Book Review of
The Ladies Hall
The Ladies Hall by Vanessa Miller is a historical fiction book that was published in 2026.
The Ladies Hall is based on the real lives of Mary Church Terrell, Anna Julia Cooper and Ida Gibbs Hunt.
When Mary and Anna entered Oberlin College in Ohio in the 1880s, they had little in common with others there.
Mary was raised in a wealthy family and had a father who was friends with politicians and presidents. Anna was a school teacher, a widow, and was likely the daughter of her enslaved mother’s former owner.
They hope to make a difference at the college, but will the other students accept them and allow them to change their opinions about black women attending Oberlin College?
Lynn's Review
The Ladies Hall by Vanessa Miller is set in 1880s Ohio. This was the book I picked for Ohio for my Fiction Books for Each State Challenge.
This story, set shortly after the Civil War, is about Mary and Anna, who attend Oberlin College at a time when few colleges accepted women, let alone black women. Mary father is a wealthy black family. Anna’s mother was an enslaved woman. Both women have a lot to overcome in order to graduate from college.
This book is based on the real story of two women who fought for equal rights.
This book was a great book for Ohio for my state reading challenge. It gave a great look at what college life in Ohio would have been like in the 1880s.
If you enjoy books about little known history, I think you will enjoy this one.
I will add that I am not sure I will read this author again. I read her book The Filling Station, which is set in Oklahoma and is about the Tulsa Race Massacre. I live in Oklahoma, so I know Oklahoma well. There were several major historical errors in The Filling Station. One of them was that Vanessa Miller moved a town. The town has always been quite a bit west of Tulsa. Vanessa Miller put it east of Tulsa. There were other things as well.
However, I enjoyed her writing style overall, and The Ladies’ Hall sounded like a fascinating part of history, so I decided to pick it up. Once again, there were several major errors in the book.
I can’t believe they weren’t caught during editing. I think that is often the case with Christian historical fiction, which this book is. I often find that Christian historical fiction is not edited as well and therefore is often not as historically accurate.
Early in the book, she talks about an architectural style that was not designed or built until after WWII. It would not have been built in Ohio in the 1880s.
Near the end of the book, she also added a storyline about a sickness that was not known until at least the 1920s and was not widely known until the mid 1900s. Again, it would not have been diagnosed in the 1880s. Nor would a building have been completely destroyed in the 1880s because of it.
I am not a historian. I do not have a history major. Yes, I love history, but there is a lot I do not know, and yet I caught those two errors. Both times I had to reread the section to be sure it was really in the book. Then I doubted myself and did some internet searching. Both times I was right, and the book was not correct.
I know authors are not perfect and they can’t know everything. I also know that sometimes authors change a date or place an event a few years off, but both of these things were fifty years or more off. That error should have been caught, if not by the author, then by the editor or publisher.
So, yes, I enjoyed the book. I think others will enjoy the book, but I want readers to know there are some historical errors.
About Vanessa Miller
Vanessa Miller is the bestselling author of over fifty Christian fiction books. She is well known for her 2025 book The Filling Station about the Tulsa Race Riots.