Very reminiscent of When Crawdads Sing--a heroine to root for and beautiful nature writing. This felt a little too familiar and the emotions were a bit too on the nose for me.

An emotional story about a young girl, racism, and the will to survive. I don't read a lot of books that start in the 1940's and end during Vietnam. Our MC, Victoria, shows a will to survive, a push to be independent and strong and it was inspiring to read. The story is broken in parts and I like how that broke out time and storyline. The last 2 parts were my favorite, as a lot of the story came together and rewarded us with a great ending.

A huge thank you to the author and publisher for providing an e-ARC via Netgalley. This does not affect my opinion regarding the book.

I really enjoyed this slow and engrossing story. At times it borderlines too slow, but I couldn't make myself dislike it. The author took her time really diving into Victoria's character and growth over the years. Because I was adopted and know my birth family, this story had a special connection..the last few chapters really got me!
Read this if you want story that takes its time with the setting and characters, and deals with love, loss, and redemption. If you liked The Four Winds, This Tender Land, Where the Crawdads Sing, and the like, I think you'll really enjoy this one!

Really enjoyable book. Loved the pacing and the main character. Read it within a couple of days. Great cover too.

Towns have been drowned for years and this novel takes a historical event and adds an engrossing narrative to the creation of the Blue Mesa reservoir in Colorado. The descriptions of the natural world are of the caliber in “Where the Crawdads Sing” , that is to say, evocative. The characters are well drawn and everything about this book is gorgeous.

As a Colorado resident, I especially enjoyed the historical fiction element in this wonderful book. The author poignantly depicts a young woman's coming of age on the Western Slope and her bravery in stepping up to save her family's famous Palisade peach trees. I recommend this book as one of the best I've read in 2023. Thanks very much to the publisher for providing an ARC to preview.

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! No spoilers. Beyond amazing I enjoyed this book so very much. The characters and storyline were fantastic. The ending I did not see coming Could not put down nor did I want to. Truly Amazing and appreciated the whole story. This is going to be a must read for many many readers. Maybe even a book club pick.

A beautiful coming-of-age story of lovers, Wil and Torie, thrown together on chance meeting and forever tied together by the conception of child. Then tragedy strikes and the reader follows Torie on her plunge into the wilderness and a struggle to survive, pregnant and alone. The parallel losses her hometown faces while threatened with the Gunnison River's fast approach toward destruction, and her efforts to rebuild, will bring you to tears. This is one of the saddest books I've read this year, but I enjoyed it from cover to cover.

Thank you to Shelley Read for a wonderful story. And thank you to Netgalley and Spiegel & Grau for the advanced e-galley!

This book was a sloooow read for me. For some reason i couldnt get into this story. I am sure it's a great book as the reviews were good but it didnt do anything for me.

I listened to this one over audio and really enjoyed it in that format. It’s a great historical fiction and was especially interesting to me since it takes place in Colorado. The main character was strong, and I loved the story, even though there were times it dragged a bit.

GO AS A RIVER has been all over the place with raving reviews. I've started and stopped this book multiple times now. It's beautifully written, but it is also painfully slow for me. I had the same problem with GIVER OF STARS. Being a mood reader, just waiting for the right time to finish.

I couldn't wait to read this book. I was fortunate to hear Shelley Read speak but waited to read this book till it was time for my book club to read it. Go As a River was beautifully written. It was heart warming and heart breaking all at once.

Title: Go As A River
Author: Shelley Read
Available now

⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ 💫

This debut novel follows the life course of Victoria Nash starting in the 1940s on her family’s peach farm in Colorado and ending in the 1970s. She falls in love with a young man named Wilson Moon at age 17. Throughout her life, Victoria faces more hardship than one should have to bear, but she will go as a river like Wilson Moon once told her.

This novel is beautifully written with captivating scenes of the Colorado landscape. It is a sad but hopeful story that had me on the verge of tears multiple times. Victoria has strength and fortitude unlike any other. I couldn’t wait to see what happened in this one, yet also wanted to read it slowly to appreciate the words.

I chose this for my IRL book club meeting next week and I’m eager to discuss it.

Pick this up for a simultaneously quiet yet propulsive read.

This story starts with a 17-year old motherless girl in 1949 living on a peach farm, who falls in love with a Native American drifter, in spite of the blatant racism of her family.

The plot quickly devolves into a common story, and then makes a complete 180 turn.
The writing is beautiful, but it took me a while to slow my reading pace and absorb the depth of Victoria and her story. This is a tale of her joining with nature, with her pain and finally her acceptance of herself and her life. Once I understood that the story was not moving as expected, I was able to enjoy it and relish in its fullness.

You will enjoy this lovely work if you are willing to savor it and allow it to open your heart.

This is a stunning book - I loved the writing but most of all I loved the story of the main character, the hardships she endured and overcame, and her love of her family's peach orchard. I was fascinated by the transplanting of the trees to hold onto her family legacy even after their original farm was flooded. I especially loved the reflections on relationships, family, motherhood, love and loss. Highly recommend this book and can't wait to read the author's next novel.

I received this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. The story of Victoria is heartbreaking- lots of tears involved on my end. I don’t know that I would recommend to someone who has a hard time reading about lots of sadness. The writing is very beautiful, but since the story could be slow I found myself speeding through parts of it. It has all the parts of a book that I would love and I’ve seen many good reviews, but I only liked and not loved it. Maybe it was just a case of bad timing.

This is one of the most heartbreaking and beautiful books I've read all year. I can not believe it's a debut novel! The writing is gorgeous and Victoria's story will stay with me for a long time. Read it and thank me later.

This book tugged on heartstrings as a lot of historical fiction does. It was a story of loss and finding yourself surrounded by loneliness and heartache but still making it up the ladders. It's not an easy read as there are a lot of emotional baggage let loose throughout this book but still a book that should be read to understand a bit more of the prejudices of our country through the years (and today).

“Just as a single rainstorm can erode the banks and change the course of a river, so can a single circumstance of a girl’s life erase who she was before.” Shelley Read, Go as a River.

At the tender age of twelve, Victoria Nash finds herself thrust into a world of loss and responsibility. Her mother, aunt, and cherished cousin tragically die in an auto accident, leaving Torie to shoulder the household duties for her father, angry brother, and an embittered war-wounded uncle confined to a wheelchair. They live on a flourishing peach farm nestled in the very real town of Iola, Colorado, near the serene Gunnison River.

Torie’s existence becomes a relentless cycle of work, sleep, and little else; a stark reality for a teenager burdened by grown-up expectations. “The men expected me to slip silently into her role—to cook their meals, clean their pee off the toilet, wash and hang their soiled clothes, and tend to every last thing in the house and the coops and the garden.”

On a crisp autumn day in 1948, Torie’s life takes an unexpected turn. The 17-year-old delivers late-season peaches to a nearby village and meets Wilson Moon, a Native American who has left his tribe. Their love is an affront to the community and Victoria’s own family, forcing them to conceal their relationship.

When Victoria discovers she is pregnant, she flees to the unforgiving wilderness to give birth. Her solitary struggle and profound loneliness in the wild tugged at my heartstrings. The poignant narrative spans decades, narrated in Torie’s retrospective first-person voice. Her strength and resilience shine through, making her an inspiring protagonist.

The history of Iola adds to the story, especially when the town was intentionally flooded during the building of the Blue Mesa Reservoir. (Check out this informative piece: https://coloradosun.com/2018/12/10/iola-blue-mesa-reservoir-drought/)

Go as a River is a gut-wrenching coming-of-age saga that weaves together eloquent prose, indelible characters, and a vivid natural setting. It’s a story that delves deep into themes of friendship, love, and transformation, brimming with wisdom and an unquenchable yearning. I was deeply moved.

Shelley Read’s debut novel is a testament to her exceptional writing talent. I can’t wait to see what comes next. This is really a special book and earns a solid 5 stars.

** Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance reader copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Go as a River is a book that doesn't fit neatly into any genre. It is a coming of age story, a story of racism, family relationships, grief, loss and more. Seventeen-year-old Victoria Nash runs the household on her family’s peach farm in the small ranch town of Iola, Colorado. She takes care of her father, disabled uncle and brother as well as happening in the peach orchard. She meets Wilson Moon, a young indigenous drifter who was displaced from his tribal land. They begin a friendship and eventually have a physical encounter. Wilson is killed by her brother and his friend due the fact that he was "an Indian" and a danger to the community. Shortly after that, Victoria finds herself pregnant and isn't sure what to do. She flees into the mountains and finds the cabin Wil lived in sometimes. She stays there and eventually has her child. The decisions she makes at that point will change her life forever. Eventually returning home, she finds her father alone. She takes over the same responsibilities until he dies and she is on her own. Other events such as, the selling of her farm, the flooding of the town to make a damn and reservoir round out this story.

Wow, this was such an unexpected story. Victoria was such a strong character and what she went through in life was hard to imagine. She was resilient, didn't give up, caring and loyal to a degree. She was the typical woman in the 1960s, taking care of the family and helping on the farm. I was surprised that there was so much racism toward indigenous people, but again, hatred knows no boundaries. This is a book that you have to just pick up and read. I don't want to ruin it for anyone. I will say that the writing was beautiful, descriptive and so well-written. I enjoyed the plot and although this story is set in Colorado, it had overtones of southern fiction. I had not heard of the flooding of Iola, Colorado, so you can bet I googled it to find out more. There was not a lot to find, which surprised me, it was like it was no big deal.