Lucy Smith is going through everything all at once. Recently out of foster care, an experience that shattered her trust in humanity, she's just 1) met someone who wants to reconnect her to the Ojibwe heritage her father lied to her about, 2) found out that she had an older half sister and her best friend is now making it her top mission to take care of Lucy, and 3) the diner she worked at was exploded, snapping her femur and leaving her unable to run like she planned on. And that explosion? It's a piece of her past catching up with her. Lucy has to make a decision: lean into these people who care about her and the idea of a larger family out there, or run for her life yet again.
This book broke me. I am so not okay. This is told in two storylines, the present (2009) and her past, from her childhood with her devoted father, to his death, to her three foster homes and the relationships she formed there. That past timeline broke my heart. Somehow it kept getting worse. The tension built in this book was so good. I could not stop reading. And when everything caught up to her? Oh my goodness. It was so wild. And also ouch. I cannot emphasize how much this book hurt me. It was so painful. I would absolutely do it again. Lucy's story hits on so many issues, and it was an important read. It was a very well-written book. I loved it. But it did hurt.

“The ultimate survival game is for girls to survive into adulthood. For the prey to avoid the predators… Some girls don’t survive.”
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Angeline Boulley has done it again- delivering a story that is equal parts thrilling, emotional, and deeply important. I loved this one just as much as Firekeeper’s Daughter and Warrior Girl Unearthed.
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This book follows Lucy Smith, a young Ojibwe woman who has spent years in the foster care system and suddenly finds herself pulled into dangerous circumstances after a bombing at the diner where she works.
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As Lucy uncovers shocking truths about her heritage and the families who’ve failed her, she also begins to reconnect with her Ojibwe roots and the community she never knew she had.
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This story balances fast-paced suspense with an unflinching look at heavy, real-world issues- stolen Native children, foster care injustice, generational trauma, and the fight for identity. It’s raw and heartbreaking at times, yet threaded through with moments of humor, resilience, and hope.
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I especially loved how Ojibwe traditions and the Indian Child Welfare Act were woven into the plot with such care. Lucy is flawed, complicated, and unforgettable, and watching her navigate both family betrayals and supernatural levels of trauma made this an emotional ride I couldn’t put down.
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Like Boulley’s other works, the characters feel vivid and real, the setting is immersive, and the themes are both timely and timeless. This is a gut-wrenching but hopeful book that will stay with me, and one I think every reader should pick up.
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🎧 Thank you to Macmillan audio, Henry Holt & Co., and NetGalley for the ALC—this one released on September 2 and absolutely deserves a spot on your TBR.

Thanks to Macmillan Audio for the gifted ALC!

WOOOOWWEEEE did Angeline outdo herself this time 😮‍💨 SISTERS IN THE WIND is a book that will hook you from the start and capture your heart long after it’s over.

Lucy Smith’s father dies and she’s left with a stepmom who really wants nothing to do with her… so Lucy enters the foster system. Years later, Lucy finally learns the truth her father never told her: she’s Ojibwe, and she had a sister and family on her mom’s side that she never knew. Now, Lucy is in danger. She’s being followed and framed, and her chance at a normal life is slipping through her fingers.

First of all, for a YA book, this didn’t *feel* YA at all. The level of maturity Lucy had to have given all she went through helped this immensely. Second, there are SO MANY LAYERS to this story. It’s absolutely unputdownable because so much just keeps happening. I loved the dual timeline and how that developed the story so well. I loved and cheered for Lucy, I adored seeing Daunis again, I screamed and shouted at one plot twist, and I cried like a baby at the end. This has some HARD themes, but it’s a story that needs to be told. Please do yourself a favor and pick this up.

Absolutely fabulous narration by Isabella Star LaBlanc - I loved the audiobook!

I absolutely loved this book. Angeline Boulley is such an incredible writer. I loved this story that talking about indigenous children in the foster care system. I am an adoptive parent and my kids came through the foster care system, and I appreciate any light that is shed on these systems. This story took place in the world of Firekeeper's Daughter and it was so good to spend time with Daunis again. (It's after FKD but before Warrior Girl Unearthed).
Also, the narrator did an incredible job. I think it is important to hear the accents and indigenous words pronounced correctly.
Highly recommend this one!

Sisters of the Wind is fast-paced, emotional, and rich with Ojibwe heritage. Lucy’s journey from survival to reclaiming her identity kept me hooked, with just enough danger and heart to make the payoff worth it. A little trope-heavy at times, but overall a powerful and compelling read. The pacing is strong, with an opening that drops you straight into Lucy’s unstable world. While there were a few moments where the story leaned on familiar YA tropes, the emotional depth and cultural grounding kept it from ever feeling shallow. The tension of being hunted — by both her past and those who would rather silence her — made the ending hit even harder.

Angeline Boulley shatters my heart again, but then begins to stitch it back together with such supportive and loving community members. We see Lucy on the run and not feeling like she can trust anyone due to a series of awful foster placements. The story of her becoming a foster kid and the foster placements are interspersed with the current day story. Both stories make you keep flipping pages wanting to know if these people that you are falling in love with are okay. The answer to that is complicated in ways that only Angeline Boulley can tell.
So so freaking good.

Angeline Boulley knows how to rip your heart out and hand the pieces back. Lucy Smith has been on her own since her father died. For the last five years, she has bounced between foster and group homes, until she finally aged out of the system. When her world explodes, she receives help from Daunis Fountaine, She learns secrets of her family that were kept from her and slowly allows others into her own hidden past. Through all these trials, Lucy relies on her memories of her father, her street smarts, and her own desire to not just survive, but to find her own way in the world.

The audio book of this was compelling, and I cannot wait to read it again.

Reading challenge category - 2025 Flourish and Blotts: Historian - Divination: A 5 star prediction

Thanks to #Netgalley for the ARC audio of this book.

Lucy Smith's father died, leaving her with a wicked stepmother. She decides it is better to be on her own than living with this woman and runs away. She enters the foster system and ends up experiencing the multitudes of humanity.

She has gone off on her own again and is working in a diner when she is approached by a "Mr. Jameson" who is offering to help her and tells her that she is part Ojibwe - for readers of Boulley's first two books... this ties back to them. Once she starts to discover where she comes from and who she really is, she starts to dream of a real future for the first time since losing her dad.

Angeline Boulley has become a must read for me. I prefer to listen to her works as there is a lot of Anishinaabemowin used for the Ojibwe tribe. I really enjoyed this book except for one part of the ending that just didn't feel necessary to me. It almost made me remove a star because I wanted my fiction to stay fiction. But I know that life isn't always happy endings. It usually isn't.

Boulley has a way of bringing the reader into her communities and providing cultural context without weighing down the narrative. Lucy begins the story well outside of the Ojibwe community to which she has familial ties, and after her father dies, she is placed in the foster care system and multiple placements that do not have her best interests at heart. When she becomes connected to a couple of characters familiar to Boulley's readers, we are taken on a whirlwind ride to untangle the twisted vines encircling Lucy. I love the tie-in to previous books and will return again and again to Angeline Boulley's future books.

Incredible! Angeline Boulley is such a great storyteller and she seamlessly blends thriller elements with an impactful, character driven plot while also teaching you something important. Sisters in the Wind brings back characters we know from earlier books but focuses on Lucy - girl who has gone through incredibly traumatic experiences in foster care after the death of her white father who never told her that her mother was indigenous.

This is a book about the ICWA law and how it is intended to protect indigenous children in the foster care system by keeping them with relatives or at least with other indigenous families. It's under attack politically and this shines a powerful light on what can happen when those laws fail. It's difficult and heartbreaking, but Lucy is such a resilient protagonist and we get to see how she survives and eventually begins to find healing with her community. I truly can't say enough good things about this book or any books by Boulley. The audio narration is excellent! I received an audio review copy via NetGalley, all opinions are my own.

A raw look into how the foster care system does so little to protect Native American kids and the generational trauma it causes in the community. Loved how burn all this shit down is a recurring message.

Sisters in the Wind is the third novel in Angeline Boulley’s interconnected series, following Firekeeper’s Daughter and Warrior Girl Unearthed. While each book stands on its own, this one fits especially well as a sequel to Firekeeper’s Daughter and takes place before the events of Warrior Girl Unearthed.

This story centers on Lucy Smith, a teen runaway who has survived the foster care system and is now being hunted for reasons she doesn’t understand. She’s discovered by Daunis Fontaine (from Firekeeper’s Daughter), who reveals the truth about Lucy’s maternal family and Ojibwe heritage. The novel is told in dual timelines: the present, where Lucy interacts with Daunis after an attempt is made on her life, and the past, flashing back to her childhood with her father and through a string of foster placements. These alternating narratives slowly unravel who is after her and why, while also shining a light on the long, painful history of systemic harm done to Native communities through the separation of children including boarding schools, foster care, and adoption practices that stripped generations of their culture and identity.

Boulley has a rare gift for character work, and Lucy is one of her most compelling protagonists yet. We first meet her as a hardened, suspicious teen who is sharp, self-reliant, and wary of others. But through the flashbacks, we also see her as a sheltered young girl, and step by step, we understand how she transformed into someone always ready to protect herself. That character depth made her story both heartbreaking and captivating.

The plotting is just as strong: tightly structured, full of surprising yet earned twists, and always rooted in character. The story balances suspense with emotional resonance, keeping readers hooked while grounding everything in culture, identity, and survival.

This was a fantastic read that was powerful, moving, and unforgettable. Angeline Boulley has yet to disappoint.

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the audio ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I was provided both an ARC and an ALC of this book via Netgalley.

This is a tough book to read. It follows Lucy, a teenager who has had a very rough childhood and has navigated the foster system for the last five years since her father passed away. Lucy has done what she needed to do to survive. She has been lied to and betrayed by the people she trusted, including her father, and now based on decisions she made to protect herself she is being followed to protect the secrets she has uncovered.

This reads like a companion novel to Boulley's debut [book:Firekeeper's Daughter|199437737]. It has been several years since I've read that and I have not read Warrior Girl Unearthed yet, but I was able to follow along with this easily and recall many of the events that occurred in that book with the context given in this book. We reunite with Daunis and Jamie from book 1 as they nurse Lucy back to health after a terrible "accident" at the diner where she worked. There they explain to Lucy about her Native American heritage and their connection to her late sister. This story is told in both the present during Lucy's recovery from a broken leg and her research in to ICWA (Indian Children's Welfare Act), and during the past beginning when she was 6 through her father's battle with cancer and her journey through the foster system after his death. The timeline eventually meets up in the present when she is 18 living with Daunis and Jamie, when she finally explains to them what she is running from and who is after her and why. Lucy's story is filled with twists and turns and is truly heartbreaking as we learn of her experiences in the foster system, some good, some terrible.

I enjoyed reuniting with characters from the previous books and how the story ended overall. It really brings to light how Native Americans are treated and how children of all backgrounds are treated in the foster system. This book is an emotional rollercoaster that brings to light important topics.

This book took me through so many emotions!

Isabella Star LaBlanc is an amazing narrator - I enjoyed her in the Firekeeper’s Daughter and Warrior Girl Unearthed as well.

I was pleasantly surprised to see how this story was intertwined with the characters we meet in Boulley’s Firekeeper books.

Boulley has an incredible talent of writing on such important topics. One of the main plot lines of this book is the foster system and its faults as well as ICWA and how important it is for tribes to raise their youth, for there is no future of the tribe without the youth. It is so unfortunate this book is relevant as ICWA continues to be under attack in attempts to overturn it.

Lucy’s story carried so many realities for indigenous youth navigating the foster system. She was told to hide the fact she was native as that would just complicate things.

I was so excited to see Jamie and Daunis and then rekindle their romance. I was curious how their story would end knowing from Warrior Girl Unearthed she ends up with TJ… I was devastated to realize Jamie dies and the child Daunis has is is 😭😭

This book just gave me all the feels - Boulley is an auto read author for me. I cannot wait to see what important stories she has to share with us next.

Thank you Macmillan Audio, Angeline Boulley, Isabella Star LaBlanc, and NetGalley for the opportunity to review this book.

Wow. I have always been a fan of Boulley’s novels. My favorite of hers is Firekeeper’s Daughter, and I will always recommend that book as one of my top YA reads. And now, Sisters in the Wind is added to that list. My words are not going to do this book justice…but I will try.

Sisters in the Wind takes place in between her two other novels in this series. It focuses on Lucy, a foster teen with Ojibwe heritage who is separated from her culture and people. Living with her white father before he passed away from colon cancer, Lucy never knew of her true heritage. When she’s placed in the foster system, she is told to keep her heritage a secret.

After a tragic accident, she finds herself in the hospital, with two adults linked to her Ojibwe family watching over her. As they help her recover and teach her more about her culture, Lucy’s past comes back to haunt her. Someone from her past is determined to stop Lucy from sharing what she knows…and all that she holds dear may be at risk.

Boulley focuses each of her novels on specific aspects of Indigenous history, culture, and legislation. This one centers around the Indian Child Welfare Act, and the generational and historical trauma that Indigenous families endured prior to the passing of the legislation, when Indigenous children were forcibly removed from their homes and tribes and placed in non-Native institutions and homes that oftentimes focused on the elimination of their culture and traditions. There is so much to say about this topic…Boulley shares an incredible amount of information and insight. I encourage you to read her Author’s Note for current implications of this legislation’s importance with tribal sovereignty.

Boulley also highlights the foster care system as a whole, how it can be exploited, and how it shapes Lucy as a teen. It was heartbreaking to read what Lucy experiences in some of her placements. There is a return of beloved characters from the first novel, and many questions are answered. Without going into too much detail, my heart went through all the emotions. The conclusion was emotional and left me a mess, yet I understood.

Last but not least, from a personal level…I am so glad that colon cancer was discussed at length. My dad passed away from colon cancer and I had my colon removed because of symptoms and my predisposition, so this element is near and dear to my heart.

I enjoyed the audiobook, but I am looking forward to receiving my physical copy to reread some sections, especially concerning ICWA. I HIGHLY recommend adding this (and the rest of this series) to your TBR. And definitely read Firekeeper’s Daughter first!

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for this gifted ALC!

I absolutely loved Angeline Boulley's first 2 books, and will continue to grab the next as soon as I am able, but this one didn't come together for me.

Loved the character development. I really felt for the story of Lucy, her past and present, when it was not related to the thriller portion. Her life had tragic moments, but also people who really cared for her and moments of tenderness. We learn a lot of details about ICWA, the Indian Child Welfare Act, which has been in place but often ignored since 1978, what it was meant to do, and why it is ignored. We some some good and bad things about the foster care system. We learn about Lucy's native heritage as she does. That part of the story I would give 5/5 stars. I can see the settings and many moments extremely clearly in my imagination.

Unfortunately, It felt like 2 separate books were fighting for page space and the multiple points in time did not line up. Emotional section, the reader learns important things about found family... but they don't know what she is running from. Weird. Back to emotional, and loss of Native Heritage, loss of family... but she will need to run again. What? Detailed and emotional descriptions of the foster care system, important information about ICWA... yet another vague reference without explanation to danger. Uggh! I stopped caring about the danger aspect because not enough was being given for me to grasp onto between the completely separate stories. Yes, both parts of the story end up merging by the end, but it seemed like a clumsy, quick solve and a bit drastic. 2/5

3.5 I'll round up I guess.

Fantastic narrator - perfect for this book.

I absolutely loved being back in this world and having characters from Firekeepers daughter play a role in this new story with Lucy. I found the foster care world for native children a very interesting backdrop and it gave me a lot to think about since the author used the story to educate readers on this topic. I loved Lucy and her courage and resilience. This was going to be five stars but the events at the end seemed overly traumatic considering everything Lucy and the others had already gone through.

This is the story of Lucy after losing her father to cancer, and bouncing from foster home to foster home. The author depicts the challenges and monsters some children face within the foster care system, especially for Indigenous children. This is a gripping story of survival, escape, resilience, and the strength in a found family.
Themes:
* Wolves in sheeps’ clothing
* Quiet girl with a dark past
* Resilient FMC
* Running from her past
* Told in past and present
* Power of found family
The importance of First Nations children for the survival of indigenous tribes to continue for future generations. I was pulled into Lucy’s story from the very start and understood the woman she had become. The character development was chef’s kiss. Knowing everything Lucy had been through, but still holding on to her kindness and compassion for others demonstrated Lucy’s resilience and staying true to herself, and the daughter her father had raised.

Feedback: Without giving away any spoilers, I felt a lot of anticipation in how Maggie fit in to all this and wish there was more in the end. But at the same time, I understand this wasn’t Maggie’s story. Rating 4.25

Angeline Boulley's Sisters in the Wind is a gripping and emotionally charged thriller that delves into the complexities of identity, family, and the foster care system. The novel follows 18-year-old Lucy Smith, who, after years in foster care, discovers her Ojibwe heritage and is thrust into a world of secrets, danger, and self-discovery.
Boulley's storytelling is both compelling and poignant, weaving a narrative that is as thrilling as it is thought-provoking. The dual timelines—one in the present as Lucy navigates her newfound identity, and one in the past, revealing the trauma and challenges of her foster care experience—are seamlessly integrated, providing a rich and layered narrative.
The characters are deeply developed, with Lucy standing out as a resilient and relatable protagonist. Her journey of self-discovery is both heart-wrenching and inspiring, and readers will find themselves rooting for her every step of the way.
Sisters in the Wind is more than just a thriller; it's a powerful exploration of the importance of heritage, the impact of the foster care system, and the strength of the human spirit. Boulley has crafted a story that is both entertaining and enlightening, making it a must-read for fans of contemporary fiction and those interested in stories that highlight underrepresented voices.

This would make such a great drama/slowburn crime thriller film or TV series. I'm thinking a moody atmosphere and a gray palette to match the Michigan fall/winter. Definitely a Native led production with a compelling teen actress at the forefront of the movie. Film gods, hear my plea. (It's difficult to turn off my hyperphantasia.)

This was a really slow read for me due to the heavy topics (foster care, child abuse, etc.) and the fact that I didn't want it to end. This is one of those stories where you have to be in the right mindset (I wasn't), so it took me a while to finish this audiobook.

I wish this was a 4.5 or higher star read for me. The middle was pretty bogged down by middling details so it was sort of difficult to parse out what was important and what wasn't. The FMC was also an unreliable narrator at times. Combine that with a lot of flashbacks and I was a bit confused with some of the subplots and relationships.

Other than that, Isabella Star LaBlanc was a wonderful narrator who really made me feel like I was listening to a friend telling me her life story. Props to her for pronouncing the names of Michigan places correctly! It added another layer of immersion and relatability.

And of course, we always stan an ownvoices audiobook narrator.

Thank you to Macmillan Young Listeners and NetGalley for this arc.