Kristin Hannah does it again. I moving story about the choices that women have to make in order to survive.

This is truly a book I could not put down. I really love Kristin Hannah’s writing and this book was no exception. I wasn’t sure I would love the time. It was sent in but somehow she found a way to make it captivating.

Gosh just tear my heart out and rip it to pieces. Kristin Hannah knows how to break my heart in the best ways. Read her books if you need to feel things you didn’t think you could. What a beautiful story. ♥️

Dear Publisher - I was unable to finish this book before the digital ARC expired. I appreciate the opportunity to review this title before it was published and hope you will continue to approve access to your titles! I am continually hand selling titles I have read to my customers and recommending them on Goodreads, Litsy and my personal blog.

Can Kristin Hannah do it again? Of course she can!

Emotional and heartbreaking, this novel takes you back in time to the 1930s Dust Bowl era and one mother's fight to keep her children alive. Would it be safer to stay and fight the dust in Texas or head west with everyone else? The difficult choice Elsa is forced to make and her courage and resilience throughout the entire book is remarkable. I stayed hopeful that things would get better for the Martinelli's, but in The Great Depression was that ever possible? By the end, there were definitely some tears shed. Hug your mama's y'all

Thank you NetGalley for my e-arc of this striking and compelling read.

This book was very sad and depressing. You have to be in the right mindset before reading it. I think that even though there is so much sadness in this book there is a lot of love and hope. I enjoyed getting to know the characters and their development throughout the story. There’s a few things within the plot that I didn’t love but overall I think this is a great historical fiction book. I hadn’t read any historical fiction books set in the great depression and the dust bowl so I am glad I pick this one up.

I saw many not so great reviews criticizing this book because it was so sad and “how could she release such a sad book in these hard times”. It makes me sad to see those reviews because if you know anything about publishing is that books are often written years before they are published. I don’t blame Kristin Hannah and the publisher for releasing it now. You get to choose what you read and when so if a sad book is too much for you right now then don’t read it. Common sense says that a book set in the great depression will definitely be sad.

I love Kristin Hannah so much. I know when I read her books it is sure to be full of emotion so I always plan accordingly and sandwich them between easy and happy reads. This one was just so darn depressing for me. And not just the regular and expected amount from her books, it just felt excessive. Not one of my favorites from her, but I do have to admit she has a beautiful writing style that was not absent from The Four Winds

The Great Depression is an era I've always been fascinated by, primarily due to stories my grandmother used to tell me about the hardships she dealt with as a child. In The Four Winds, Kristin Hannah presents a heartbreaking tale of a family, the Martinellis, who are devastated by the harsh dual realities of the Depression and the Dust Bowl. When Elsa's son becomes ill with dust pneumonia, she travels to California with her two children alone. There she encounters poverty and hardship, along with friendship and hope. Hannah really illustrated the harsh realities that many dealt with in the 1930s as they struggled to make it from day to day. I won't forget this one.

I picked this book up because as a librarian formerly in Texas, I love to keep up with fiction that is set in areas that my patrons and I can connect with. This was a beautiful book about a time that I don't see covered much in fiction, being not as glamorous as WWII and the decades that have followed. I would highly recommend this to anyone interested in historical fiction and representations of Texas in fiction.

Here’s the deal: I loved it!⁣
⁣
I know it gets mixed reviews. I know some people found it boring and insanely depressing. But I feel like I come into a Kristin Hannah book expecting to be traumatized a great deal, feeling depressed and crying goes hand in hand with all of my KH experiences so far. So I got what expected there. And it never bored me, I was interested in Elsa’s story. ⁣
⁣
Does every possible bad thing that can happen to this family happen? Yes. But did it help me get a sweeping view of what the Dust Bowl/Great Depression era must have been like for a family. Also, yes. ⁣
⁣
To me, most of all, this was the story of motherhood. What it means to be a mother, to love like a mother, to worry like a mother, and I found those parts so incredibly touching. Many of the quotes and passages I marked on motherhood will stay with me a long time. ⁣
⁣
“A warrior believes in an end she can’t see and fights for it. A warrior never gives up. A warrior fights for those weaker than herself.⁣
It sounds like motherhood to me.”⁣
⁣
🎧 As for the audio, it is narrated by Julia Whelan which always makes for an excellent audiobook. Kristin Hannah’s descriptions with Julia’s delivery created such visceral experiences.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the opportunity to review this book.

One of the best!! Love the writing style
I enjoyed it so very much!!

I really enjoy Kristin Hannah's historical novels. They are well-researched and have interesting characters. However, The Four Winds was just so depressing. Even set during the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl era, the story could have been more hopeful.

This was heartbreaking but beautifully written. No one does historical fiction quite like Kristen Hannah!

Kristin Hannah always finds a way to make me emotional. In the Four Winds it was the blossoming mother / daughter relationship that sucked me in and made me emotionally invested. This book never really had much of an uplifting moment and was just sad from start to finish , but what part of the depression and dust bowl really had joy? I think any Kristin Hannah fan or historical fiction fan will enjoy this.

Kristen Hannah is a very hit or miss author for me I either love her books or hate them and this one ain’t it for me. Too much dust for the love of god

So freaking good! The relationships between the characters were so good and realistic. My heart broke and rose for the characters constantly. A true roller coaster ride! I would recommend this to anyone!!

Didn't capture my attention and engagement. Interested in trying it again though and hopefully it will take.

This book sat in my TBR pile for a very long while. I really enjoy Kristin Hannah’s recent work, but, the DUST BOWL? Not a topic that immediately grabbed me. It took too long for me to get past that and start reading. If YOU are of the same mind, let me tell you that you should just get over it, and READ THIS BOOK. I am amazed at how quickly and thoroughly I became absorbed in the story and how much I learned from it. I managed to avoid reading Steinbeck (so no Grapes of Wrath) through my school years, but I can’t imagine that he could have written with any more sympathy about the hardships and tough realities of the people who lived through that time, and how poorly they were treated once they migrated to California. Especially from the women’s perspective. The twin disasters of the Dust Bowl and the Depression was something I never really grasped before. Though the subject matter is depressing, the way these women were portrayed, the strength of character and sheer determination made this a very memorable story.

Loved this piece of historical fiction. I learned so much. It broke my heart in many places. Poignant and heart wrenching.

I was so excited to receive an ARC of this book as I have loved Kristin Hannah's previous work. But I couldn't make it through this one. I was about 20 weeks pregnant in addition to having a four year old and there are several gut wrenching scenes of the impossible decisions a mother has to make that I just could not handle. I made it to the 40% mark and felt like it was just too sad for me to continue. So I will still recommend KH's work - but I couldn't finish this one (and thought that disqualified me from writing a review, but I'll share this anyway). Now that the baby I was pregnant with is a year and a half old - I still don't feel I'm ready to return to it. So. Sad. (And I LIKE reading sad things but apparently not this.)