This book was heartbreaking and beautiful. Such a fantastic story with incredible writing. I just loved Victoria and watching her rise up through struggles and getting to see her redemption.

Thank you Netgalley for this ARC of Go as a River by Shelley Read.

This is one of those books that I'm going to hold to my chest with my mascara running and I'll be proclaiming "this book stomped every inch of my heart to bits, it literally destroyed me, read it!" But for real, if you were a fan of The Snow Child, Crawdads, or any quiet books that also screams heartbreak and healing, this is for you.

It is the 1940's in Iola Colorado and Victoria has just met Wilson Moon. He is gentle, mysterious, handsome and kind. But he also has the wrong skin tone, making him an unwelcome visitor in town. But while Wilson lays low, Victoria and he establish a deep connection, but there is no possible way of knowing just how dramatically Torie's life will change because of it.

I won't lie, this is not a lighthearted read, it's full of tragedy and cruelty, so please treat yourself with care while reading. But I can also promise you that it's laced with exquisite hope and beauty throughout. Human wickedness has no bounds, but thankfully, neither does human kindness and selflessness. I sobbed giant ugly tears at the end of this book, and it will be a long time before I ever forget it.

This was such a beautifully written coming of age story! The writing was so nicely done. I loved the way the author described the setting and nature around Victoria. The ending did feel a bit rushed to me. I would have liked to know more details about Victoria and her son at the end.

I completely revelled in this book. I loved it so much, it had me hooked! I was attracted to the title, the lovely cover and the description sounded very intriguing. I’m so pleased that I listened to that calling.

It was an absolute delight to read and as I said already, I loved it so much! I felt the descriptions of the settings rippling through me, drawing me into the reality of Victoria’s life and pulled at my emotions with each wave and experience that she went through. There were some challenging topics that she lived through and her strength was inspirational throughout.

A quote from the book that I read and reread sat so beautifully with me. I really wanted to share it, but have resisted, so when you read it, it can give you all the feels too. It starts with “Go as a river…”

There was one thing that I was a little disappointed with and that was the very ending of this book. It had me in its deep grip and then left me shocked with the abrupt ending. For me I was still on the journey, so wrapped up in the story and desperate for at least physical contact, an embrace that I felt deep in my heart, which matched my feelings throughout the book, that they were finally reunited. By no means, was the book lacking, I just enjoyed it so much, that I wanted to know more about the reunion.
That would have been the most perfect ending for me, but none the less, I’ll say it once again, I absolutely loved this book!

Thank you so much to NetGalley and all involved with me being able to read this book, for an honest review.

I am in love with this book. Days after finishing it, I find myself still thinking of Victoria and Wil, and all Victoria had to endure in this coming-of-age story. The book opens with Victoria's and Wil's meeting, and from that first chapter I was completely entranced and could not stop reading - I rooted for these two in every page. The family dynamics, the longing for what Victoria had lost, the unlikely friendship she forged with the town's crazy lady - all so beautifully told. The descriptions of the Colorado wilderness and landscapes were rich and made me see a place I have not visited enough feel vivid and as if I was right there with the characters, experiencing the land as they were. It was a treat to learn something about Iola and the other towns erased by the dam that was built in the '60s which was something I knew zero about before reading this book.

I highly recommend this book and will be one that I'll be telling all my friends about. It was heartbreaking and hopeful and every page was exquisite - I did not want it to end!

Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to review an advanced copy of this book!

Torie leads a harsh existence on the family peach farm in rural Colorado after war and a cruel accident devastate her family. When stranger Wil passes through and they meet in town, they are drawn to each other and a passionate relationship begins, but he is Native American and soon feels the full force of small-town racial bigotry. Torie flees to the mountains and struggles to survive, but has to make a terrible sacrifice that will weigh on her heart as she strives to make a life for herself. Meanwhile the river threatens to flood her town, and another family with a strong connection to Torie fight their own battles elsewhere, as they wonder about each other. I really enjoyed the first part of the book, dealing with Torie and Wil and their love story, and how the prejudice of the townsfolk was made felt, but afterwards the narrative lost its way a bit and didn’t really hold my interest. Some of the characters, such as Torie’s brother, were interesting but could have been developed more fully. I also found it hard to believe that the events as Torie leaves the mountain would have really happened like that, with no questions asked (I don’t want to spoil the plot here!) and that affected my engagement with the story. I did like the often very lyrical writing and the ideas in the book, I just think they could have been explored more deeply. Most of the other reviews have been glowing so other readers may well disagree.

This is the most beautiful book. Victoria is a resilient woman, who only grows stronger even when holding on to heartbreak. At every turn there was sorrow and loneliness, yet she was still able to thrive. This is going to be one of my tops reads this year. How this author is able to pull you into Victoria’s story, make you picture the farm, the hut, just everything, it’s amazing. Just incredible.

Victoria Nash lives a lonely life as the only female at her family’s farm. She cooks and cleans for the troubled men of her family, until she meets Wilson Moon, a young drifter, and her life is changed forever.

This is a very powerful read that will leave you with tears in your eyes. It starts as a coming of age story, as Victoria goes through adversity after adversity. We grow to love her but wait for the end to find out if she comes to terms with her past and finds what she deserves.

“We are one and all alike if for no other reason than the excruciating and beautiful way we grow piece by unpredictable piece, falling, pushing from the debris, rising again, and hoping for the best.”

Go as a River comes out 2/28.

Really enjoyed this. Could have easily been 600 pages but I appreciate the condensed story. I loved the relationships between women highlighted.

Victoria Nash is a seventeen girl working on her family’s Colorado peach farm in the 1940s. By fate, her path crosses with that of Wilson Moon, a young Native American drifter, who had been displaced from his family and his land. Tragedy strikes, leading Victoria to make gut-wrenching decisions all the while trying to stay true to herself and her family’s legacy.

The descriptive, reflective narrative of this coming-of-age novel drew me in from the first page. Each chapter was titled with the years that they took place, which was a nice way to help keep track of where Victoria was in her life. Character development throughout the book was appropriate, and I particularly enjoyed Inga’s diary in the second half. The ending was the perfect conclusion to all Victoria had been through and her choices up to that point!

I can definitely see this book being on many “Best Of” lists for 2023!

Thank you to NetGalley for providing an advanced e-copy of Go As a River by Shelley Read.

Fans of Where the Crawdads sing rejoice, you've found your next big hit! Victoria Nash is a teen in 1940s Colorado when she falls in love with Wil Moon, a Native American teen drifting from place to place. Her family doesn't accept this choice and the story goes from there. Saying more would spoil the surprises. This is not a love story. The couple are only together on the page for a very short time. What I liked was the beautiful nature writing, easy turning pages, and the sense of place. On the other hand, the pacing was rushed, and the ending, while lovely, was a bit cliche and predictable. I would have liked more pages to go deeper.

This introspective debut was at times gut-wrenching, inspiring, wholesome, and tragic while still being hopeful. It's a story about life and motherhood; it's about families being torn apart and patched back together in a very humanly messy way.

The narration style has a reflective quality to it. I could just imagine a wise older woman regaling me with the tale of her life, telling of her mistakes and flaws and tragic missed opportunities as well as the lessons she learned. The main character's losses were horrendous, and I felt them deep to my core. But watching her get back up, keep going, keep trying was inspiring. I felt myself rooting for her to find a safe haven.

Also -- never in my life have I wanted to taste a peach so badly.

Thanks to Netgalley and Spiegel & Grau for the ARC!

A week or so ago I watched an author event where this author and her editor chatted for a few minutes. I learned that Shelley had been a college lecturer for three decades before choosing to follow her own advice and write her first novel. I am so glad she made that choice! Her editor shared that Shelley’s writing was lyrical and I agree. She weaved complex believable characters into a story of life - hard work, love, lost, day to day tedium, obstacles, cruelty, friendship and resilience all within the boundaries of a stunning landscape that is now engraved in my mind. I look forward to reading her next novel which I hope she has started to write!


Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an early release in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Wonderful story. This is definitely one of my favorite reads of the year. I loved reading the story of Victoria Nash. I loved the writing of the story. I loved the pacing. I appreciated the way that the content was handled. The nature descriptions were wonderful and all of the characters were fleshed out so well. As the first half of the story came to a close, I literally had to take a few days before beginning the second half because I was so emotionally invested in all of it and just needed to allow it to have time to absorb into me until I sojourned on. Recommend.

"I wondered at the sense of it all-this journey I have called my life, so like this drowned river that keeps being a river even as it is forced to be a lake, moving forward against obstacle and dam, continuing to flow with all it has gathered because it knows no other way."

Thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book before publication in exchange for an honest review.

This is a beautiful coming of age story set in 1940s Colorado. I thought this author really did a great job describing the beautiful settings, the land and nature, and how harsh the living was back then.This story revolves around 12 yr old Victoria (Torie) who works on her family's peach farm. She is the only female because she lost her mother and other members of her family in an accident. She has so many duties to take on as the only remaining female. Life for her is tough. While walking in town one day, she meets Wilson Moon, a Native American, who is a stranger in the town. They quickly fall in love with him even though her family would not accept him because of prejudices back then. Circumstances from this point on, change the direction of her life. I do not want to give anything away, but I really enjoyed reading about Victoria, and the lonely and solitary life that she creates for herself. Such a great debut and I'm looking forward to more from this author.

Out Feb. 28. Thank you to the publisher and netgalley for the gifted copy. All opinions are my own. I will post my review on Goodreads,, Instagram, and Amazon once it publishes.

You had no idea how much tears i spent reading this book.

Victoria Nash is only an adolescent in the 1940s, but she runs the household on her family's peach farm in the ranch town of Iola, Colorado—the only female surviving in a family of turbulent men. Wilson Moon is a young wanderer with a secret past who has been uprooted from his tribal land in the Four Corners province and wants to believe that one place is the same as another. When Victoria and Wil cross paths on a street corner, their unforseen interaction sparks as much passion as danger, and as many revelations as secrets. When tragedy strikes, Victoria escapes into the wonderful but tough wilderness of the nearby hills. She lives in a small hut and continues to struggle to stay afloat in the harsh conditions, with no clear vision of her future. What follows is her journey to reclaim everything she has lost, despite the fact that Gunnison River rises to drench her home and the sole life she has ever recognised. Go as a River is a story about love and loss, but also about finding home, family, perseverance, and love in unexpected places.

The story follows Victoria, knows as Torie, her life over the course of decades, a life of desire, pain, heartache and betrayal. The wonderful but harsh landscape of mountains and forests surrounding her home imaginatively depicted by the author, creating a gripping story to read. This is a wondrously descriptive fiction and the characters are perfectly written, in their own flawed yet realistic people. The storyline is composed of linked things, tremendous emotions which includes good and bad ones, hence this masterpiece was produced. The way Shelley Read wrote her story touches my heart, a tear-jerking novel that convinced me to finish this book in one sitting. Though melancholic, it also gives some comfort and healing in its own way. I highly recommend this book for those who seek for a healing read.

Thank you Spiegel & Grau and Netgalley for this magnificent arc!

Thanks to Spiegel & Grau and Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review this title prior to publication. This book is getting so much buzz - I'm seeing it all over Bookstagram as well as recommended by booksellers and book adjacent people I trust. I read about 30% of this book before I stopped, but I am not entirely sure it's the book - it could just be me and my mood right now. I started this and was really into it, and then I put it down for a few days while I caught up on a chunkster book. When I picked it back up, Victoria had located Wilson on the neighbor's farm, and all they could seem to do was see each other in secret and have sex. I could not continue on, as that storyline seemed a bit unbelievable. However, I have heard from others that I might just have to read it a little further before the story really takes off. I am willing to put it down for now and see if it comes back around to me at another time.

I loved this book! The setting in Colorado starting in the 1940s and as the US expanded I didn't know whole towns were wiped out to move a river but this book is about so much more! I instantly was hooked on Torie's story and just loved her descriptions of life and the setting. The peach orchard plays such a beautiful and unexpected role in the book. Her growth throughout the book was heartbreaking but beautiful and I couldn't put this book down. Thank you to Netgalley and Spiegel and Grau publishing for an early e-copy of this book. It publishes February 28th 2023.

This was an ARC I received from Netgalley in exchange for my honest opinion. Shelley Read composed a beautiful story and is a great story teller. This story begins with the 17 year old main character residing in Iola Colorado on a peach farm. This novel covers several decades within the family’s lives and the changes that take place in the area including a government buyout. So much emotion, beauty and heartfelt characters.

This atmospheric look at life in the mid 1900s in Iola, Colorado is tragic and also harsh, while also being compassionate and redeeming.

"God will take a life, God will give a life, and God will make a life unrecognizable. God won't warn you what's coming next."

This story spans from the 1940s to a little past the Vietnam war. Centering on Torie, a 12 year old girl at the beginning of this story, who has lost her mother, aunt and cousin in an accident and must rise to take over all the duties that a mother/wife on a farm are expected to perform. All of the cooking, all of the cleaning, taking care of the chickens and helping her father pick the peaches their farm is famous for. The somberness of the book takes off early on and never really lets up. She lives a life of responsibility and duty - far too much for the shoulders of someone her age.

The story walks with her through her life as she finds love, finds joy and finds freedom, only to lose it all in a tragic set of events. So much of the book is about the Colorado terrain that it feels like a character. Throughout her life, Torie learns to rely on nature and finds solace in it. She lives a mostly solitary life, but then finds friendships in unexpected places. Her tenacity and grit will have you rooting her on. Her grief and loss will have your heart splitting in two.

"The landscapes of our youths create us, and we carry them within us, storied by all they gave and stole, in who we become."

I think this one will be enjoyed by many. I loved the fact that the ending leaves the reader hopeful, without telling them exactly what happens next. I love a book that leaves me thinking long after I've finished reading, and this one hits that mark.

Definitely recommend. Thank you to NetGalley and Spiegel & Grau publishers for the ARC to read and review. Pub date: 2.28.23