This was an enjoyable read and I would recommend it. thanks for letting me have an advance copy. I'm new to this author.

Very fluid story with descriptive scenes. I love a novel that will allow me to be in the environment.
Thank you NetGalley!

I knew nothing about rainmaking as I started to read this book. I found that part of the story very interesting. However I wish there had been more about this. I liked the main character, Imogene Parker, who was known as Rainmaker Jane. The race issues in this period of time were very intense and the last part of the book dealt with a race riot in Tulsa. One thing about this book that I found confusing was the going from one narrative to another with no chapter separation. I enjoyed reading this even though it was different from the type of books I usually read.

Thanks to Net Galley for allowing me to read this arc for my honest review.

The LINK for this book would NOT open....so I could NOT read it~

There fore I can NOT give a review~
PLEASE remove it from my dashboard~

This one is decidedly mediocre. The premise and characters are introduced in such a way that a reader is taken in right away. However, the storyline stalls and gradually seems to become sensationalizes and cliche. The multiple narrators and the way that them move from one to another is more annoying than artistic.

With the centennial of the 1921 Tulsa Race Riot approaching, Evan Ramspott’s Water Darling packs a wallop. Seeming to open as the story of rainmakers paid to bring much needed rain to parched Oklahoma, the book, nonetheless, begins to zero in on racial issues from the start, describing how blacks could watch the rainmakers’ work/shows only from a distance where they could not hear anything said.

In the early pages, “Rainmaker Jane” (Imogen Parker) moves from Tonkawa to Perry to Stillwater trying to raise money by her rainmaking, and readers begin to learn how incidents in a person’s background can create the power to bring rain or even violent killer storms. We meet not only Imogen, the single mother of four-year-old Syd, but also Walt, a young black man who believes he has finally found the woman who swindled his farmer father out of his last golden eagle coin, and Thomas Finn, Imogen’s former lover, whom she has not seen since a violent night in Austin, Texas, five years earlier. After the three end up in Stillwater at the same time and Thomas realizes Jane/Imogen survived the cataclysmic domestic and meteorological events in Austin, the action moves to Tulsa, a city populated by millionaire oil men, working class whites, and the thriving black Greenwood community with its hotels, newspapers, beautiful new church, and fashionable residents, resented, in part, for their success. While people on both sides want calm, others are ready to clash, whether wanting to gain equal rights or to put the others in their place.

Jane is trying to reestablish her life with parents and young son while simultaneously fearing what may happen if Thomas Finn follows her. Walt seeks out a former girlfriend from rural Oklahoma, who has made her home in Greenwood the past five years. All three arrive in Tulsa as the city explodes in one of the most covered up tragic events of American history. How will events affect each of the three? Will any of the three be able to call upon their shared rainmaking powers?

Ramspott does an outstanding job portraying 1921 Oklahoma. He follows up with notes in which he discusses his historical research and what is real and fictional in his excellent historical novel. Anyone wanting to learn more about these few tragic and long covered up days in American history can do so by using the list of resources he also provides. Like its young adult counterpart, Jennifer Latham’s Dreamland Burning (2017), Evan Ramspott’s Water Darling deserves to be read.

Many thanks to Storyteller Press and NetGalley for providing an advance reader copy. The only factor holding me back from a 5/5 rating is the absence of chapter breaks, something that may be added between release of the the digital ARC and commercial publication.

When I thought about rainmakers, it was usually in the context of Native Americans performing a rain dance. Rain making is obviously a misunderstood concept among most folks. In this story, set in Tulsa in 1921, readers will come to know three individuals who are each very different, but who happen to share the gift of rainmaking.

Readers meet Imogene Parker while she is on the road making rain throughout the drought-stricken panhandle. Also known as Rainmaker Jane, Imogene soon finds that things are getting way out of hand with the rain she brings.

Imogene discovers that a young black man named Walt, has mistaken her for someone else and has been tampering with her rainmaking. Walt has rainmaking ability also, but his gift is new and he is still learning how to use it.

Walt and Imogene make their peace and Walt offers to give Imogene a ride back to Tulsa so she can save in train fare. In the meantime, Thomas Finn, another rainmaker, has come to Oklahoma. To make matters worse, he and Imogene have a history—one that Imogene has not quite recovered from.

When Imogene and Walt arrive in Tulsa it’s not long before racial tensions start boiling over. Thomas Finn gets into town soon after and each one suffers from the racial violence that occurs after a newspaper article fans the flames of racial hatred.

I have to say, I was not expecting the book to turn out the way it did. It ended up being mainly about the race riot and less about rainmaking. I was captivated by the last half of the story, mainly due to the fact that it was such a pivotal time in history. As for the rain making, I fall in with the skeptics. There were really no revelations in how these characters made it rain, other than having intense emotions stir it up.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Storyteller Press for allowing me to read an advance copy and give my honest review.

I was just not feeling this one. The premise of the novel sounded great, however the execution was not. The novel continually switched its narrative among the main characters as well as that of a third party narrator. It was confusing and off putting. I am sure there are others out there who think this kind of narrative was a great idea and will set this book apart from others. While that is certainly true, i'm just not convinced it sets it apart in a good way. Thank to NetGalley for providing an ARC for review.

I did not finish this book. I tried but could not get past the many issues with the writing and plotting.

- This book is 400+ pages long and does not appear to have chapter breaks. What small portion I read dragged on and did not appear to have much sequence.
-It slips into flashbacks with no or very little warning
-Based on the synopsis, I thought that there was going to be two protagonists in this book, but the leading male character was never mentioned.

Overall, I was very disappointed with this book.

I received this from Netgalley.com for a review.

Imogene Parker would have been the first to count herself a skeptic when it came to rain making, until the day she met Thomas Finn. From that day on, nothing in her life would ever be the same.

Overall, I liked the characters and the story. Rainmaking being treated like it's real and somewhat magical kept the story moving forward.

2.75☆

The idea for this book has me intrigued, and while I enjoyed the author’s style of writing, the story itself didn’t draw me in as much as I had hoped it would.

This is the first time I’ve read a story where the narrative switched from the first person POV of one character, to third person, and then back to first person of another character’s POV. It was a bit confusing at first, but as I got used to the flow of the writing, I actually quite liked it.

The whole idea of “rainmakers” is really interesting, especially the history behind it, and I think Imogene was a perfect character to embody as a rainmaker. From the very beginning, she came across as a very unique and strong woman, but when it came to Thomas I found her to be a bit weak. I didn’t like their “relationship” or lack thereof in this book, and I didn’t feel like it added much to the story either. In fact, I felt like that aspect of the book kind of dragged on.

I really enjoyed Walt’s character and his interactions with Imogene, both the good and the bad. I found his “relationship” with Clara had a bit of a parallel with Imogene and Thomas’s too. It was almost as if they had put their love interests on a pedestal, and when they finally ran into them again after years apart, they realized it wasn’t meant to be.

The race riot seemed like such an important point in the story, yet it only took up a small portion of the book. I wish it had been more prominent and more spread out, because the majority of the book was pretty even keeled and then suddenly it was nonstop action until almost the very end. I wish there was more of a buildup.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3077951466

Beautifully written tragic story with all the feels. The setting was impeccably written. I felt as I was there. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher.

I came into this novel knowing nothing about "rainmakers" and their travels. I came away falling in love with the characters, the dealings of race and the ending! I would have loved to learn a little more about the history of rainmakers in this era, but I was still able to glean what I needed to understand. This book addressed racial issues that still exist today, but it was written from a time gone by which made it even more poignant. I really enjoyed this book and would recommend it easily! Thank you NetGalley and publisher for ARC.

I didn't know what to expect when I requested this book. I've heard about "rain dances" and "seeding the clouds" for ways to make rain, but I didn't know if these were real ways to make rain or old wives tails or just nonsense. I didn't know if I was going to learn about rain making or something else. I enjoyed the book but felt there could have been more background to make the story more enjoyable.

I thought the subject matter of racism was well done and the characters were believable and well thought out. Some places in the book seemed to move real slow but about the time I'd think about putting it down, it picked right up again.

All in all, it was a good book and I"m glad I read it.

You will love the adventure you are taken on in this story with the characters are so life like. You feel the emotions that they feel and the changes that this town and our country have to go through. Don't think America will ever really get over the different races we have in this world,some just don't want to accept what God has put on this earth. Just why he made people different colors,the struggles who knows the plan! Learned all sorts of different things and just life. Let it rain!! You will know why and was surprised at the end ,so will you!!

I enjoyed this book and the references to rain making. The plot was good and the characters realistic. I look forward to more work by this author.
Many thanks to Storyteller Press and to NetGalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.