Shelterwood is a book that goes between two time periods - in 1909 Olive Radley flees her home with her adopted Choctaw sister Nessa. Together they set off on a journey towards the Winding Stairs Mountains where Olive hopes that they can live in peace. Along the way Olive and Nessa encounter other children with whom they form a bond and soon Olive is trying to find a home for not just her and Nessa but a whole group of orphan children. In 1990 Valerie Boren O'Dell moves to Oklahoma and takes on the job of a law enforcement ranger at Horsethief Trail National Park. Soon after arriving she is drawn into the mystery surrounding a burial site of three children in the park and investigating a local missing teenager. What will Valerie find when she untangles the mysteries in the Winding Stair Mountains? And how does it all connect back to Olive and Nessa?

I really enjoyed how this book covered parts of history that I know nothing about. It was interesting to read about Kate Barnard, the first female elected official in Oklahoma and her fight to protect the rights of orphaned Indian children who were often given "guardians" and then cheated out of their land. I was drawn into each time period - when reading the Olive chapters I was captivated by all that her and Nessa and their band of children had to endure. When reading the Valerie chapters I loved trying to figure out the mystery and how it would all tie together. The author did a wonderful job of bringing history and the landscape of Oklahoma to life - I also loved how everything in the book ended up connecting. If you are a fan of Lisa Wingate I recommend reading this book - you will not be disappointed! Thank you to Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine and Net Galley for giving me a digital copy of this book.

This novel will stay with me for a while. It was well researched and the characters were captivating . I love reading a historical novel about a time and place I know very little about. This one falls into that category. It makes me want to learn more!

2.5 stars.

This story is set in Oklahoma with a dual timeline between 1909 and 1990. In 1909, the story follows a group of neglected children living on their own in the mountains. In 1990, the story follows a park ranger looking to uncover the secrets of the long buried remains of 3 children found in the park AND the recent disappearance of a teen boy.

I wanted to like this one, and it started out good. But I don't think this story needed the dual timelines. I think it would have been more interesting and more effective to be told completely in 1909 without the jumps to 1990. In the more modern parts, the story gets bogged down with multiple mysteries-- some that connected with the 1909 story but also some that really didn't seem necessary to this storytelling. I thought the 1990 parts were mostly made of speculation, with the rangers just guessing and ruminating about what might be happening. But not much was actually happening until the end, and that bogged the story down.

And then the ending was just very disappointing. Perhaps this needs a spoiler alert first...

The story ends in the 1990 section, with a huge chunk of the 1909 section being retold and then wrapped up. I really did not like the way that the 1909 story abruptly ended and then we found out what happened through the retelling in the future. Again, I think it would have been much more compelling to follow the events as they were happening in 1909. The author writes more about the setting and her research in the Author's Notes, and I thought many of the things in the Author's Notes were more intriguing that the actual plot of the book.

This one may still be worth a read if you want to learn more about the "elf children" of Oklahoma. I did like reading about this unfamiliar part of history.

This was a truly interesting book, one of the best that I've read lately. It is written with alternating POVs in a dual timeline setting, 1909 and 1990.

While I do appreciate the need for writing in dual timelines, the first two or three chapters were a little difficult for me to follow. However, once I learned the characters and the settings, it was much easier to switch back and forth between the two.

With the engaging writing style that Lisa Wingate employs, I will freely admit that I very quickly became completely invested in this story. While this is a fictional account, her story is based on true historical facts and therefore gives the novel a much richer meaning. With each chapter ending on somewhat of a cliffhanger, I found this book extremely hard to put down, and I enjoyed it immensely. Knowing that some of the themes and events were factual made it even more appealing.

Many thanks to the author and to NetGalley for a complementary ARC of this book.

Title: Shelterwood
By: Lisa Wingate

Genre:
Fiction, Historical, Christian, Mystery

Trigger Warnings: Child Neglect, Child Abuse, Women’s/Children’s Rights,

Favorite Quotes:
“Stories turn into memories, you just have to tell them enough.”
“Hate is a thief that will steal everything and return nothing if you let it.”
“A town without a library is no town at all.”
Summary:
Oklahoma, 1909 - Olive (11), and Nessa (6), are afraid for their lives. Their stepfather is in a mood and the girls can tell his intentions are not good, so they run away on an adventure. The girls head toward the Winding Stair Mountains, a dangerous area known for outlaws, along the way they meet other children like themselves and together they build a family-like community.

Oklahoma, 1990 - Valerie is a single parent, and new in town when she happens upon a young girl who requests Valerie find her brother. Valerie is a newly employed ranger in town, and quickly wins the approval of the Choctaw Tribal Police. Together they work to find a missing person, and a young man.

Review:
The talented Lisa Wingate takes on another piece of rarely discussed history in her new novel Shelterwood. This novel turned out to be so much better than I expected! I gained so much knowledge from this novel about the Choctaw life, culture, and people. Wingate uses two different times which transition effortlessly. The earlier time frame builds on how young children narrowly escape danger over and over again. Ollie and Nessie are brave, fearless, and determined. Their characters are a beautiful portrayal of survival. Valerie’s character is more sly, scheming, daring, yet courageous. She is dead set on getting to the bottom of the truth, regardless of who stands in her way! This storyline was exciting, fast paced, and unexpected. When I finished reading this novel, I wanted to learn about the Choctaw Life. I love that Lisa Wingate’s novels do that for me! Highly Recommended!

Thank you Lisa Wingate , Random House Publishing Group, Ballentine, and NetGalley for the Advanced Reader Copy for free. I am leaving this review voluntarily.

#reluctantreaderreads
#lisawingate
#shelterwood
#historicalfiction
#NetGalley
#advancedreadereditions
#Randomhousepublishing
#Ballentine

I was excited to read a new Lisa Wingate book! It started a little slow for me but then amped up! She does such an amazing job cultivating her characters and this book was no different. All the emotions!

4 stars!

Thank you Netgalley for the advanced reader copy!

Publish date 06/04/2024

I enjoyed this! It was informative and I felt fully immersed in the setting and adventure. it didn't pull at my heart strings quite as much as I though it would given the topic - wish the writing had been a bit more emotional and engaging. Overall still enjoyed it.

Shelterwood, the dual timeline story of 2 women in Oklahoma in the Winding Stair Mountains who are fleeing abusive men in their lives. One is told through the timeline of a child fleeing from an abusive and ill intentioned guardian/father the other is starting over after leaving an abusive husband. The story begins to shed light on the Oklahoma Federation of Women's Clubs and the women that help in the Mountains.
Like others, We Were Left Behind is a favorite of mine, so I knew that the author, Ms Wingate would have a heavy over tone of her story, as she always does, but this one was a lot harder for me to get into. It felt like the story took almost too long to actually begin and while I can appreciate the author's details and can tell she spent a lot of time on researching this particular subject, I found myself having to force myself to pick up the book and keep reading it. The story could've moved a little bit quicker for me and you definitely have to be invested in this one to finish it, as it is a long one! I appreciated it once it got going a bit, but I didn't love this nearly as much as her previous books.
Thank you to the publishers for the ARC in exchange for my opinions and honest review.

This is the first book I have read by Wingate and it will definitely not be my last! I’m not sure why but I have a tendency to put off reading historical fiction but then when I finally read it I absolutely love it! This book was no exception. I loved how Wingate brought my attention to a horrible time in our country’s history that I didn’t know about. I loved the blend of past versus present. I loved how it all came together. This was a wonderful book.

Thanks to NetGalley and Ballantine Books for an eARC in exchange for my review.

I think I have read every one of Lisa Wingate's books. Loved each one! I just read her latest book, Shelterwod, that I am sure will be a best seller! I am just naturally a fast reader. I read the book and was like wow this beyond good! So I immediately read it again. That is how good this book is!! You need to order this book now!!!!!!

I'm not a big fan of the dual timelines in some historical fiction books because I prefer the historical aspect. I did enjoy this book and a love how Lisa always brings the past to the light in her books.

I loved When We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate, so I had high hopes for Shelterwood. I loved that the suspense and mystery element started almost immediately, but by halfway through the book, I found myself not desperate to pick it back up to see where the story went. Usually, I love dual POVs, but in this case, I think the switch between an adult POV and a child's POV is where I struggled. I was not as intrigued when Olive told her story, which is an incredibly important part of the story. However, I did appreciate how well-connected all the storylines were by the end, and the ending was tied up well and satisfying. Overall, I think this could be a case of the right story/ wrong time for me as a reader.

It hurts to write this review. I think Lisa Wingate is a phenomenal writer, but this book just did not work for me. The writing was overall well done, descriptions impeccable and the historical research put into this story was impeccable. However, the actual story line just fell flat for me. I found the story to move too slowly, details were drawn out in a way that made them feel less important than they were. I did not love the two different point of views and timelines - they did not work as seamlessly as I would have liked. I did not connect with the characters, which may have been part of the issue. I thought that their stories and experiences were fascinating, however I struggled to truly feel for them. As someone who wants to connect emotionally with a story like this, I found that at times I struggled to truly feel for what was going on. There are such mixed reviews on this, so if you are a fan of historical fiction and Lisa Wingate, definitely give it a try.
Thank you netgalley for my advanced reader copy.

Shelterwood by Lisa Wingate
Lisa Wingate has a talent of making historical fiction urgent authentic. As she did in Before We Were Yours, she champions heroic children who find themselves in situations not of their own making, but always at their peril. In Shelterwood, those children are orphans of the Choctaw Tribe in Oklahoma. Told from dual narratives, one from 1909, in the voice of eleven-year Olive Augusta Peele, whose family has “adopted” Choctaw sisters, and the other from 1990, from Valerie Boren-Odell, a young National Park Service officer. Because of the way the resource rich land of Oklahoma was divided among tribe members, the children were prime targets for the exploitation of early developers. The later narrative focuses on the sacred national park services and protection of the trees and natural condition of the parks.
As she has done before, Wingate teaches her readers the obscure facts that convince us to care about these children and characters and applaud the people who worked to solve the problems. It is a fascinating book. Shelterwood releases on June 4, 2024. Thanks to Ballantine and NetGalley for providing this copy for review.

This is a story that takes place in two different time periods (1909 and 1990), with two narrators and their time in rural Oklahoma. The earlier storyline is dealing with two runaways, Ollie and Nessa. It tells the story of how they runaway to escape an abusive father and drug addict mother in a time period that is not kind to orphan children or indigenous people. The later time period is about a recently widowed, now single mom and her son. She is looking for a fresh start and moves away from family to Oklahoma to become a forest ranger in the new Horsethief Trail National Park. The two stories eventually connect later in the book.

I found the storyline very slow and had a hard time holding my attention. I didn’t really care for the hopping back and forth between the two different time periods. I found it confusing as you are reading two different stories when you wish the author stuck to one.

I’ve read other stories by Lisa Winegate that I loved. Unfortunately this story line didn’t hold my interest which if why I gave it three stars.

This is my first Lisa Wingate book and I can honestly say that I am going to read some of her older titles. I loved Ollie and her strength and persistence in keeping Nessa safe. I also enjoyed the strength that women during the early 1900's had to right wrongs that they saw in Oklahoma.

Lisa Wingate is a masterful storyteller. In Shelterwood, we learn of 3 children in 1909 who no one was concerned for their welfare. Then in the 1990 timeline we learn of a new national park that is set to open and the community that has mixed emotions about it. Wingate weaves the story that keeps you on your toes. I definitely recommend this book.

This is a very thought provoking book - the Native American children displaced by greedy men hungry to take possession of their land and also those trying to escape an abusive home life is truly upsetting and moving. This is a time in our history that I wasn't totally unaware of and it is truly eye-opening.

I enjoyed reading this dual-timeline story about orphaned Choctaw children and the work of Kate Bernard. I learned new things about US history and the Choctaw culture. I loved how the author ended each chapter with a cliffhanger encouraging the reader to keep reading to find out what happened next and how the two timelines connected at the end. Weaving the shelterwood theme throughout the story was very clever and explained the book's title. I also loved the characters! Having the MC, Val, as a Park Ranger was a great way to learn about ranger life. The reveal of Grandma Budgie at the end was a total surprise to me. This was not my favorite of the author’s books, but it was still an intriguing and insightful read. If you are a historical fiction fan, you will enjoy this book!

Thank you NetGalley and Random House for the ARC in exchange for my honest review!

This book is hard to read, but also a must read. Lisa Wingate tells a story about children that were overlooked in the name of money, land and power.

This story takes place in southern Oklahoma in 1909 and 1990, this is a dual timeline story. The story about the children that are orphans with no home or family is in 1909. These children do not have anyone that is concerned about their welfare, it is easier to just ignore them so you do not fell guilty about their plight. The children's biggest concern is food and shelter.

The part of the story that takes place in 1990 is about a new park that is opening and the history of the area. The people in this area have mixed emotions about the opening of the park. Lisa Wingate spins a story that goes back and forth between the two time lines. The story in 1909 was gripping and I felt like it was a cliff hanger when it was time to switch to 1990. Once you pick up this book it is hard to put it down. I was always telling myself - "just one more chapter".