This was a very well written and poignant historical novel set in 1870 on a lonely Wyoming prairie. Only two families lived within walking distance of each other's farms. They would have to travel 20 miles to the nearest town for the doctor or any supplies that they may need. They had horribly long and extremely cold winters, wild animals to keep away from their many farm animals and daily back breaking work to run their farms and live off of the land.
I want to thank the author Olivia Hawker, Lake Union Publishing and NetGalley for granting me an arc at my request. All thoughts on this review are my own and voluntary. This is the first book that I have read from this author and am looking forward to reading her other published book which I just purchased.
I highly recommend this book if you're looking for an experience of how life was back in the late 1800's. It was an experience that reminded me of Little House On The Prairie and has a wonderful storyline.

It took me time to really get into the story because of the slow pace and length of the book. But I eventually didn't mind it that much when I was further into the story. The multiple POVs (Beulah, Clyde, Cora, and Nettie Mae) were great because it showed different perspectives and made it easier to connect and relate to the characters. I had to get used to how Beulah's POV was written because it was sometimes difficult to follow, however, after getting to know the character it made sense that her POV was written in a different style.

This book is about family, redemption, forgiveness, sacrifice, and survival. Each character have their own problems they are dealing with, and it was beautiful to see how eventually they were able to put aside their differences and come together. I think the author did a great job in portraying how life was on the American frontier. I especially felt the loneliness and how much having a neighbor close by could keep you grounded. The reason I didn't rate it higher was because I thought the story felt monotone at times and I would've loved and epilogue at the end because it felt a bit unfinished.

AWESOME, AWESOME!! I really didn’t’ think Olivia could write a better book than A Ragged Edge of Night but by golly she did it!! I loved this book from the first chapter to the last sentence. Mark my words, I will read every book Ms. Hawker will pen. I cannot give this book high enough praise, her ability to describe a scene is poetic, such as describing Nettie Mae looking out the window watching Beulah, and drying her hands on a towel, such a simple scene she made just remarkable. There are so many scenes in this book that brought a tear to my eye and made me so grateful that I had the opportunity to read this fine work of art.
This is a most beautiful story, It was hard to put this one down, and I didn't want it to end, so I started to read it slower just so I could make it last longer. This will be one of the few books I will re-read. I loved Beulah and Clyde, I didn’t feel sorry for Cora and I despised Nettie Mae. I can’t imagine the situation of those two women in a house for six months during a Wyoming winter.
I hope Ms. Hawker does not run out of relatives anytime soon so we can have more stellar stories like this one. If you love reading historical fiction based upon true characters, then this is the book for you. It has it all, love, loss, hardships, hatred, beautiful landscapes, poetic descriptions and a story that is told so beautifully. My grandmother also put little pieces of tape with the names of whom she wanted the item to go to before she passed, that little observation was the icing on the cake of this yarn. Ms. Hawker is quite the author.
One for the Blackbird, one for the crow, one for the cutworm, and one to grow.
I thank Lake Union Publishing and NetGalley for the privilege of reading this beautiful tale just for unbiased review!! This one goes to the top five of my 2019 reading list. High 5 stars!!!

One for the Blackbird, One for the Crow is a book about loss and survival in the vast expanse of Wyoming. Two families, the Bemises and the Webbers, have settled on land adjacent to each other miles from anywhere or anyone else. In the opening chapter we discover that the Mrs Bemis has had an affair with Mr Webber and is discovered by her husband who promptly murders Mr Webber. The story however does not dwell so much on this act but on what happens next to the women and children left behind.

The power of this book comes from the way the author brings her characters to life. Our main protagonist is Beulah Bemis age 13. She is the eldest of the Bemis children. Smart, capable, but dreamy and a little magical. Beulah sees and notices what others don't. Beulah is the lynchpin of the story.
Her mother Cora can't bear her new existence in the wilderness. Cora however has to turn to Nettie Mae Webber and ask for help if she and her children are to survive the harsh winter. Olivia Hawker takes a character that is flawed and 'weak' and asks her reader to empathise with her. At first I felt no sympathy for Cora but as the story progresses my feelings towards her softened.
The wronged woman, Nettie Mae, is bristling with anger, resentment, hurt, loss and humiliation. She is as prickly as a thorn and not easy to love in any way. What a wonderful, powerful and unique character she was! For me Nettie Mae is the star of the book - a woman wronged in so many ways who has hardened her hurt in order to survive. She must take in those who have caused her to be in a dire predicament and we follow her struggle to cope with all the Bemis family. But Nettie Mae is above all else a mother.. She must protect her only surviving child Clyde at all costs even when it causes her great difficulty.

The story moves quickly but is also detailed. I felt totally engrossed in the whole world of the farms, the animals, the landscape and the weather and of course this collection of characters.. I highly recommend this.

This book follows the fates of two farming families who are left to survive without men after one husband is murdered and the other jailed. It took me a long time to warm to the characters, who are initially lacking in depth- one is a shrew, one is a seductress, one is a daydreamer. By the halfway point I had spent enough time with the characters that I needed to know if they survived; three quarters of the way through the book, I had fallen in love with all three women, and caught myself longing for a sequel about the 'next generation' who take ownership of the families' land. Is there a shorter name for "slow-burning novels with a lot of historical detail that take a close look at interpersonal relationships over a long period of time"? This book is like that!

WOW. Let us double up that WOW!
I had started this book months ago and kept putting it on the back burner.
I should have just kept with it before putting mediocre books before it.

This book is an EPIC that stands on its own.
It starts with a murder and from there the story unfolds.
It is told by 4 narrative, Cora, Nettie Mae, Buleah, and Clyde.
I would also say that the prairie and the land are also its own narrative.

The story unfolds like a galloping pony that you will not want to stop. The many twists and turns are captivating.
The writing, while a bit long winded, is sweeping in design.
It played out like a movie in my mind.

Then to get to the end, and the author reveals that this was loosely based on her own familys history...mind blown!

BRAVO to the author!

One for the Blackbird, One for the Crow is a captivating western family saga that begins with betrayal and heartache, and ends with forgiveness and a sisterly friendship.
Set in the 1870 eastern Wyoming prairie in the shadow of the Bighorn Mountains, two families with adjoining homesteads, the nearest town or neighbor twenty miles away, are broken and left without the leadership of their men when one catches his wife and neighbor in a compromising position.
With one husband in jail for two years for the other husband’s murder, alone and out of necessity, mother’s Cora and Nettie Mae have to turn to each other to survive their long harsh winter. One mother to lessen the heavy farmwork burden on her only son, the other for her four children’s survival.
Olivia Hawker’s poetic writing transported me back in time to the wide-open prairie with its flora and fauna, the river and mountains in the backdrop. It was interesting to learn how the weather and changing seasons affected people living on the prairie back then, and the hard work it took to survive.
Based loosely off events of the authors family history, it’s a wonderful novel I highly recommend!


Much thanks to Olivia Hawker, Lake Union Publishing and NetGalley for this arc in exchange for an honest review. Publication date 10/8/19

This book...wow. I have so many words, so much I am feeling for this book...it was so
wonderful. The writhing... so beautiful and lyrical and wise.
I loved this story of pain, love, struggle and hate, understanding, joy, nature and seasons and of life and death. Olivia Hawker has taken all this and more, and evolved it into the story of two women, their men gone, reluctantly bringing their families together to survive the beautiful wild Montana land. Hawker's writing is beautifully flowing and the reader is drawn within the pages as Hawker artfully describes their struggles and discoveries of each other and all that is around them. And her characters! How I loved these people. So flawed and true to life.
The story is over, and I now feel empty and lost and I miss it.........
This has been moved into my top ten of all time favorites!
Book is due to come out Oct 8, 2019
Easy 5 star, but that, somehow, feels like a low score.
My extreme thanks to Netgalley, the publisher and author for a ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Wasn't crazy about this book. It was very slow moving and too predictable. The storyline was interesting, so I'm not sure why I didn't like it. I guess it just didn't grab me.

I liked the setting of this novel as well as the premise. Two women are forced to live together as they are without spousal support. One husband was shot by the other husband due to infidelity of one of,the wives with her neighbor's husband. Towards the middle of the story it began to drag a little. I appreciated the author's note about the novel being based on her family history, although she altered the cheating spouses.

An Olivia (Libby) Hawker book is always a delight. This book is a sad story, or I should say, starts as a sad story about two families who are struggling to live in a harsh part of the West. This is a longer book than she normally writes but the reader feels the emotions of the characters strongly. The reader is pulled in to the characters emotions instantly. I won't give spoilers, enough reviews have already! This is a book to be read in a quiet place and savored. Highly recommend!
I received an ARC of this book from Netgalley. Thank you, Netgalley!
All opinions are my own.

This is a beautiful novel that read like poetry at times. I would put it up there with When The Crawdads Sing.
A story of struggle, betrayal, heartache and forgiveness. Set in 1870 Wyoming, two families living in the stark unforgiving prairie try to survive the brutal winter, when one father is murdered and the other is sent to jail for his murder. Neighbors that hate each other, come together to protect the children and save their farms and its animals.
Olivia Harper is a prolific writer, that weaves beauty into her descriptions of the prairie and the surrounding terrain, the animals that roam the land and the relationships that are formed from this union. I felt I was taken along this journey along with the interesting characters that she gave us.
There’s a bit of fantasy and the supernatural thrown in to make the characters more interesting. I received this ARC for my honest opinion and I hope that I gave the review that it deserves. You need to read it.
#NetGalley #LakeUnionPublishing

4.5 stars rounded up.
This is a book to be savored. The writing is lyrical, the descriptions are incredible, the characters are realistic, the pace is a little slow (hence the deduction of a half star), but the plot pulled me in from the first line onward. The Wyoming Territory of the 1860's comes through so well that I felt the cold, the wind, and the dirt that came with farm living on the prairie during the time.

The story is all about connections and the long-lasting consequences of the decisions people make when they lose connections. There's the connection between family members; the connections between neighbors/community members; the connection of humans and the natural world; and the connection of humans with the world after life has ended.

Cora and Nettie Mae are neighbors who try to adapt to life without their husbands after one of them betrays the other. Their survival depends on them finding a way to compromise and connect amidst the hatred and shame that follows that betrayal. As they pick their way though the challenges of moving on with their lives, trying not to connect with each other, events conspire to help and hinder their efforts. Their children, while part of the problem, are also the conduit to the eventual solution.

I loved the author's notes at the end of the book, but won't spoil things by revealing her inspiration for writing the story. It made the book even more wonderful in my eyes.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC.

Thanks so much to NetGalley, Lake Union Publishing and Olivia Hawker for giving me the opportunity to read her new book One For The Blackbird, One For The Crow. I have read her previous book, The Ragged Edge Of Night and I loved it.

Wyoming prairie in 1876, two isolated farming families live next door to each other and one night all hell breaks loose. When Ernest Bemis discovers his wife Cora and his neighbor Substance Webber cheating! The meek mild Ernest shoots Substance and kills him. He rides to the closest town, he informs the local sheriff about his crime and is jailed for two years.

Nettie Mae Webber is now a widow with a farm and animals to look after with only her 16 year old son Clyde to help her. Cora Bemis has to live with her guilt and shame. Life on the prairie is hard and she only has herself to blame, her four children Beulah, Benjamin, Charles and Miranda need her. Soon it becomes very clear that Cora is going to struggle to survive the harsh winter on her own, she's isn't at all prepared, she has no money and the only person she can ask for help is her neighbor Nettie Mae!

After Clyde becomes ill, Nettie Mae accepts that keeping two farms going is too hard for her teenage son, the two families have no choice but to join forces and Bemis family moves into the Webber house hold.
They begin to prepare for the long hard winter, harvesting vegetables, preserving food, cutting and seasoning fire wood. Despite combining the food/supplies they have, both women are concerned that cupboards will be empty before the end of winter and their children will go hungry.


For both women living in the same house over winter is going to be a challenge and Nettie Mae has every right to hate Cora! Nettie Mae isn't as stern as she seems, she's a natural home maker and she loves children.
Cora isn't a bad person, she wasn't prepared for the lonely isolated life on the remote prairie, the responsibility of motherhood, Substance took advantage of her weakness and she has to live with her shame of her infidelity.

The story is about two women struggling to live and keep their children safe in a harsh environment of the Wyoming prairie, how they cope with being isolated from the outside world for months during the harsh winter, they discover by working together they can survive the long winter, they do manage to keep their children safe and they become friends.

I really enjoyed reading One For The Blackbird, One For The Crow, I gave it four stars, I will share my review on Goodreads, Twitter and Barnes & Noble.

I really enjoyed the writing style of One For the Blackbird, One for the Crow but found the story line felt very slow and dragged in some places throughout the book. Did remind me of my love of historical fiction though! Thank you for the review copy!

This title was requested from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review and I thank the publisher for the opportunity to read it. “One for the Blackbird, One for the Crow” sounded promising to me from the description and reviews of some of the author’s previous works. Unfortunately, I could not connect with any of the main characters and put the book aside at least 3 times before forcing myself to complete it so that I could submit a review. I understand that living on the frontier in Wyoming in the late 1800’s may not have been the most uplifting of times, but the entire novel just smacked so much of hardship and depression, I felt like I was being punished each time I tried to pick it up. And while I totally agree with other reviewers about the quality of the author’s descriptive writing, if I can’t engage on some level with the characters, no level of description can make up for lack of dialog or character development. The author spent pages and pages presenting the inner-voices of the 4 major characters, yet in all those pages, I always felt I was meeting a cliche and longed for some signs of authentic humanity. The premise for the story was solid, but the lack of dialog didn’t move the plot along at the right speed for me.

Beautiful prose! I really enjoyed reading this book, with descriptions of the character's perceptions, their interactions, and day to day living portrayed so vividly that I felt I could have been there with them. There was one interaction where the pacing felt a bit forced, but overall it felt like I knew these families for the life changing, eventful year detailed in these pages. Another great novel by this author. Recommend for middle school and up.

Hardships on the frontier don't stop when someone dies... Murder, tragedy, and redemption...

This was an amazing story! I truly enjoyed the book! This is not your typical frontier story but one with added layers and a touch of forgiveness as well! Put this on your to read list now! Spend some time on the Wyoming wilderness, and survive the storm that is fast approaching...

This is definitely a book that will stay with you long after yo put it down. Olivia Hawker does an excellent job bringing the characters to life. Very beautifully written and powerful. You will get lost in "One for the Blackbird, One for the Crow". I definitely recommend this one!

3.5-4 stars

This was a beautifully written story about two families fighting to survive on the American frontier.

After Ernest Bemis catches his wife Cora cheating on him with their neighbor Substance Webber, he doesn’t think twice about killing him. But being the respectable man that he is, he turns himself in and must serve a two-year sentence in jail. Now Cora and the newly widowed Nettie Mae are left to fend for themselves and keep their farms running while raising their children. Working together is the last thing they want to do, but with the harsh winter soon approaching and much to be done to prepare, they are left with few options.

Nettie Mae’s son, Clyde, and Cora’s daughter, Beulah, handle most of the day-to-day chores around their families’ farms, so it comes as no surprise that they grow closer to one another too. But Nettie Mae still harbors a lot of resentment and anger toward the Bemis women and disapproves of the blossoming relationship. The struggles between these two families are bound to tear them apart, unless they can put aside their differences and learn to trust one another.

For the most part, I enjoyed reading this book. The writing was poetic and the message behind the story was powerful, but at times it was almost too wordy and dragged on. I was also underwhelmed by the ending and had hoped there would be a little more to bring the story full circle.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2922622778