Here’s the deal: I loved it!⁣
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I know it gets mixed reviews. I know some people found it boring and insanely depressing. But I feel like I come into a Kristin Hannah book expecting to be traumatized a great deal, feeling depressed and crying goes hand in hand with all of my KH experiences so far. So I got what expected there. And it never bored me, I was interested in Elsa’s story. ⁣
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Does every possible bad thing that can happen to this family happen? Yes. But did it help me get a sweeping view of what the Dust Bowl/Great Depression era must have been like for a family. Also, yes. ⁣
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To me, most of all, this was the story of motherhood. What it means to be a mother, to love like a mother, to worry like a mother, and I found those parts so incredibly touching. Many of the quotes and passages I marked on motherhood will stay with me a long time. ⁣
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“A warrior believes in an end she can’t see and fights for it. A warrior never gives up. A warrior fights for those weaker than herself.⁣
It sounds like motherhood to me.”⁣
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🎧 As for the audio, it is narrated by Julia Whelan which always makes for an excellent audiobook. Kristin Hannah’s descriptions with Julia’s delivery created such visceral experiences.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the opportunity to review this book.

One of the best!! Love the writing style
I enjoyed it so very much!!

I really enjoy Kristin Hannah's historical novels. They are well-researched and have interesting characters. However, The Four Winds was just so depressing. Even set during the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl era, the story could have been more hopeful.

This was heartbreaking but beautifully written. No one does historical fiction quite like Kristen Hannah!

Kristin Hannah always finds a way to make me emotional. In the Four Winds it was the blossoming mother / daughter relationship that sucked me in and made me emotionally invested. This book never really had much of an uplifting moment and was just sad from start to finish , but what part of the depression and dust bowl really had joy? I think any Kristin Hannah fan or historical fiction fan will enjoy this.

Kristen Hannah is a very hit or miss author for me I either love her books or hate them and this one ain’t it for me. Too much dust for the love of god

So freaking good! The relationships between the characters were so good and realistic. My heart broke and rose for the characters constantly. A true roller coaster ride! I would recommend this to anyone!!

Didn't capture my attention and engagement. Interested in trying it again though and hopefully it will take.

This book sat in my TBR pile for a very long while. I really enjoy Kristin Hannah’s recent work, but, the DUST BOWL? Not a topic that immediately grabbed me. It took too long for me to get past that and start reading. If YOU are of the same mind, let me tell you that you should just get over it, and READ THIS BOOK. I am amazed at how quickly and thoroughly I became absorbed in the story and how much I learned from it. I managed to avoid reading Steinbeck (so no Grapes of Wrath) through my school years, but I can’t imagine that he could have written with any more sympathy about the hardships and tough realities of the people who lived through that time, and how poorly they were treated once they migrated to California. Especially from the women’s perspective. The twin disasters of the Dust Bowl and the Depression was something I never really grasped before. Though the subject matter is depressing, the way these women were portrayed, the strength of character and sheer determination made this a very memorable story.

Loved this piece of historical fiction. I learned so much. It broke my heart in many places. Poignant and heart wrenching.

I was so excited to receive an ARC of this book as I have loved Kristin Hannah's previous work. But I couldn't make it through this one. I was about 20 weeks pregnant in addition to having a four year old and there are several gut wrenching scenes of the impossible decisions a mother has to make that I just could not handle. I made it to the 40% mark and felt like it was just too sad for me to continue. So I will still recommend KH's work - but I couldn't finish this one (and thought that disqualified me from writing a review, but I'll share this anyway). Now that the baby I was pregnant with is a year and a half old - I still don't feel I'm ready to return to it. So. Sad. (And I LIKE reading sad things but apparently not this.)

Hannah's books usually take me a bit to get fully invested, and this one was no different. While I wasn't head over heels for this one, I still enjoyed it. She has a great way with words, you can definitely feel how passionate she is for writing.

This was such a steady, slow burn read full of heartbreak... I felt for these characters during such an important and historical time. I learned so much about the Dust Bowl from this book and my emotions were all over the place reading about these characters. Kristen Hannah knows how to create a whirlwind of emotion and she did it again with The Four Winds!

Such a great book. Kristin Hannah is wicked talented. I cried my eyes out. This was the first book I have read by this author, and now, I want to go back and read all her books!

I became a Kristin Hannah fan when I read THE NIGHTINGALE -- and THE FOUR WINDS confirmed that she's the kind of author who finds her way into your heart at Page 1 and never, ever lets go. "Enjoy" is not the right word to describe how I felt about THE FOUR WINDS; it's a sad -- even brutal -- read at time, this story of Elsa, a mother from a Texas farming town trying to save her children and find a drop of dignity as she migrates to California during the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl. The hunger, the deprivation, the hatred and greed that traps her deeper and deeper into poverty all affected me so strongly -- and yet Elsa's integrity and resilience and courage made this book so gripping and such an emotional read for me. I especially loved the female relationships in the book -- notably Elsa and her daughter, Elsa and her mother-in-law, and Elsa and the friend she makes in the ditch camp. I really enjoyed the audio version of this book, which included an interview with the author.

Kristin Hannah is an auto-read author for me - she definitely knows how to weave an emotional yet epic story about love and loss.

In this story we travel back to the 1920s and 1930s to see how one family endures the tragedy of The Great Depression coupled with the environmental disaster that was later coined “The Dust Bowl.”

Something that I love about history / historic fiction is that I always learn something about the past that can also be applied to the here and now. In this story, thousands of people migrate from The Great Plains seeking opportunity in California, only to be treated horrifically by locals who see them as outsiders. Sounds familiar, right? Meanwhile, we are reminded that we must care for our environment or face devastating consequences (and that science is a good thing!).

Solid four star read for me!!

I had heard a lot of buzz about this book - as is the case with many of Kristin Hannah's past books. Having read and enjoyed the Nightingale I thought I would give this one a try, especially after all the hype. Well I feel like this one was hyped a little too much. It was just an alright read for me. It kept my interest and taught me about a period of history I really didn't know much about. I enjoyed the characters but just felt like something was missing a little. I will definitely give her other books a chance. She writes very well and has interesting characters and I love a good strong female relationship between mother and daughter as was depicted in this story.

Wow! This book showed me so much of a time I knew very little about. It broke my heart, but opened my eyes! It made me feel. Books about a mother's love always seem to be tops for me.

Strong themes of who is, and who isn't, family, and that without unity workers will never overcome the manipulation of the big business and thus be enslaved in a cycle of poverty This page turner will break your heart, and at the end you will realize that “pulling yourself up by the bootstraps” sounds nice, but it is a farce.

I really love everything Kristin Hannah writes, and I'll be recommending this to all of my fellow historical fiction lovers! It took me a while to get into this book, but I really enjoyed the writing. It was bleak and engrossing, and I just kept wanting better things for the main character.