Answer Creek
A Novel

The story of the Donner Party and anything related to the Oregon Trail have always intrigued me. Ada Weeks is only nineteen-years old when she travels to California along the trail in 1846. She’s traveling with eighty-one others in the Donner Party. They are stranded at the lake in the dense and haza......more

In 1846, nineteen year old Ada Weeks sets off on a 2,200 mile trek to California with her adopted parents Augustus and Inger Vik. No amount of planning could prepare Ada for the hardships she will face traveling along the overland trail, she will be tested to the absolute limit of her endurance and......more

I am in awe of the way author Ashley Sweeney weaved well-researched history and an extraordinary talent for language to create a story that takes you back to a time when people literally followed their dreams in hopes of a better life. I've long been intrigued by the story of the Donner Party; I liv......more

I have not read a lot on the Donner Party. I have heard the basics of what it was, how horrific it was, and though terrible, people survived and lived on. I enjoyed this story of Ada Weeks and her travels West, walking those many miles, the strength she must have had to endure those hardships. But a......more

Ashley E. Sweeney recreates a cross-continental journey that makes social distancing and being in lock-down at home feel luxurious. Answer Creek is about endurance and survival. Set in 1846-7 on the California-Oregon trail, the novel tells the story of Ada who travels across the continent with the Do......more