Kristin Hannah brings us to the Dust Bowl in this moving novel that made me sob twice - a new record. Elsa, rejected by her wealthy family of origin in the 1920s in the Texas panhandle, finds a new family with her in-laws after a shotgun wedding. As the Depression and the Dust Bowl push her and her family into grinding poverty, Elsa sets out for California with her two children in hopes of finding a better life. In passages that are strikingly reminiscent of modern-day Amercians' attitudes towards Mexicans migrating north, she and her children meet prejudice, cruelty and hostility as they try to find work. While I found the story moving and strikingly relevant to today's times, it could have been tighter - the novel dragged in sections, and could have made its point and evoked the grinding poverty without being quite such a slog.

Let me just start off by saying history was my least favorite class in high school. I slid through by the seat of my pants, doing the least I could. Fast forward a few years, when I’m introduced to my first Kristin Hannah book...each book has shown me parts of history in a way that I enjoy. This is no exception. From the first page I was drawn into the story, following this strong female character through each and every hardship, silently rooting for her and her children as I continued to read each page. The detail and descriptive writing makes you feel as if you are right there, a part of the story and I love this about Ms Hannah. Another great book, with a beautiful story.

I didn’t know what expect with this book. This is the story of Elsinore who is one of the daughters of a wealthy family....she is not as pretty Asher sisters and as a result of rheumatic fever she is treated like an invalid by her mother. Naturally she yearns to be normal and this leads her to become secretly involved with a young man. Predictably this leads to disaster. I have to admit that I found this first part to be well worn ground and I was disappointed.
As I kept reading I soon learned that the story was so much more. Elsinore faces hardship and loss but she perseveres through challenges to find a better life. She is a courageous woman raising a son and daughter in a dangerous, violent situation but she doesn’t lose hope.
As always, Kristin Hannah’s writing transport the reader to a place of wonder...I was captivated and loved the ending.

The best book I’ve read in a long, long time. Despite it being fiction, this book informed me about an era/topic I knew little about. I fell in love with each of the characters, and Kristin Hannah’s writing transported me to this time period. Highly recommend!

As a US History teacher, this book was a fascinating inside look at the Great Depression/Dust Bowl. It was like a Dorothea Lange photo come to life. The story itself was dismal and heartbreaking. Sadly, there are so many parallels with our society today - the greed of major corporations sucking the souls of their laborers. This book did not have the ending I was hoping for but I’m still glad I read it. I came away with a better understanding of that time period and the reminder that sometimes a book that makes you think is better than a book that makes you smile.

Like many of Kristin Hannah's other novels, The Four Winds examines an interesting cross-section of history-- the Dust Bowl-- and one farming family's attempts to survive the Great Depression. When they can longer endure the drought and resultant ill health and poverty, Elsa Martinelli and her two children flee from the Texas Panhandle to California, where they struggle as migrant workers in order to survive.

I enjoyed reading about a period that I'm not all that familiar with and learning more about the strikes and fight for worker's rights in California during that time. Readers will find a lot of parallels to many of the issues in headlines today. Similarly, the themes of longing to be loved and for a sense of home are ones that will resonate with many.

But I also found The Four Winds to be relentlessly bleak. I kept waiting for Elsa and her children to finally catch a break, but instead, the novel just piles on the suffering. Elsa finally seems to be coming into her own in the last quarter of the story, but just as she does, Hannah yanks the proverbial rug out from under the reader with a disheartening and depressing plot twist. Redemption and hope finally comes through Loreda, Elsa's daughter, but only in the last chapter of the novel, making it feel like too little, too late.

Some of my favorite parts of The Four Winds are where we get to read entries in Elsa's journal. These display some of the lovely writing that Kristin Hannah is known for and provide insight into Elsa's inner thoughts and motivations, her sacrificial love for her children.

Thanks for NetGalley for providing an ARC!

Kristin Hannah does it again. This time with an epic story told during the time of America’s Great Depression. Make sure to have the tissues ready for the heartbreak that abounds as you read Elsa’s beautiful story. The strength and perseverance she embodies really is one of the biggest take aways of the novels. Definitely one I won’t forget any time soon.

I finished this last night and needed a good nights sleep for recovery and soak it all in before I could write my review.
First, I want to thank NetGalley and Kristin Hannah for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
The Four Winds follows a family in the midst of the Dustbowl of the 30's. Through this tragic time in history, the southern states of the US was stricken with dust storms that wreaked havoc on families, land and lives.
In this story, Elsa is our main character and is a character that I adored. The dynamics of her life will touch you. I was so deeply touched with this novel and felt so many emotions.
This is a must read!

I am normally not a fan of Kristin Hannah. However, I could not put this book down. Read it in one sitting. These characters are amazing. I had to see what happened to them. This book made me cry a lot but the story line is so good. Characters are strong and well written. One of the best books I have read in a long time.

Kristin Hannah has done it again! She is so great at creating strong female protagonists. I was hooked from the beginning! This was thoroughly researched and well written, which most of her works are. Four Winds showed the strength, and the bravery, of the people during the Great Depression. It was so vivid, that I felt like I was there along with the characters.
I especially liked the relationship between Rosa and Elsa. Elsa herself I couldn't get enough of. Such a timely and thought provoking book.

Thank you NetGalley and publisher for this ARC!

This book was a journey for me. I saw it listed as requestable on NetGalley, but the blurb just didn't really interest me. I decided to request it anyway because I have enjoyed Kristin Hannah's other books like "The Nightengale" and "The Great Alone". Much to my surprise, my request was granted.

I just started reading it one day and I was sucked completely in. I wasn't aware of the Dustbowl of America in the 1930s. I loved the characters and the stories they were telling. About halfway through though a bit of the allure was lost, and I found that there were many chapters that were just more of the same - over and over again. When it came to the big ending, I didn't feel any emotion, I just rolled my eyes at the predictability.

There is a strong chance that it was just my mindset when I read the book, but I didn't enjoy the last half of the book. It started to drag for me and just didn't pick back up again.

That being said though, I feel that this is still going to be a very popular book. It is great for fans of historical fiction as well as fans of Kristin Hannah.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This is another gut-wrenching, tragic, fantastic story on the determination and perseverance of the human spirit by Kristin Hannah!
We travel with Elsa and her daughter and son in the mid-1930s from the dust bowl farmlands of Texas where they've endured the Great Depression, drought, and Elsa's husband's desertion of his family to California, where they hope for a better life. They're forced to leave Elsa's in-laws on the farm, but have heard promising things about jobs in California.
When they arrive, the "migrants" or "Okies" are treated like animals, forced to work for less-than-poverty wages and to live in camps not fit for humans. It's a tragic, depressing, and, unfortunately, real-life part of American history.
Elsa, like others, does what she can to keep her family safe, and fed. I talked with my dad about this piece of Californian history that I hadn't heard of, since he was a 4th-generation-born Californian in the early 1930s. He remembers seeing the awful migrant camps, remembers that being called an "Okie" was the worst slander, and was lucky enough to be raised in a family that had enough money to survive the Great Depression.
It's such a haunting story of the human spirit and all they endured. A story of determination, perseverance, and kindness. Yes, kindness - shown in many ways through characters in the story. Those living in the camps who look out for each other, help each other, and people who are fighting for a Union to represent the farm workers for a wage that will keep them from starving to death.
It's another heartfelt and heartbreaking historical fiction must-read by this author!
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me a copy of this book.

I had been eagerly anticipating Kristin Hannah’s newest book and let me tell you it does not disappoint!

This is the first book I have read that uses the backdrop of the Great Plains, during the dust bowl time period. This time period was devastating! To say that it was dry is an understatement, which in turn made growing crops nearly impossible. Then there were the dust storms! They would come fast and furious making an already difficult time period just that much harder.

This book was so vivid and immersing I felt like I needed a shower when I would stop reading. I cannot even begin to imagine the daily struggles and sacrifices of those who lived in the Great Plains during this horrible time period. Their strength and endurance is incredibly admirable, each day hoping that the rain will come, so they can get back to work on the land that they love!

While the time period in this book is quite real, the story of Elsa Martinelli is fictionalized, but her story mirrors the heartbreak and scary choices made by those who lived through it. Some choose to stay on their land to wait it out for the rain to return, others packed up their belongings and moved west to California where rumor had it a good living could be made. No matter what choice was made they were taking a huge leap of faith!

When the publisher reached out to me offering a NetGalley of this book I could not be more excited! I emailed them back asking if I could publish my review of this book anytime or wait until closer to publication. They said anytime was fine and I am SO glad they did! Now I get to rave about how much I loved this story and strongly encourage you to add it to your TBR list!!

This is a beautifully written, amazing, eye-opening story that I will not soon forget!

Thank you to Net Galley for providing me this book for review. This was a historical novel about one Texas farming family’s struggles during the Great Depression. Through their lens, we learn about the thousand of Americans who migrated from the Dust Bowl part of our country to other states, primarily California.

With millions of people out of work, and thousands losing their land due to drought, tornados, dust storms, extremely hot weather, farming families from Oklahoma, Texas, etc. ultimately had no ability to grow crops and feed themselves. Many moved to California looking for work during one of the darkest periods of the Great Depression, the Dust Bowl era.

When this family (a mother and her two children) fails to be able to sustain themselves on their Texas farm, they see no other course of action than to migrate to California, in search of a better life. Unfortunately they discover that their lives are even worse there. As they try to survive as migrant workers picking cotton, they find themselves living in unimaginable conditions, preyed upon by wealthy land owners, and abhorred by Californians who don’t want their taxes to go towards helping their fellow Americans who have fallen on hard times.

This book reminded me of The Grapes of Wrath, when I first learned about this difficult time in our American history. Even though it was a sad story, I couldn’t put the book down.

I had a tough time with this one. Had to take a break in the middle and come back to it. Reading about people and times so vivid and real, struggling with them and feeling everything is how Kristin Hannah’s books hit you. Hand your heart over as you turn the first page.
This has the same effect as her other book. So much sad and struggle and heartbreak. Given the times we are living in in 2020, it was too much for me. I think it could have been 100 pages shorter. BUT, her characters! The research you know she put into this book! The specific time in our history she chronicles! It’s like a history lesson in fiction.
Glad to have been asked to read a pre-publication copy of this book.

I having been wanting a book to suck me and feel a part of the story and this one did just that. Set in the bleak time period of the Depression and the environmental disaster of the Dust Bowl, the story is one of bravery, strength, perseverance and most of all love. I found this an unputdownable read!
“Love is what remains when everything else is gone.”

I received this as an ARC from Netgalley. Thank you.
I really like Kristin Hannah's books and this one was is as good as her other books. Growing up during the Depression especially in the Dust Bowl area was very hard and she doesn't mince words when describing the conditions of the time.
My mother was a teenager during this time living on a farm in Oklahoma with her 3 sisters and a widowed father who spent what little money they had at the bar every Friday. My mother rarely spoke about this time of her life and I wish I could have learned more about it was like in those days from her but I think she did not want to relive those days. One thing I remember growing up in the 60's and 70's is that my mother saved and reused every bag whether is was plastic like a bread bag or a paper bag. She also saved used but clean aluminum foil. Because I grew up that way, I did that when I was married and it would drive my husband crazy to open a kitchen drawer and see it full of plastic bags and neatly folder aluminum foil scraps.

I really liked the main character Elsa. She was such a strong woman yet the upbringing she endured gave her no self esteem but as her story progresses the reader can see what an admirable and hard working woman she is.

The author's description of the migrant camps in California and the mistreatment by the company owners and other Californians of the Dust Bowl migrants made me want to cry. And in 2020 have we still not learned from the past?

Elsa is lonely, sad and living with a unloving family who reject her because she is unattractive. Then she meets Rafe and her life quickly changes. While living on the family farm, her in-laws and children teach her how to love and be loved, even in the midst of the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl. When her son gets sick, they travel West to start a “better life”.
Elsa and her family show the reader the struggles of poverty, hunger and homelessness and how no matter how brave and hard working you are, it is difficulty to get out from under it.
Whether you like historical fiction or not, add this to your to read list now. Thank you to NetGalley for a digital arc of this book!

THE FOUR WINDS is a good read, but definitely not a light read. It is set in the dust bowl and the Great Depression time period. It is a very sad story and some of it reminded me of what we are going through in today’s world. The writing is great and highly recommended.

A powerful story about loss, survival and bravery during the Great Depression.

I'll be upfront, historical fiction is not a genre I read very often. But I make an exception when Kristin Hannah is the author. Why? She is one of the best authors, in my opinion, to capture the strength of women under some of the harshest of conditions.

Elsa/Wolcott/Martinelli, the heroine of this book, is no exception. However, if you asked Elsa's family, or Elsa herself, she would be described as weak. After suffering from rheumatic fever as a young teen, her body projected that weakness. But page by page, Elsa showed that she has a fighting spirit. Some internal mechanism within her that pushed her to dust herself off and get back up after each time she is knocked down.

"I want . . . to be brave," she said, almost too softly to be heard.
"What scares you?"
"Everything."

While I hated life for Elsa under the Wolcotts, the family that should have loved her at all costs, I loved that she got a second chance with the Martinelli family. Her union was far from welcomed, but with time, Rose and Tony, began to accept her as one of their own. And I think that unexpected love repaired some of the damage that her own family caused over the years.

"You have the heart of a lion. Don't believe anyone who tells you different."

This isn't the first book that I've read about the Great Depression, but it is one of the first that explored what drove a family to take the treacherous journey West in search of a better life. A good portion of the story centers on life in the Texas Panhandle during the Dust Bowl. I had no idea how persistent and horrific life under these conditions could be. It amazed me that each day, this family got up and tried to provide for one another instead of giving up. And the strength they showed during this time would become invaluable when they have no choice but to pack up and go West.

There is so much tragedy and heartbreak in this story, that I cherished every positive moment for Elsa, no matter how small.
New friends.
Repairing a damaged relationship with her daughter.
Four walls and a bed.
Small compliments from a new man.
Elsa deserved each and every one of those moments.

While the Great Depression exposed the vulnerabilities of those in need, it also brought to light the strength of character and resilience of the American worker. Although Else always wished for bravery, she proves on more than one occasion that this is a characteristic that hasn't alluded to her. And it's a critical moment, she lets that bravery shine for everyone to witness. *sobs*

"Sometimes you have to fight back."

This is a beautifully written story, as always, that will have you cheering for the underdog. A MUST READ for fans of this author/genre!