Review copy was received from NetGalley. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Six Weeks in Reno by Lucy H Hedrick on March 4, 2025
Genres: Historical Fiction
Pages: 256
Format: eARC
Source: NetGalley
Goodreads
Amazon, Audible
September 27, 1931. Today my new life begins.
After twenty years in a loveless marriage, Evelyn Henderson will do anything to escape her stifling suburban life. She boards a train for Reno, Nevada, a former frontier town that’s booming thanks to “six-weekers”: women from all walks of life who take up residence there just long enough to secure an uncontested divorce—a right they don’t yet have in their home states.
Evelyn settles into the Flying N Ranch and soon bonds with her housemates, most of whom have never ventured this far from home—or from societal conventions. The Biggest Little City in the World offers a heady taste of freedom for the horseback riding in denim and fringe by day and being courted by dance-hall cowboys by night. But underneath the glamour are the grim realities of Depression-era America, as well as the devastating consequences of escape.
As Evelyn is drawn out of her shell by a Hollywood-handsome wrangler and challenged by her new friends to reengage with the world in all its heartbreaking complexity, one thing becomes six weeks will change her life forever.
Back in the day, divorce was hard to come by and was very much frowned upon, but then Reno, Nevada shortened the residency requirement law to six weeks and a new niche Depression Era industry was born. Lucy H Hedrick makes her fictional debut with this fascinating bit of American Women’s History and I just had to read it.
Six Weeks in Reno begins in 1931 when Evelyn Henderson leaves behind a twenty-year marriage under the disapproval of her wealthy East Coast family to journey by train to Reno and become one of the “six-weekers” who are there to obtain a divorce and a new life. Her mother arranged her marriage with a much older man and Evelyn is done stifling and struggling when her husband won’t find a job and claims he can’t during the depression. A secret she learns is the impetus for her new adventure.
Evelyn meets other women who come from all walks of life and marriage situations that have become untenable for various reasons. Their destination is a hick town in her eyes, with no culture and she’s staying on one of the many local ranches who are using the “six-weeker” rush to become “Divorce Ranches” to help pay the bills.
Evelyn’s journey is not just the physical train ride that brings her to the Divorce Capital, but a private journey of finding herself. She has followed her strict, conservative family’s rules all her life and obeyed her mother in her marriage, but she is dreadfully unhappy and came unmoored. Arriving in Reno, getting to know the other women and the people on the ranch start to open her up and work changes on her. She starts out judgmental and reserved to the point of rudeness, but slowly she learns to connect, to trust, and to have real friends for the first time. She can meet a studly cowboy at a Reno dancehall and explore what attraction does to her and she can commiserate with women who have been abused, don’t have their paperwork, or, even now are vulnerable to a real estate con involving a casino. By the finish of her six-weeks, the new Evelyn can barely recognize the old and she’s facing the world with courage and confidence.
Six Weeks in Reno is historical fiction and I chose it for that as I was curious about the Divorce ranches and the “six-weeker”s since I had an older family member who was a Reno divorcee in her time. The detail and description of it all was all there. Even to the point of being just on the “too much” side so it drowned out plot. There are repetitive descriptions of the daily life and less attention to the story characters than I would have liked. But, what struck me was that this was a part of women’s history, too, and women had to be pretty brave, desperate, and determined to go this route because it wasn’t easy back in the ‘30’s and it wasn’t thought well of to be a divorced woman.
And, so, I was well-satisfied and glad I spotted Six Weeks to Reno now having a better understanding and feeling for that time, place, and the people through this fictional story. It is an obvious debut book and feels it, but well worth it for those who love women’s historical fiction in unique niche corners of history.
As a lifelong reader, it was inevitable that Sophia would discover book blogs and the joy of blog reviewing.Sophia is a prolific reader and audiobook listener which allows her to experience so many wonderful books, authors, and narrators.Few genres are outside her reading tastes, but her true love is fiction particularly history, mystery, sci-fi, and romance.Though, sorry, no horror or she will run like Shaggy and Scooby.
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I feel bad for all the women who were in loveless or abusive marriages back then and had no choices, This sounds good.
Yeah, there were some sad stories repped in this group of characters and I felt so badly for them and wanted them to get a new chance at happy..
Adding to my TBR! I listened to a book about a Reno Divorce Ranch (Better Luck Next Time) and found the whole concept so interesting. That one is from a ranch hand’s perspective but this one sounds especially interesting.
Oooh, that Better Luck Next Time would be an interesting one for me after reading this one. We’ll swap, Katherine. Heehee!
Nice find. I feel like this would be a good book club book.
It really would because the main character is likely to engender some really good discussion about her personality, actions, and growth.
This is a time period/historical issue I don’t know a lot about, so sounds like a good read! Thanks for sharing!
Yeah, one I hadn’t heard about since I was a kid hearing a great aunt’s story.
Reno isn’t very far from us. I never knew this bit of its history. How neat that you had a personal connection to that history, too! This sounds like something I’d enjoy. Wonderful review, Sophia!
Yes, so its a bit of local history for you, then, Rachel. I had a great-aunt who went to Reno for her divorce-he was abusive when he drank.