a clergyman she does not love. When the couple emigrates to Canada for his pastoral posting, Callandra’s world expands and complicates in ways she never imagined.
McQuaig excels at bringing to life the harsh and hopeful landscapes of early Canadian settlement, capturing both the promise of the New World and its deep-rooted inequalities. As Callandra begins to question the roles prescribed to her by marriage and society, her journey becomes not just geographic but also deeply personal and political.
At the heart of the novel is her bond with Lottie, her former maid turned confidante, whose sudden illness forces her to remain behind in Toronto. The painful distance between them grows when Lottie’s long-held secret comes to light, testing the limits of friendship and trust. What unfolds is a story not only of misunderstanding but of resilience, sacrifice, and the early rumblings of feminist and workers’ rights movements in colonial Canada.
McQuaig, known for her journalistic rigor, brings impressive research to bear without ever losing the emotional thread of her narrative. The result is a richly textured portrait of two women navigating love, loyalty, and rebellion in a world where the rules are made by—and for—men.
A quietly powerful novel, The Road to Goderich is both intimate and expansive, offering readers a moving reflection on the costs of silence and the courage it takes to demand more.
McQuaig excels at bringing to life the harsh and hopeful landscapes of early Canadian settlement, capturing both the promise of the New World and its deep-rooted inequalities. As Callandra begins to question the roles prescribed to her by marriage and society, her journey becomes not just geographic but also deeply personal and political.
At the heart of the novel is her bond with Lottie, her former maid turned confidante, whose sudden illness forces her to remain behind in Toronto. The painful distance between them grows when Lottie’s long-held secret comes to light, testing the limits of friendship and trust. What unfolds is a story not only of misunderstanding but of resilience, sacrifice, and the early rumblings of feminist and workers’ rights movements in colonial Canada.
McQuaig, known for her journalistic rigor, brings impressive research to bear without ever losing the emotional thread of her narrative. The result is a richly textured portrait of two women navigating love, loyalty, and rebellion in a world where the rules are made by—and for—men.
A quietly powerful novel, The Road to Goderich is both intimate and expansive, offering readers a moving reflection on the costs of silence and the courage it takes to demand more.
June 1, 2025
Callandra was only fifteen when her beloved father suddenly died. In the 1830s, women around the world were second-rate citizens and often had to marry to secure financial and social security. Callandra was in a predicament so she reluctantly agreed to marry Norbert, a clergyman from a wealthy family. As an independent thinker, she learned information such as the Poor Law reforms and ached yearned for more knowledge. She respected boldness in intrepid women including Harriet Martineau. But she did not have the same respect for her new husband and his family who treated her abhorrently. Norbert announced to his family he and his young family would be moving to Canada to fill a clergy post. Desperate for support, Callandra took young servant and dear friend Lottie along as well as Lottie's brother Sam. Saying farewell to her mother was nearly impossible. The trip across the Atlantic and then Canada was filled with peril and unknowns. The congregants grew to like the new couple and little girl Emma. Projects got done. But layers were peeled back and layers of secrets were exposed.
The tense atmosphere, family drama, class distinctions, secrets, relationships and church divisions captured my attention and held it. Surprises kept coming and I enjoyed the ending as well. Some characters were insufferable but added a lot of interest. I like stories which are not all sunshine and roses with tidy endings. Overall, this novel is worth spending time with.
The tense atmosphere, family drama, class distinctions, secrets, relationships and church divisions captured my attention and held it. Surprises kept coming and I enjoyed the ending as well. Some characters were insufferable but added a lot of interest. I like stories which are not all sunshine and roses with tidy endings. Overall, this novel is worth spending time with.
October 21, 2024
My review is going to mirror another reader's because I too received this through Edelweiss. After not scoring any approvals repeatedly the last few months I was thrilled to finally receive this and it ended up being less than I had hoped for. It started out decently for me, the main protagonist Callandra's set of circumstances and life had me rooting for her as the storyline took off but then it became a little convoluted in my opinion with what develops with character Sam and how it's presented to others. I wont go any further in case someone else decides to pick this one up, but again was disappointed that this missed the mark.
Thank you to Edelwiess and author Linda McQuaig for this digital read in exchange for an honest review.
Thank you to Edelwiess and author Linda McQuaig for this digital read in exchange for an honest review.
June 29, 2025
How could I not read it?!
March 22, 2025
From Glasgow to colonial Canada, this was exactly the kind of sweeping story I love. The characters were immediately likeable and drew you in to following their story. Tragic, bleak and atmospheric but with sprinklings of love and hope, this was a fantastic read.
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