This is a new to me author and I wasn't sure what to expect. What I got was a well written book that hooked me on the first page. This book will keep you turning the pages to see what happens next.
I received a complimentary copy from PENGUIN GROUP Putnam via NetGalley and was not required to write a review. All opinions expressed are my own.

KJ Dell'Antonia has certainly written another hit! 'In Her Boots' is reminiscent of a really good Christmas movie (in the best way) and Rhett is one of the best characters I've read this year. KJ has the ability to write with so much emotion and description that you cannot help but feel and empathize with Rhett's emotions and experiences. I LOVED being in her mind and a part of me is now considering if I have the ability to run off and start my own farm. The mother/daughter relationship was complicated with such a natural and honest pay-off. Not one sentence or character felt out of place; this is genuinely one of the tightest books I've ever read. If you love a coming-of-age story with an older protagonist, stories about friendship and a little romance, then this book is for you!

Thanks to the publisher for the ARC to read and review.

In Her Boots at its core is about acceptance and forgiveness. Rhett has these issues with her mother, who she never felt quite good enough to deserve her love. It was the basis for her alter ego Maggie strong, and her desire to travel the world and leave her beloved New Hampshire farm.

When she learns of her grandmothers passing, she returns home to come face to face with her mother and obstacles preventing her from taking over her fathers legacy.

Rhett is in a constant state of screw up and reevaluate. When she wrangles her best friend into impersonating Maggie Strong, lie after lie builds until by the end of the story, only a cataclysmic disaster can make Rhett finally come out and tell the truth about who she is and what she wants.

In Her Boots
by K. J. Dell’Antonia


Margaret “Rhet” is an influential instagrammer who channels her alter ego “Maggie Strong”and is better known as the Modern Pioneer Girl. While off the grid in Argentina, Rhet receives news that her beloved Grandma Bee has died. She is at a bit of a crossroads in her life after learning that her boyfriend and business partner plans to marry the woman with whom he has been having an affair. Rhet has complicated feelings about the hometown she has worked hard to distance herself from but knows she wants to make a go of the family farm her Grandma Bee has left behind. What a surprise when she discovers that she and her estranged mother have jointly inherited the farm. Rhett wants to save the farm but her mother wants to sell.

Rhet, as The Modern Pioneer Girl, writes about her 20 years of messy occupations and adventures overseas. She advises woman how to travel solo and live the life they want to live. She has also written a best selling book which is about to soar the MPG to new heights. But Rhet/Maggie Strong is not altogether what her followers think she is. In a hair brained scheme to conceal her identity as the MPG from her pushy mother, her editor and IG followers, things begin to spin out of control.

Dell’Antonia has written a book about the uncertainties faced by today’s youth, but also about Times are changing and she illuminates the ways the old paths to success are not always open nor may be right for everyone. With a great deal of heart and humor, @kjda masterfully addresses the struggles to negotaite the pressures of meeting other’s expectations and of being true to oneself.

Many thanks to @NetGalley and @putnambooks for the advanced digital copy but especially to @jdka for another great reading experience!

I got this book based on the cover. I had not read her previous book, but this book did not do much for me. Rhett is supposed to be 40, but acts like a 20 something. She and her mother have issues and although they seem to get better it is still not a great relationship. I liked her relationship with Jas, but the others weren’t very well fleshed out. This book was not for me and I am sorry that i could not give a better review

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy of this book.
What a fun and lighthearted read. Really enjoyed it. Kept me laughing and interested.
Was well written and an easy and relaxing read.

Much like KJ's last book - this one left me with all smiles! It was pure shenanigan's and I loved every bit of it! I loved Rhett's growth throughout the book - learning to stand on her own two feet! This is perfect for Chick-Lit lovers, people who enjoy humor in their books, and someone looking for a feel-good story.

Loved this story of a girl trying to save her grandmother's farm from her mother who wants to sell it.

I'm pretty partial to anything with fur but In Her Boots may be putting llamas and mini ponies high on that list of favorite farm furbabes. I adored The Chicken Sisters by KJ Dell'Antonia, but man oh man I cannot hold back how much I loved this novel.

The character depth was excellent and swarms with mother/daughter tensions, self acceptance and found sisterly bonds. Everything is tested in this novel and the ending that comes from it was wonderful. Rhett has a career as the Modern Pioneer Girl (MPG) and has kept her identity a secret. When she comes back home to her grandma's farm after her death, she's faced with her overbearing mother, a heartbreak from the past and the secrets her and her best friend, Jasmine, are stuck in.

Dell'Antonia did a superb job of dragging my inner bookish feelings out. Rhett is the embodiment of the self doubts and personal struggles I feel so many woman go through. Watching her wish to be like her best friend and putting Jasmine on a pedestal of things she didn't believe herself accomplished or worthy of, was a realistic gut poke I know too well. Jasmine harbours the same inner woes but also comes with her own relationship baggage of molding her life and dreams to suite her workout crazy husband and his lifestyle. Another home hitter in a sense. Tack on the mother/daughter differences and this was a novel that hit deep for me.

But I promise its more than just heartwarming and emotional. I laughed, I swooned and I got all in my need to bake and explore the world feels after finishing this gem. Hands down this was a 5 star read for me. The perfect any-season novel fit for any book club or setting. I'm recommending this one to everyone and anyone who second guesses there circumstances, worth and choices. You won't regret grabbing this novel.

Special thank you to the author and Putnam Publishing for the gifted copy in exchange for an honest and unbiased review. All thoughts are my own.

A book about confronting your past to find your future even if you are already approaching 40; about seeing things through another’s eyes as a way to forgiveness and healing. Second chances in romance, family and friendship and being try to yourself and others even or especially when things get hard !

I enjoyed In Her Boots so much - a heartwarming read ! If you liked Chicken Sisters or just enjoy books about friendships, mothers and daughters, growing up, animals, farms, small towns coming together or pastries sold at a farm stand, you will enjoy this book. Great sophomore novel by this author!

So excited to review In Her Boots by Kj Dell’Antonia! Sometimes I get so wrapped up in a story that I forget that it’s no my real life. This story in particular left me wishing I at least lived in the same town on a farm like Pioneer Hill!

Maggie Strong is the pseudo-personality created for social media. While it’s not exactly who Rhett is in reality, it’s a very close similarity to her real life. She’s a doer, a farmer, a learned mechanic, and enjoys working hard. Her high school roomie and best friend Jasmine is her partner in crime and they edge each other on.

Rhett was approached on the Maggie Strong social media to put her ideas into a book. The book became amazingly popular and is asked for television and radio interviews. Just one problem: Maggie Strong is anonymous. How do you go on live television if you’re not supposed to have a face?

Her publicist encourages Rhett to take in this live interview. Rhett goes along with Jasmine, but they agree that Jas will go on stage because Rhett hears her mother backstage. She can’t face her strict and judgmental mother on live television! Only, it’s a disaster when Rhett’s mother leans on the flimsy table and it flips over on her, becoming the laughingstock of social media memes.

Rhett is heading to her grandmothers farm after Bee passed away. It’s not all she expected. It’s falling apart and her mother wants to sell it. Rhett always thought she would take over the farm and didn’t expect her late father’s will to split it between her and her mother. And her mother wants to sell it to the college she’s President at in order to build and expand the school.

In an attempt to keep the farm for herself, Rhett decides she’ll open the old farm stand. It’s great timing as tourists will be coming around and the college is ending its school year and will soon have graduation. Jas shows up after fighting with her husband and does some amazing baking. The two do their thing and it makes the farm stand an amazing stop for the community and for visitors alike!

At least, until it caught on fire. Now what?! What will Rhett do? How can she get a mortgage for half a farm that has fire damage? Will her mother still sell the property? what about the success of the farm stand? So many things!

Thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Group Putnam for access to this book! I give it 5 out of 5 tiaras because I was so caught up in time I didn’t want it to end! It’s always hard to leave amazing characters that feel like long lost friends!

This story explored expectations and growing up (even when we're 40). The main character, Rhett Gallagher, is disappointed by her strained relationship with her mother but isn't really willing to work to bridge that gap. As a result, she puts her best friend, Jas, in an awkward position, simply to avoid another run-in with her mother.

Rhett has spent much of her life with "if onlys" and "what ifs," and now finds herself confronted with "what is" and "what will be." But she's created this online influencer persona that reflects who she aspires to be and is continually disappointed in herself that she's not.

Due to events beyond her control, she's forced to take a good hard look at how her unreasonable expectations of those around her have led to a mess she has no clue how to clean up. And that's the beginning of her path to finally maturing and actually being able to achieve the life she's always dreamed of.

There were great elements of humor and human insight in this story, and I enjoyed the characters and their journey of self-discovery.

Thank you to KJ Dell'Antonia, Penguin Group and NetGalley for an advance review copy.

I loved this book so much that I ended up reading it in one night. That's something I rarely do anymore. I instantly fell in love with Rhett and her MPG. From a blogging and social media standpoint, I felt like I could be Rhett; comfortable enough to put myself out there (on the internet) but not quite comfortable enough to completely expose myself.

I honestly think Rhett had to do things the way she did, getting her friend Jasmine to become MPG and assume the role to the public. I don't think she would have been able to grow the way she did by the end of the book had she just confronted her issues with her past head-on.

The additional characters were wonderfully written and even though it wasn't the third-person POV fiction I've been reading lately, you learned enough about them through Rhett's interactions with them, so you could fully empathize with them. And isn't that how it usually goes with these things? Your friends know you almost better than yourself and they can see you in a way that you can't.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review In Her Boots. It's a great addition to anyone'se summer reading list!

In Her Boots wasn’t an overly surprising story, but it felt comfortable and was enjoyable to read. I think it took the main character a little long to learn her lesson and some parts felt a little cheesy, but overall, KJ Dell’Antonia showed yet again how well she can write families, their turmoil and misunderstandings of each other as well as their growth and vulnerability.

If a book cover has a boot on it, there is without a doubt that I will read it. So here I am with bestselling author K.J. Dell’Antonia’s novel “In Her Boots” because I can’t resist a good cowboy boot.

After a long-term relationship ends, her 40th birthday, and the death of her beloved grandmother, Rhett Gallagher, returns from her adventurous lifestyle to salvage her family’s farm. Under the Modern Pioneer Girl pseudonym, Rhett has accumulated a mass following on Instagram about her adventures and life lessons along the way. When a moment of panic strikes before an interview, Rhett begs her best friend Jasmine to step into the limelight and be the face of the Modern Pioneer Girl.

But when Rhett’s estranged mother comes knocking at her door to sell the family farm, Rhett and Jasmine devise a plan to save the farm and prove she is capable to her mother, all while the two friends keep up the ruse of their fake author plan.

Rhett’s characterization leaps off the page–her inner conflict with her self-esteem wasn’t gimmicky or whiny but profoundly nuanced and complex (although she’s 20 years older than me). Her growth throughout the book is occasionally frustrating but satisfying by the conflict and end, which brought a few unshed tears to my eyes.

The pacing of “In Her Boots” is slow, mainly streams of Rhett’s consciousness and skirting away from the central conflict. Although the novel’s first half sets up the subsequent events of the story, the slow pacing made it nearly impossible to get through and could have been cut down to hold the reader’s attention.

Yet, the pacing of “In Her Boots” wasn’t the most pressing issue for me–the real problem was Dell’Antonia’s choice to use the word “pioneer.” You might be questioning, “How is that word an issue?” Although it has become part of the common language, the term “pioneer” holds a racist and colonialism past that reverberates today. To further explain my issue, here is a personal anecdote:

I attend the University of Denver, a small private college known for its strong academics and stellar hockey team. The university’s unofficial mascot is the Pioneer, a male figure with a Davy Crocket-style raccoon hat named Boone. Pioneers from the 1800s were not the hard-working trailblazers American history, and literature has taught us. Pioneers were partially responsible (along with the U.S. government) for the genocide of Native Americans, the decimation of their food sources, assimilation, discrimination, oppression, and outright theft of land rights across the country.

Protests from DU students and Native American individuals called for the mascot to be replaced due to its inherently racist past–especially given the school is built on Cheyenne and Arapaho tribal lands. For a university that prides itself on acknowledging and making amends with its Native American community, DU is reluctant to replace Boone (for various reasons, mainly the alumni association and their financial contributions).
The mascot debate is still hotly contested within DU’s classrooms, and although “pioneer” might not be as racist as other monikers, the term still holds a terrible past and should not be lauded.

This is why I had such an issue with Dell’Antonia’s word choice. There are numerous other nouns she could have employed, but calling Rhett a “Modern Pioneer Girl” deeply unsettled me. Co-opting a term for a fictional, white woman to profit off and encourage readers to follow Rhett’s sage advice isn’t a feminist flex and lacks critical intersectionality. This white-washing and glorification of the “pioneer lifestyle” isn’t new. Still, it is concerning not a single editor thought to change it and practice cultural competency to their readership instead of perpetuating racist and colonialist concepts.

Despite this, I mostly enjoyed the novel. An inspiring, heartfelt story of healing a mother/daughter relationship, “In Her Boots” was a delightful read to uplift readers.

IN HER BOOTS by KJ Dell’Antonia starts off slowly and doesn’t pick up until Rhett is in New Hampshire on her family farm. With the loss of her beloved grandmother, the farm is no longer as she envisions it. She’s hoping to make it viable again since she’s to inherit it. Except that’s not what dear old Mom, whom Rhett hasn’t seen in twenty years, has in store for it.

The story jumps, making the plot a little jarring. There are a lot of characters to sort through, and Rhett doesn’t have a relationship with any of them. When she and her best friend reconnect in New York before Rhett heads to New Hampshire, she feels that her friend is settling and remains distant. All the angst between characters often gives the story a depressing feel. Rhett isn’t true to herself or others but keeps getting angry at her friend for not doing exactly what Rhett wants. She acts more like a teenager than a forty-year-old.

The animals bring some life and laughter to the story. The descriptions of the farm and lands are vivid and put the reader right in the middle of the story. There is some closure with the many relationships healing, and several of the characters reinvent themselves, which shows growth. I would have liked an epilogue to see how their lives played out since the book ends abruptly.

The titles given for each chapter and the discussion questions at the end are a nice touch and give pause to think about the book. The cover is cute with details placed on the enlarged boot—very fitting since boots play a big part in the story.

IN HER BOOTS is an emotionally filled, at times depressing, story that doesn’t always satisfy but does make you think about what you’ve read.

I rated it 3.5 stars but rounded to 4 stars on Goodreads and other sites.

In Her Boots was a easy breezy feel good read. It had all the elements in the plot line that helped the Rhett really become who she is. Which is a unique situation because she technically is almost 40 and still feels like the little girl trying to prove herself to her mom.
But the author did so much more in the story as Rhett juggles such complexity in so many broken relationships.

I enjoyed the relationship between her and Jasmine. As Rhett evolves into who her Modern Pioneer persona is, Jasmine comes into her own as well as she finds a newfound life on the farm with Rhett.
Louise’s joy and innocence is heard in how’s the character is written and it reminds Rhett of the Hope in possibility. Something “The Modern Pioneer Women” preaches but Rhett herself never fully owned or owns anymore.

But also the author did a great job of creating healing in relationships in so many areas of Rhett’s life. Her relationship with her mom is relatable to do many, and you can help but sympathize with Margaret while you are angry with her as well.

I always love when an author puts book club questions or interview questions in the back of the book. It’s helps the reader see the mind and proceed of the author, so this was a nice treat at the end of the book.

I thought the premise for The Chicken Sisters was delightful and the author's voice fresh and unique, so I was excited to read In Her Boots. Sadly, this one fell short for me. The characters are rather flat and I don't feel a sense of connection with Rhett. I'm all for character growth and transformation, but it's difficult to root for this particular protagonist. I abandoned the book after the third chapter. Thank you for the opportunity to read an early copy.

I really liked this book. I found Rhett to be very relatable as a character. I often feel like I am always truly not myself on social media. I enjoyed watching the main character's growth and self-discovery. Navigating old relationships is hard, especially if it's family.

Rhett Gallagher is a badass. She can fix the fuse in a car that won’t start or slow down a runaway horse. She’s been all over the world, figuring out how to pull a minicab or work in a fishery or help out on a ranch. And she wrote it all down, in a book she called The Modern Pioneer Girl’s Guide to Life, published under the pseudonym Maggie Strong. Rhett was very happy being The Modern Pioneer Girl on Instagram and Rhett working on a ranch in South America.

And then her grandmother died.

Bee had lived on a farm in New Hampshire, and Rhett grew up on the farm with her. She had learned from Bee and from her father, until he had died from a tragic accident. Her mother had lived with them on the farm, but she was from England and felt more at home on the local college campus than on the farm. She had left the farm when Rhett was 11 and never went back. And then, when her father died, her mother picked Rhett up and sent her to boarding school. Rhett was heartbroken, but that’s where she met Jasmine.

Jasmine had been the girl a school who saw her. She saw Rhett hiding from the other girls, reading her Little House on the Prairie books. She is the one who encouraged Rhett to channel her inner Pioneer Girl, and their friendship was cemented from that point on.

Jas is Rhett’s first stop in New York, as they get a chance to get caught up in the city before Rhett heads to New Hampshire and the farm. And when they post on Instagram, someone from the Today Show happens to recognize the photo and asks The Modern Pioneer Girl to do the show in the morning. While Rhett likes to stay anonymous, she agrees to do the show. But what she doesn’t realize until she shows up at the green room is that the piece is about the traditional advice of going to college and slowly building a career step by step versus The Modern Pioneer Girl’s advice of finding your own path. And the person they have scheduled to talk about the traditional route? A college president. Specifically, Rhett’s mother.

Rhett panics and decides she can’t go on. She begs Jas to take her place instead. Against her better judgment, Jas agrees, and she is delightful on the show. But Margaret, Rhett’s mother, doesn’t do as well. And while the offers for more media come rolling in, Rhett begs off and heads to her grandmother’s farm. When she gets there, she finds her mother there waiting for her. It turns out that Rhett’s grandmother didn’t own the farm. She had been allowed to live there, but the farm was actually owned by her father. When he had passed, it had gone to her mother and herself, with her mother acting as trustee.

Rhett’s mother is prepared to sell the farm to the college, so that they can build a new admissions building. But Rhett insists that she wants to stay and run the farm. Her mother doubts that she can do it, but she doesn’t realize that The Modern Pioneer Girl has all the skills she needs to run a working farm. But first she’ll have to convince her mother to sell her half of the farm to her, convince her college boyfriend that she’s not the same girl who left him shortly before graduation, and find a way to make money for the farm to make repairs and keep the animals—some chickens, horses, and a llama, among others—fed and safe.

The Modern Pioneer Girl could pull all that off, but now that the world thinks that’s Jasmine, Rhett has painted herself into a corner. She will need to figure out how to fix all her past relationship mistakes or she’ll just end up burning it all down.

In Her Boots is the latest novel from KJ Dell’Antonia, who brought us last year’s The Chicken Sisters. This new novel is a powerful look at the relationships that make us and break us and how our perspective on them changes through the years. Dell’Antonia takes readers on a journey through broken relationships to hope and healing.

I absolutely loved this book. There is an energy to Rhett and her story that is so propulsive and dynamic that I had a hard time setting this book aside. I loved these characters and how they hunkered down when things got hard. They didn’t always make the best choices, but they got it right in the end. I am so impressed by the way Dell’Antonia handles the emotions of these characters, giving this book a texture of genuine humanity and heart. This one is a big win for me, and I think anyone needing a heart-warming, genuinely interesting read should pick this one up immediately.

Egalleys for In Her Boots were provided by G.P. Putnam’s Sons through NetGalley, with many thanks.