Kristin Hannah sets the scene of the Dust Bowl and the 1930s California migrant experience with compassion and strength. As a reader, you immediately root for the main characters and find yourself reflecting on what tough decisions you’d make in pursuit of a better life. The book provides reflections on what does it mean to be an American and defining what joke really looks and feels like. It can’t be ignored that the book has been published and will be released amongst a global pandemic that has many questioning federal support, Hannah addresses the parallels in a very thoughtful author’s note. I recommend this for folks looking to learn about times in US history usually glossed over and especially those who are fans of Hannah’s character development and world creation.

Kristin Hannah's writing is beautiful. That much is obvious. I will read every novel she writes. Her ability to captivate the reader and keep them turning the page even when the story is moving slow or building slowly is amazing. While I was so excited for The Four Winds and ecstatic I was chosen to receive an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review, I was a little nervous because I didn't have too much interest in the subject matter nor did I know much about that time in history.

This novel shined a light on the Greatest Generation and true American grit. It is not an easy read, though. You will root for the strong female protagonist (Elsa) as you do for every Kristin Hannah novel, but it was discouraging that she couldn't catch a break. But that's the reality for many in during the Dust Bowl and the Great Depression. If I had to compare it to another one of Hannah's books, I would say it is most like the Great Alone -- so if you loved that novel., I think you'll love this one. Something I did not enjoy was I felt that the novel was a little bit emotionally manipulative when it came to anti-capitalism and pro-communism messaging. I know that many flocked to communism in the 30s and including that is historically accurate, but I think Hannah painted communism in a favorable light and the answer to all the problems in the world. Now, we know that communism was responsible for the killing of millions of people in the 20th century. With the year being 2020 and the political landscape right now, it just felt like the way she was trying to prove a political point and that rubbed me the wrong way.

Regardless, Kristin Hannah will still be an auto-buy for me. I look forward to sharing this novel with our blog audience! Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press and Net Galley for the chance to read and review this book. I have read lots of books by Kristin Hannah, and she just keeps getting better and better. This one is a masterpiece. I don't want to give the story away. I just want to tell you to READ IT! It is truly one of the best books I have ever read. It is heartbreaking, but also hopeful. It will make you cry, think and just count your blessings. It is really a timely book for 2020 (during a pandemic). Highly, highly recommend!

With heart-wrenching titles such as The Nightingale and The Great Alone under her belt, Kristin Hannah is an increasingly well-known go-to for readers looking for a memorable, often tear-jerking, historical saga. Hannah’s latest, The Four Winds — to be released February 2021 — is no different. Centering around 1930s America and the related hardships, Hannah offers a critical, emotional reminder of the sacrifice that went into the foundation of the so-called American Dream. Four stars because this one is, sadly, a real downer.

The Four Winds centers around Elsa Martinelli, our female protagonist, who’s only a young woman in Texas when we meet her. While she’s full of spunk and smarts, she’s a bit of a pathetic, no-one-loves-me-no-really character. It’s clear Hannah will be going for a redemptive arc for Elsa, but she really starts off as a boring, pitiable subject. With a family that couldn’t care less about her and a romantic interest that’s the polar opposite of romantic, it’s hard to find much to hang on to plot-wise other than hoping Elsa isn’t doled out anything else awful by those around her.

Said romantic interest, Rafe, soon gets Elsa pregnant, to both their horrors, and she moves in with him and his Italian family on their farm. Her family is elated to be rid of her; Rafe’s life is ruined; things are looking really bleak for Elsa. This will unfortunately continue for pretty much the whole novel.

After a few years settling in to life as a farmhand and mother, Elsa begins to shine under the tutelage of her mother-in-law, Rose. But it’s the 1930s, and the Martinellis live on a farm in Texas, so it’s only a matter of time before things start to go south. Here Hannah paints a drawn-out, aching portrait of life for Midwest farmers whose entire worlds center around the hope for rain. With dust storms that batter their land and cover every inch of their homes, people begin fleeing east and west for the hope of anything better.

After a time, Elsa and her two children are forced to leave Texas for her son’s health. But upon arriving in California, it soon becomes clear that with thousands making the pilgrimage west, there are no jobs, no homes, and no prospect for these migrant workers. While it reflects the truth of the time, there is very little to hope for in this novel.

The plot begins to take off once Elsa, Loreda, and Ant settle in their “ditch-bank camp” home (sadly, a tent) and look for work, hope, and change. Elsa gets a quick lesson in unfair labor practices, Loreda discovers communism, and the family learns that nothing comes without a fight — a common theme in The Four Winds.

While I’ll admit this book comes in a distant third for me in Hannah’s lineup, it is still achingly beautiful. Elsa’s plight reflects much of what unemployed Americans are dealing with today, and watching Elsa comes to term with her government’s and her superiors’ failure to provide the most basic needs for her and her children hits close to home this year.

I don’t recommend this one if you’re looking for any sort of uplifting or escapist reading, but I will be placing it firmly in the hands of those hoping to find a story to relate to and find solace in. Another breathtaking, heartbreaking delivery by Kristin Hannah.

Many thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the opportunity to read this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

3.5 stars. This was one, very depressing read, read during a very depressing time in our lives. I love so many of Kristin Hannah’s books and always look forward to a new book coming out, so it is hard for me not to give The Four Winds more stars. While the subject matter was very interesting, The Dust Bowl, The Great Depression along with the migration west to fight for the American dream, the story was just too hopeless for me. Yes it was reality during those times, yes you could feel the dust in your throat, yes the characters were real but I wish the story was written with more positivity. The last chapter of the book got to me and was reminiscent of what I like about Kristin Hannah’s previous books.

All this being said I do encourage fans of Kristin Hannah and fans of historical fiction to read this book. You will learn about the oppression during the time of The Great Depression and The Dust Bowl and the struggle Americans faced in order to survive. Your new hero’s will be Elsa and her young daughter Loreda.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. The book will be coming out February 2nd.

Once again, Kristin Hannah does not disappoint!

In this historical fiction, The Four Winds begins in the late 1920s and early 1930s in the Texas panhandle. Elsa Martinelli and her family are wheat farmers who are suffering from the devastation of the Great Depression and the droughts plauging much of the country. Elsa, like most mothers, wants the best life possible for her children, Loreda and Ant- and in order to do that she takes off for California, where she has heard jobs are plentiful.

Upon arrival in California, Elsa and her children are met with new challenges and they realize that it isn't the land of milk and honey as had been described. However, Elsa refuses to give up.

My heart broke so many times reading of the heartache the Marinelli family endures. Kristin Hannah paints the reader a picture of life in the 1930s and the struggles that so many Americans had. The characters were enjoyable and the story showed that tough times don't last, but love does.

An easy 4 stars for a book of courage in face of soul destroying poverty. Four Winds is the story of Elsa Wolcott and her marriage to Rafe Martinelli, after she becomes pregnant with his child. She is disowned and shunned by her family because of this forced marriage to someone they regard as lower class. She moves into the Martinelli home. Rafe's parents welcome her as one their own in 1921 rural panhandle Texas.
But then the drought comes and crops no longer grow. This period is now known as the Dust Bowl. Rafe's holds on for a couple of years, but then deserts his wife and 2 children, leaving a note, saying he is looking for a job. Elsa stays for another year, but when her son Ant almost dies from a silicosis lung infection caused by a dust storm, Elsa decides to go west.
She arrives in California's San Joaquin Valley. She ends up picking cotton at wages that keep her family in perpetual debt and poverty The story of her struggle to provide for her family is inspiring, but truly depressing.
Two quotes: "Poverty was a soul destroying thing. A cave that tightened around you, its pinprick of light closing a little more at the end of each desperate, unchanged day."

"Love is what remains when everything else is gone. This is what I should have told my children when we left Texas."
This is a long book, at 477 pages and I read it in 11 days
Thanks to St Martin's Press for sending me this eARC through NetGalley. #TheFourWinds #NetGalley

I thoroughly enjoyed this historical fiction novel from Kristen Hannah. This is the third title I have read by the author.
This is a story taking place during the Great Depression and is about love, loss, and fighting for what's right to name a few. I found myself thinking about the characters even when I wasn't reading the book.
I recommend this for Kristen Hannah fans as well as historical fiction fans!

Disclosure: I received this ARC in exchange for an unbiased review.

Five-star rating systems are difficult to navigate. What are we rating books on? Or for? Or maybe even against? After reading Kristin Hannah's latest novel, The Four Winds, (due in 2021), I had to ask myself these questions multiple times.

The main character is Elsa and this is her story, although, as Hannah writes in her Author's Note, Elsa represents thousands of women who struggled through the Dust Bowl and the Great Depression. She also represents women before that time period and after--women who fought for suffrage, women who still fight for basic human rights. She is a migrant and a mother, and she represents the migrant mothers who today are seeking a better future for their children in a country that is increasingly hostile to them. The story ranges from Elsa's first encounter with the man who will be her husband through the ravages of the Dust Bowl in the Texas Panhandle to her migration to California where she fights for the right to feed and house her children. It is, as expected, a sad story.

I have only read one other novel by Hannah, the amazingly powerful The Nightingale. If I were to rate The Four Winds against that book, I would have to give it a lower rating simply because the characters are not as fully drawn.

While we are privy to Elsa's interior life, we are only given a glimpse. She remains a mystery, to herself as much as to anyone else. I felt the same way about other characters--from Rose and Tony to Lorada and Jack. It's not that we don't care about these characters, it's just that we don't know enough about their motivations to care more. Beyond the main characters, Hannah offers a cast of others who are roughly drawn, more like caricatures (taunting siblings and unloving parents, selfish alcoholic husbands, hard-working farmers, Communists, Okies, the Big Boss, the strike breakers) who are lost in the landscape of the larger history on which she builds her story.

History is Hannah's strong suit, but where The Nightingale offered up history in a compelling story, The Four Winds frequently feels like a history lesson pretending to be a novel, as if there just isn't enough human stuff holding it all together.

Hannah is popular, as her best-selling novels attest. She is also good, which is not the same thing. There are many popular authors who are not, strictly speaking, good writers. Hannah is a very good writer. I just happen to like The Nightingale more. If I had more stars to work with, I would give this novel four-and-one-half stars. As it is, I'll give it five. It isn't a four. It is really worth anyone's time.

This book was magnificent. Raw and heartbreaking but also uplifting and brave, I found I could not put it down and it pulled tears out of me more than once. 5 shiny stars!

Another beautifully written novel by Kristin Hannah. This one is set in the Depression and Dust Bowl eras and follows a young woman named Elsa. She marries, has kids of her own, and gains a new family. Living through these economic and environmental hardships, Elsa has to make many big choices about what she believes is best for her family. Her determination and strength never falter as she keeps pushing on.

This story is full of heartbreak, hope, courage, and love. Once you finish, you won't be able to forget Elsa or her family.

This is very nearly a 5 star novel.
It was an intense read about the Dust Bowl, the Great Depression, and migrant workers in California. At the core of the plot was a woman and her two children. I am not going to summarize the story. However, it was depressing and emotional. I actually had to take a break for a few days before I finished it. It just became overwhelming. These poor people's lives were absolutely tragic with no relief in sight. I felt so sorry for them all. I experienced anger and frustration on behalf of the characters. It was absolutely heartbreaking. The author created an atmosphere that sparked intense emotion in me as a reader. This is definitely 5 star caliber writing and storytelling.
The only reason I would knock it down a fraction of a star is because of the ending that (for me) felt unfulfilling. While the novel is supposed to be about a woman and her family, at times it seemed to be much more focused on migrant workers and workers' rights. The story culminated in the last 30 to 50 pages with a dramatic situation involving violence, courage; and, of course, love. However it left the bigger picture unresolved. At least, it was not resolved in a way that satisfied me. There was some resolution among the characters but not the historical situation. This type of book motivates me to research the historical events to find closure to that aspect of the story. I believe the book would have felt more complete had the author provided some historical closure, even if it had been in the author's note.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance reading copy in exchange for my honest review.

Elsa has never had it easy; a loveless childhood was followed by a loveless marriage. She thought she had just found love and comfort in her growing family, but then the Dust Bowl struck. Forced to make some of the biggest decisions of her life, will Elsa find the courage to protect her family?

Wow. This one was a doozy. The last 5% of this novel had me very teary eyed. Here is the historical fiction novel I had been waiting for since <u>The Nightingale</u>. I was so very unimpressed by <u>The Great Alone</u> but <u>The Four Winds</u> did not disappoint! An interesting storyline, lots of action, compelling and lovable characters. I was very pleased with this novel overall, in spite of the heartbreaking conclusion.

The Four Winds is my first Kristin Hannah book and I really need to get to her other ones! This was such a great book and such a hard book to read. I have kids the same ages as Loreda and Anthony and I found myself wondering over and over again about how we would react if we were faced with the same struggles.

The language and dialogue that Hannah uses does such a great job of bringing the reader into a heartbreaking time in American history. The added themes of poverty, immigration, and “us vs. them” are all too timely these days and reading the book during the pandemic really added to the weight of the novel. I wish the book were released early so we could get more minds thinking about these things.

The Four Winds will definitely stay with you; I highly recommend it!

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

Let me preface this review by saying that I’ll read anything Kristin Hannah puts out. Grocery list? I’ll be first in line. So I was ecstatic to get my hands on her newest book, The Four Winds. I immediately dropped everything to read it. Sorry, family! As always, the author weaves an emotional, harrowing, gripping tale. She is a phenomenal author and The Four Winds, as her other books, was exceptionally written.

During the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl, Elsa Martinelli fights for her family’s survival during one of the bleakest times in US history. As farmers, their crops are failing. Their livestock is dying. And their family is being crippled physically, mentally, and emotionally. This is a story of courage and tenacity in the face of extreme adversity.

I loved this book. The setting is set so vividly I could feel the grit of sand in my eyes. I adore how the author portrays strong, independent women. Elsa’s grit and determination was fierce despite the never ending struggles. Make no mistake though- this story is bleak. Despair runs rampant throughout the book. This is definitely a book you have to be in the right mood for! I was surprised and disappointed by the conclusion. But after mulling it over, I can see what the author was doing. And now I want to re-read it, knowing what I know now. This book was phenomenal, gritty, and poignant. Its equally hopeful and bleak, which is not an easy balance. It made my angry. It made me cry. It made me hopeful. It made me frustrated. I ran the full gamut of emotions in this book! This just highlights the authors amazing talent. I loved The Four Winds and give it the full 5⭐️. My sincere thanks to @stmartinspress for the advance reader in exchange for my honest review.

{In her author note, Kristin Hannah writes what comes off as sort of an apology. Stating that this book has been in the works for years and that nobody could have predicted a global pandemic. To be clear- this book is full of despair. If this year has been hard for you it’s probably best to wait on this one. You definitely need to be in the right mindset to read and appreciate this book.}

This book touched me and broke my heart! It was absolutely incredibly written and I found myself waking up in the middle of the night to read it. This is a story of mothers and daughters, of survival and greatness. I will absolutely be recommending it to so many library patrons.

Thank you Netgalley, St. Martin’s Press, and Kristin Hannah for allowing me to read this ARC. I just finished this book and I am stunned at how good it was.The book spans 15 years in Elsa’s life during the Depression and the Dust Bowl days. It’s a long book, but kept me intrigued and wanting to know what happened next, so I finished it quickly. The writing drew me into the story and I could not stop reading. The characters were well-drawn and I was rooting for Elsa the whole time. She goes from an unloved but spoiled daughter to a mother of two. Loreda changes from a spoiled teen to a strong, smart, brave young woman. I love reading books where the characters grow and change.
The story was heartbreaking and sometimes painful to read what the characters go through. I couldn’t help but draw parallels to all of the people currently out of work now due to the pandemic. But what an epic saga and what a great read. I highly recommend this book if you are a historical fiction reader and even if you’re not if you like good books.

Thank you Net Galley for this ebook in exchange for an honest review.

It’s not often that a book can bring its reads to have such strong emotions & reactions to the words. This is a book that at points had me in tears the pages became blurry.

Kristen Harris takes her readers on a journey with men, women, and children living in 1930’s Texas; and their struggle to survive to Great Depression.

While the happy moments in this novel were few and far between- Elsa’s journey from was one of growth and strength for what she’s endured.

This is quite a harrowing tale. I actually had to take a pause from reading it at about 50%. Had I been reading this in any moment other than the middle of the dumpster fire that is 2020, I think I could have read it straight through. At this moment, however, it was a lot to live the pandemic and terrible unrest and then pick up a book and read about another time in American history where things were also awful.

Pretty much every moment of Elsa's life is TOUGH. She starts off with a terrible family who doesn't like or support her. They quickly disown her when she seeks affection from Rafe and ends up pregnant. There's a quick blip where she finds a stable, home living with Rafe and his family and has her children, but then the dust bowl starts. If you know anything about this period in history, then you know what follows is a life-or-death struggle. Elsa has a fraught relationship with her daughter who blames her mother for all of her issues. Elsa also has a really poor self-image and often doesn't believe in herself. Elsa's marriage to Rafe is also lonely and one-sided. Rafe eventually abandons the family. The family almost starves on the farm. Elsa's son gets dust asthma an almost dies. Are you sensing a trend? Finally, the family makes the dangerous and difficult journey to California to escape the dust where they experience discrimination, abject poverty, and severe labor abuses by the big farmers and corporations where the migrants are forced to work. It's literally one horrible thing after another.

However, as is typical with Hannah, you can't stop reading. I read late into the night, literally biting my nails, wanting to know what would happen next. My favorite Hannah book is still The Great Alone, but this is a strong addition to her catalog. This is a stark, vivid account of the depression and the Dust Bowl. There was so much excellent historical detail that I loved. The ending was NOT what I wanted at all, but I appreciated it all the same. The last 20% is the weakest part-- it devolves a bit into what feels like propaganda for unionized labor and workers' rights which I support but it felt a bit like a different book. Until that point, it had really been the story of Elsa and her family and their experiences during this really horrible moment in American history. During that last 20%, it was more about how the communist party in California was fighting for workers' rights and Elsa felt like a vehicle to inform about that moment.

"The Four Winds" tells the story of Elsa Martinelli and her family as they live during the Great Depression and Dust Bowl in Texas. Elsa, while born into an upper middle-class family, is unloved due to her looks and health issues. She becomes pregnant and is forced to marry into a poor farming family. There she finds the love and acceptance that families can provide. However, her marriage to a young dreamer fails as he abandons the family. Elsa is left to raise and support her two children along with her supportive in-laws.

Eventually, Elsa has to decide between staying in Texas or journeying alone with her two children to California, the land of promise. Once in California, she discovers the huge number of Texan and Oklahoma migrants have flooded the area driving down the wages and raising housing costs. She joins the many migrant farm workers barely making a living and becomes involved in protests to unionize the workers.

Kristin Hannah developed an interesting group of characters and portrayed the U.S. as it was during this time period. This book reminded me of "The Grapes of Wrath", telling the heartbreaking story of determined Americans desperate for a way to make a living and provide for their family against the harsh realities of life and those in power.

This book is the story of Elsa’s journey to believe in herself and allow her courageous spirit to surface. I recommend this book if you like multi-generation sagas or are interested in this challenging time period in history.