The Company Daughters by Samantha Rajaram
In early 1600s the Dutch East Indies Company had the beginnings of a booming trade industry between their new colony of Batavia and the rest of the world. As the new colony grew, their attempt to model it after their loved homeland of Amsterdam began to falter, due to the lack of women. Their solution – seek young orphaned females to send to Batavia. Their passage and dowry paid in exchange for their marriage to a colonist upon arrival. These girls were called Company Daughters.
This story follows two young women, Jana and Sontje, as they join the first group of six ‘Company Daughters’ to take this journey. The women have been promised fine young soldiers wanting wives – not at all what they find waiting for them.
I really wanted to like this book. The story interested me right away, couldn’t wait to read. The writing was fine, maybe slightly awkward in a few spots, but nothing that would interfere with enjoying the story. Unfortunately I kept waiting for ‘the good part’ to start, but it just never did, remained fairly uneventful throughout. Not a bad book, just never quite hit the mark for me.
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