Enjoyed this historical fiction set in Mississippi and North Carolina - it took me a bit to keep the characters and story straight- there were a lot of moving pieces and difficult to read in ebook form. A satisfying and happy ending to a family mystery.

Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher and the author, for an ARC of this book, in exchange for an honest review.
The premise of the book drew me in but once I started reading it, I just couldn’t get into it at all.
I wish the author, publisher and all those promoting the book much success and connections with the right readers.

A stunning dual timeline story that unravels as a daughter questions her memories. Nell has kept a secret for 30 years after finding a document that showed her sister Evie, having a different mother. Now haunted by the memories as an adult, she dives in and what a story we dive into with her. Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for letting me read an early copy in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to Net Galley and Sourcebook Landmark for the chance to read and review this book. All opinions are my own.
I enjoyed this atmospheric, nostalgic story. It is told in two timelines. In 1971 Nell is exploring and trying to find out how her sister Evie came to live with them. She is also curious about her mom Hazel. In the early 1930's the reader is introduced to Becca, a young mother. It is interesting to see how their stories connect and what really happened. I have to admit, I had a little trouble getting into this book. I though the beginning was a little confusing. Once the story got going though, it was easy to follow. I liked the setting, and Hazel's story the best. I liked the way the author slowly let the reader know her life had been a lot more interesting than it appeared. Recommend if you like stories of family secrets and forgiveness.

Author Kelly Mustian has followed up her debut The Girls in the Stilt House with a strong sophomore novel The River Knows Your Name, coming out April 1. Set in 1971, the story introduces sisters Nell and Evie Brown who are concerned about their mother Hazel. She has started acting opposite of her secretive and emotionally remote ways, doing things she had never done: inviting Evie out to lunch, taking her shopping, going to movies, and singing in a church choir.

Nell was six years old when Hazel did a favor for a friend by taking in a little girl around two for one night. The friend was never heard from again causing Hazel to uproot them all from their home in Mississippi to Clay Mountain near West Jefferson, North Carolina, to raise Evie as her own. When Evie was ten, she and Nell found inside a book a birth certificate for Evie naming a stranger as her mother. The girls never let on to Hazel that they knew this secret. Because of Hazel’s change of personality, Nell decides to go back to Mississippi to learn more about Hazel and to track down the person listed on Evie’s birth certificate.

Becca, who had married Ben Chambers in 1932, was still a newlywed, when her “second mother” Lottie drowned in the Mississippi River. Upon hearing the terms of Lottie’s will, Becca learned that she had inherited a house in the near ghost town of Rodney, Mississippi. Orphaned at age six, Becca was aware that Lottie had once lived in Rodney with the only man she had ever loved. Becca did not realize that Lottie still owned a house there, a house that would provide refuge for Becca when her world turned upside down.

The lives of all four women will come together as they deal with love, loss, secrets, and “chosen family.” This book will be hard to put down until the last mystery is revealed. The River Knows Your Name is set in the Mississippi Delta as well as in the mountains of Western North Carolina.

Kelly Mustian received the Mississippi Library Association's 2023 Author Award for Fiction, while The Girls in the Stilt House was shortlisted for the 2022 Crook's Corner Book Prize for best debut novel set in the American South. She has also written for numerous literary journals and commercial magazines. Born in Mississippi, Mustian lives in North Carolina.

My review will be posted on Goodreads starting February 28, 2025.

I would like to thank Sourcebooks Landmark, an imprint of Sourcebooks, and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in return for an objective review.

Nelle and Evie are two sisters who are extremely close and loving. Their mother, Hazel, has aways been very private and never very demonstrative so when the sisters find a birth certificate one day, showing that Evie was born to a different mother, they know better than to question Hazel. Years later Nelle is living a nomadic life and decides to dive into the past to try to uncover the truth about Evie. The story she unlocks will change all of their lives forever.

I jumped at the chance to review this book. I loved this author's first book. The River Knows Your Name is another great work of Southern fiction with a dual timeline and family secrets. This book pulled me in from the first page and will be going on my list of favorites. Loved it. Thanks to author Kelly Mustian, Sourcebooks Landmark and NetGalley. I received a complimentary copy of this ebook. The opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own.

Thank you Netgalley for this arc. I really liked this book, it was really good. The cover is also very beautiful. I can't wait to get my hands on a physical copy of this one.

I really enjoyed The Girls In The Stilt House, so I was excited for an opportunity to read Kelly Mustian’s newest novel.
The River Knows Your Name is a haunting and heartbreaking story that is full of hope. I think that I enjoyed this one even more than her debut novel. If you like historical fiction, you’ll want to add this one to your tbr.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the advanced readers copy.

This is an amazing story of family and the length of a mothers love. Trying to find answers about her and her little sisters past Nell goes on a journey that brings her face to face with a mother she never new and a new found family she never imagined. I couldn't put book down, and if I wasn't reading I was thinking about what I had already read. I didn't expect it to end the way it did but I was so happy it did. I would definitely recommend this book to book clubs everywhere because it is one you are going to want to talk about when you are done reading.

Another great read by Kelly Mustian! After a bit of a slow start, I’m glad I stuck with this one. With so many characters and the multiple timelines, there were times I found it a bit convoluted. I had to reread parts to make them make sense and recall which characters were and were not important. It’s unfortunate that the plot didn’t really come together until the last quarter of the book. However, I still loved it!

This was such a good book that I had a hard time focusing on the other things I needed to get done! It was a dual timeline, but done right and helped build the mystery and suspense.

Thank you to NetGalley for the advanced readers copy!

I gave The River Knows Your Name four ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Thank you Kelly Mustian, Sourcebooks and Net Galley for the ARC. These are my honest opinions.

I really enjoyed this book. It is dual timeline and I was invested in both timelines and the characters. The characters were well developed and I felt for each of them (well, except one).

I did not know why certain things happened the way they did until the author revealed the reason. I like when a story is written well enough that I can’t guess most things.

I had some trouble orienting myself when it would switch characters and timelines. I think it would have been better if the characters were a little more distinct. it also got a little redundant at about 50%-60% and I needed something to happen in order to move the story forward - I didn’t have to wait long for it to get going again, so that was good.

Overall, I really liked this book!

Beautifully, lyrically written, The River Knows Your Name ties sweet and sad family stories together with imagery of the Mississippi River and the North Carolina mountains. The stories twine together through love and sadness, loyalty and evil. Did not want this one to end!

Thanks to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for the opportunity to read this wonderful ARC.

I was super excited to get my hands on an ARC of this book, because I love this author and I loved her debut novel, The Girls in the Stilt House. Unfortunately, I didn't love this book, even though I really wanted to. I had a hard time getting into it at first because I could not keep all the characters and their various locations and timelines straight. In addition, some of the writing didn't flow smoothly and I found myself repeatedly going back and re-reading passages to make sure I understood what was happening, particularly during the first half of the book. That being said, I still appreciated the intricacy of this plot, the atmospheric feel of the story, and the way the many secrets and lies were unraveled along the way. The second half seemed to move a little faster as everything started coming together. The drive to search for pieces of family history and successfully assemble those pieces into something that makes sense truly resonated with me. I was definitely emotionally invested in the outcome for Nell and Evie, as well as for Hazel and Becca.

Full review to come on Goodreads and Amazon. Thank you to the publisher, author, and NetGalley for a review copy.

I LOVED this book. The storytelling kept me captivated and wanting to pick up my book any time I was not reading. I am a sucker for settings, and the Mississippi River was a great basis for the story. I would 100% read more from this author.

I absolutely loved The Girls in the Stilt House so I was very excited to read Kelly Mustain’s newest book, The River Knows Your Name, and it did not disappoint!

This emotional story is told in dual timeline. In the 1970’s, you have Nell and Evie, sisters, who have always known that their lives hold secrets. Now, as an adult, Nell decides to look into her mother, Hazel’s past to finally get some answers. And in the 1930’s, you have Becca, a young mother doing everything she can to escape a bad situation.

As you flash forward and back, you follow Becca, Hazel, Nell and Evie on an unbelievable journey of friendship, grief, hardship, betrayal, redemption and love. This story has so many puzzle pieces and i really enjoyed watching them all come together. So many shocking secrets are revealed. This book will suck you in to the story and keep you guessing until the end. I really enjoyed it.

Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for the opportunity to read an ARC of The River Knows Your Name in exchange for my honest review.

“The River Knows Your Name” is by Kelly Mustian. I found the storyline of this book rather interesting. This is a dual timeline book with some interesting twists. However, between the dual timelines straight and the number of minor characters, my passage through this book wasn’t smooth. As the book went on (and the timelines came together) things became easier to enjoy. This story was engaging, though I felt some of the characters could’ve been more distinctive (voice mainly). 3.5 stars rounded up (because the story did get better as the book went along).

I really loved the writing style of this author and I am so excited to read her other book. I hope many more are to come from this author. The way the storylines of the characters were slowly woven into a beautiful tapestry of connections was very engaging. I also really enjoyed the author's ability to make me feel like I could visualize the surroundings.