Thank you @UpLitReads and William Morrow Books for the gifted book!
by: Dianna Rostad
rating: liked
On the surface this book is right in my lane. A historical fiction novel that pulls on your heart strings, set in the US, great character development, a plot that moves fairly quickly, and a found family.
However although I read this one quickly and really enjoyed the story overall, there were several things that kept me from loving this one.
The perspectives shift between two characters and sometimes it was hard to tell who was talking. There is no chapter heading to tell you who is talking and sometimes it would take a whole page to figure out who it was.
The writing style is very choppy. I kept having to go back and read the previous few chapters to see if I missed something, and I never had. At the end of some chapters there would be a paragraph that jumped forward in time or thought process and then left you there. I didn't enjoy how jolting that was.
All the characters didn't feel super fleshed out. I knew the two main characters pretty well, but the secondary characters needed some more development in my opinion.
I don't often say this, but this book needed about 100 more pages to let some events breath more and for us to get more emotions from the characters. (Me saying they need more feelings, you know I must really have felt jipped then!)
Overall though the story made up mostly for the things I didn't care for about the writing style. I liked the premise and think that this book will still be well loved by many historical fiction fans.
Content Warning: Violence, Racism, Animal Death
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