SIX WEEKS IN RENO
By: Lucy H. Hedrick
Published:s March 4, 2025
Publisher: Lake Union Publishing
Historical Fiction
If Las Vegas was known as the place to get a quick marriage, Reno, during the Great Depression, was the place to get a quick divorce. All you had to do was “live” in Reno for six weeks to be considered a resident. Then, as a resident, you could ask the courts for a divorce. Women from all over the US would travel by train to Reno to get a divorce.
The women that arrived in Reno were quickly termed the “six-weekers”. They stayed on ranches set up just for these types of situations. The staff would feed them, take them to town for shopping and hair appointments, and then later to the hall for dances with the local cowboys. Some of the women were wealthy and others just scraping enough money together to get to Reno and then off to start a new life.
I had never heard of these Reno divorces before reading this book. During the 1930s, divorce was very scandalous. But women sought them for various reasons much like today. Infidelity, abuse, a loveless marriage, and other disagreements sent the women to Reno and sometimes, the men came along after them trying to win them back. Other women found new love with one of the many cowboys and married again shortly after receiving their divorce. While others never returned home again, traveling to new cities to start over.
“It takes courage to come all the way out here. You have courage. You are a brave woman. If I’ve observed one thing since I’ve been here, it’s that we six-weekers are loaded with bravery. The world is full of wives who remain in loveless and sometimes abusive marriages. We’re the ones who have said, ‘Enough!’ And do you know what it really means? We’ve decided that we deserve better.”
In this story, we mostly followed Evelyn and the other “six-weekers” who lived together during their time in Reno. Of course, there are always going to be people who prey on vulnerable women, and Reno had plenty of them. Some cowboys were looking for a quick romance. Investors were looking to capitalize on Reno’s popularity and swindle innocent women out of their hard-earned money.
Evelyn came from a mostly sheltered childhood and life. She didn’t believe in drinking alcohol or other unseemly behaviors. She was very naive about the kind of life people lived outside of her circle including bar fights, poverty, and gambling. During her train ride west she was exposed to people and situations that she had never been around before and then again during her time in Reno. Evelyn was seeking a divorce from a husband who refused to work and live off her family’s money but she had also recently found out he had been keeping a scandalous secret from her which was the last straw, sending her to Reno.
Evelyn’s life is forever changed by the many women (and one particular man) she met during her six weeks in Reno. She watched women overcome adversity and great disappointment, became friends with women she had already made a snap judgment about, and witnessed many women blossom right before her eyes as they became free from their particular situations.
I didn’t appreciate Evelyn’s character in the beginning as I found her to be too uppity and unforgiving, but as Evelyn began to learn more about herself, she changed into a caring friend who would put herself between a woman and an abuser to save her.
“From now on, I am determined to judge people for their goodness rather than their appearance, for their competence rather than their social position, and for their resilience rather than their family background. “
I enjoyed this journey to Reno and into the lives of these women who quickly became friends and depended on each other. There are some themes that readers may find difficult to read including domestic abuse, suicide, and abortion. But, each of these situations was handled with care and accuracy for the time-period the characters were in. If you like realistic historical fiction and being transported to a time and place in history full of dust storms, cowboys, and country dances, check out this book.
“But freedom is more than an absence of hurt. It is elbow room to try new things. Plenty of rope, as the cowboys would say, to play, and no doubt stumble, but with the license to get up and play again…I am now unfettered to set goals for myself beyond the restrictions of my family’s, or my husband’s rules. I am free to try new things, and perhaps fall down, but continue to stay my course on my terms.”
Lucy H. Hedrick is the author of five works of nonfiction. Six Weeks in Reno is her first novel. Born in Chicago, Lucy attended Goucher College in Maryland, majoring in music history and singing in the glee club. She has roamed the Eastern Seaboard ever since. Marriage brought Lucy to Old Greenwich, Connecticut. Shortly thereafter Lucy gave birth to her son, Tod. Today, Lucy lives in Sarasota, Florida, where she devotes herself to writing women’s fiction. She is a member of the National League of American Pen Women, Sisters in Crime―Florida Gulf Coast Chapter, and Sarasota Fiction Writers. For more information, check out her website, HERE.
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Thanks to the publisher for sending a copy of this book for the purpose of this review. This review is my honest opinion. If you choose to
Posted Under Book Review, divorce, Great Depression, historical fiction, Lucy H. Hedrick, Reno