A Fireproof Home for the Bride

Book excerpt: “An engrossing tale of intrigue, deceit and racial unrest in the upper Midwest in the 1950s . . . a fresh take on a pivotal moment in American history.” —Christina Baker Kline, #1 New York Times–bestselling author Winter 1958. The town of Moorhead, Minnesota, is small, dark, and cold. No one feels it more than Emmaline Nelson, just eighteen and ready to burst out of the confines of her Lutheran farm family. Emmy was promised at twelve to the son of wealthy neighbors, but a chance meeting with a young man from Fargo, North Dakota, turns her whole world upside down—and soon she has no choice but to defy expectations and follow her heart. Bobby Doyle is young, passionate, and Catholic—and forbidden by Emmy’s mother. So Emmy leaves town in pursuit of a bigger, brighter future. But even as Emmy forges her path, and lands a dream job in the newsroom of The Fargo Forum, she finds herself drawn back to her hometown, where old lies and family secrets threaten to shatter everything she holds dear, including her own life. Filled with the drama and charm of its period, A Fireproof Home for the Bride is an unflinching coming-of-age tale about the lure of the American Dream, and about how sometimes the wrong love gives way to the right. “Set at the dawn of the civil rights movement, Scheibe’s tale captures both the heartache and the liberation of finding one’s own path.” —People, “Pick of the Week” “An engrossing, quietly profound story of a young woman’s coming of age in the deceptively bucolic Upper Midwest of the 1950s.” —Jennifer Chiaverini, New York Times-bestselling author