I highlighted this book on my Booktube channel. The video can be accessed here: https://youtu.be/9zGyYxseXLc

This will definitely be one of my favorite books this year. The writing is so beautiful and lyrical and I loved the setting. Such a great exploration of what it means to be a mother and the sacrifices we all make for those we love. I’ll be thinking about the symbolism of the river for a long time. Well done Shelley Read!

Go as a River is a heartbreaking read about Victoria, a young woman struggling to grow up in rural western Colorado after her mother and aunt die in a car crash. As the only woman left on her family's peach farm, Victoria must make her own way through one tragedy after another. Historical fiction isn't always my first choice, but I am so glad I picked up this incredible novel. The story is rich and complicated, and the protagonist will steal your heart.

The nature writing is incredible - Shelley Read is absolutely on par with Peter Heller when it comes to describing our stunning Colorado landscape. You don't have to be a Colorado kid like I am to enjoy this moving coming-of-age story, however. If you enjoy Kristen Hannah or Anthony Doerr, pick this one up. You won’t be disappointed!

Go as a River by Shelly Read is a beautiful coming of age story. Victoria is a teenager in 1948. She meets Will, a newcomer to her small Colorado town, and instantly feels a connection to him. But her family, and others in the town, are against Will and their love suddenly ends.

But one ending can sometimes lead to new beginnings, and the end of Victoria and Will brings about the beginning of a new, mature Victoria.

This book is sad, but joy filled. It’s slow, yet heart warming. It’s about family and friends. It’s about forgiveness and understanding. It’s about love and motherhood.

It’s a beautiful book and I highly enjoyed it.

Thank you to #netgalley and #spiegelandgrau for the advanced e-copy of #goasariver.

This book published on February 28, 2023 and is now available where books are sold.

A really complex and beautiful read. Captured me from the beginning with the beautiful setting and Victoria as a character is so beautifully written.
A heartbreaking story but also a story of courage whilst facing life’s difficulties. There is grief, hope and sadness as well as success, love and happiness all mixed in to a great narrative that you kind of get lost in.
This will be a book I will pick up again in future for certain.

I liked this one, but didn't love it. I just didn't connect with the characters and it wasn't one I was excited to come back to reading. The writing was excellent though!

I love nature writing and Shelley Read knocked it out if the park with this one. It’s hard to believe this is her debut novel. The book is so atmospheric and her characters are so well drawn. Simply incredible

Go As The River promises to be a coming-of-age + women’s fiction + historical fiction that packs an emotional punch. Everything I typically love in a book!

I had really high expectations when I started this one, especially with all the hype surrounding this book. Unfortunately, I just couldn’t connect with Victoria or her story.

Victoria develops a special relationship with nature. But the story felt more of an observational telling of the setting around her rather than the deep dive into feelings of resiliency, tenacity, and determination that it takes to survive those conditions. Maybe I needed some internal monologue to connect more - I’m not sure.

Victoria falls in love with Wll Moon, the only Indigenous character in the story. IMO, the story does a disservice having only one Indigenous character. @amy_alwaysreading wrote more on this topic and summarized my thoughts beautifully. Maybe I needed more than one Indigenous character - I’m not sure.

My favorite part of the novel happens in the last 20%, a series of letters. I found these letters quite interesting and engaging. Maybe if these were used throughout the story as a dual timeline, I would have connected more - again, I’m not sure.

Regardless, I know I’m one of the outliers for this one. Not all books are for everybody, and I’m okay with that. Kudos to my friends who loved this one.

I'm going to be thinking of Wil Moon and Victoria Nash for the rest of my life.

Go as a River describes the life of Torie Nash on a peach farm in Colorado (which for some reason, in my head, I thought was Illinois). She meets a young Native man around her age, and love is fast and hard. The life Torie leads and she grows into "Victoria," a woman, is filled with loss and longing. The love Torie and Wil have together is one that would last a lifetime. The writing was beautiful, and I tend to be a bit harsh on writing styles. I really loved their story and couldn't put it down.

Let me start off this review by telling you that I cannot believe this is a debut, it was a 5 star read for me and will probably be in my top ten this year! Some of my bookstagram friends have been telling me to read this and they did not steer me wrong. It will not be easily forgotten and will stay with me for a long time. The writing is beautiful yet very readable. The story is propulsive and heart wrenching. The setting is vivid. This book is basically everything.

Go As A River is the story of Victoria Nash starting in the 1940’s in the Gunnison River Valley of Colorado. Now let me pause here for just a minute to acknowledge this setting. I lived in Colorado for years growing up surrounded by the San Juan mountains in Pagosa Springs. All the little towns mentioned in this book, I knew! Durango, Silverton and Ouray, Montrose, Gunnison… I haven’t been back in many decades so this story was extra special to me for that reason.

Victoria’s story is a story of love and loss, friendship, motherhood, found family and surviving unimaginable circumstances, yet resilience is a theme running through it all. I won’t give you specifics of the story, just know that fans of William Kent Krueger, Where The Crawdads Sing, These Silent Woods and even a little bit of Kristin Hannah will LOVE this one.

Omg this book *sobs*

I loved every page of this book. The setting was exquisite. Victoria is the badass heroine with trauma we all love to love.

I have considered the lives of people who are drowned out by reservoirs before. What a beautiful story to demonstrate the fragility of life and the impermanence of it all.

I recommend this book to anyone who enjoyed Where the Crawdads Sing or who likes Kristin Hannah books, though I can’t imagine anyone who reads this regretting it.

Great debut by Shelley Read! I loved the story as it unfolded, such heartbreak, yet a rendering of lost souls all coming together! I will definitely be watching for future books by this author.

I chose "Go as a River" by Shelley Read for my book club because of its setting in Colorado, where I live, and the intriguing description of a young woman's journey of self-discovery. The book is a powerful memoir that follows Read's life from her rural childhood to her unexpected pregnancy, her experience of giving birth alone in the mountains, and her eventual relocation and struggles to build a new life.

Read's writing is vivid and emotional, capturing the beauty of Colorado's landscapes and the challenges a young woman faces in the mid-20th century. Her story is heart-wrenching and inspiring as she grapples with difficult decisions and life-altering events. The story moved all members of my book club as we discussed the themes of resilience, family, and the connection between humans and nature.

Overall, "Go as a River" is a beautifully written and deeply moving memoir that offers insights into the complexities of human experience—highly recommended for anyone seeking a thought-provoking and emotionally resonant read, especially those interested in Colorado's history and natural beauty.

“Just as a single rainstorm can erode the banks and change the course of a river, so can a single circumstance of a girl’s life erase who she was before (Chapter 10)..” GO AS A RIVER, Shelley Reads debut novel, is a beautifully written, sometimes haunting story of seventeen-year-old Victoria “Torie” Nash. Torie lives in Iola, Colorado, a small town on the banks of the Gunnison River in Colorado. Life is hard on the peach farm. Her father is in mourning for his wife, Her crippled Uncle Og and her older brother Seth live in the house. Torie is a virtual slave cooking, cleaning, etc. As a reader, I fell in love with Read’s writing. Just as a river can meander, have whirlpools, get angry and come out of its banks, Torie finds herself in that whirlpool of life for most of the story. It was an emotional story for me. I laughed. I cried. I was angry about the suffering she endured. I need to let this book rest in my mind for awhile and reread it in a couple of months. My thanks to Spiegel and Grau and NetGalley for an ARC of this book. The opinions in this review are my own.

This book is so beautifully written and totally evokes the sounds, smells and experience of life in this part of the world at this time along with the struggles those living it faced.
I really enjoyed this book and would definitely recommend it.

This book knocked my socks off. The strength of the main character Victoria and all the sacrifices she made in the name of love. I was pulled in from the first Chapters. This was a beautiful book.

Go As a River by Shelley Read is one of my favorite reads in March. It is a breathtakingly beautifully written coming of age book in rural Colorado in the late 1940s to the 1960s. The characterization, conflict development, and use of imagery were all incredibly rich, yet the story felt so accessibly that I flew through its pages. Bigotry, sexism, ageism, and probably several other forms of bigotry were present everywhere, but in Read's gifted writing hands, they never felt heavy-handed or tyrannical. They simply were an inescapable part of the story that shaped Victoria, but they do not, in the end (spoiler!) define her.

The story is hard and emotional, and some episodes seem absolutely impossible. But the true gift of this story is how it highlights the best of humanity in the most unlikely places, places that end up making me say, oh, of course. I cannot wait for Read's next novel.

Thank you @netgalley for the Advanced Reader Copy. This takes place in 1948 on a peach farm in a small town in Colorado. Victoria is 17 and has taken care of her father, uncle and brothers since her mother died. It is not a good situation. When she meets and fall in love with a Native American man who is passing through town, things do not go well. The prejudice is awful, and the book has a lot of sadness along with some hope. The story follows what happens to them and how her life plays out. It's a good story, slow with lots of meaning. #goasariver #shelleyread #bookstagram #booklover #reader #bookblog #lovetoread #fictionreader #bookreview #bookrecommendation #readersofinstagram #bookloversofinstagram #takeapagefrommybook #readallthebooks #booksbooksbooks #historicalfiction #forbiddenlove #netgalley #advancedreaderscopy

Shelley Read's Go As A River is a big bold book that packs a lot into its pages and is hard to summarize, but I would just say "it's about a life". The story starts in 1940's Colorado when young Victoria Nash is intrigued by a stranger passing through her town. The friendship she forms with Wilson Moon will teach her a lot about the world she lives in, it's prejudices and struggles. And their meeting will profoundly change the direction of her life.

I don't want to summarize the story, because letting it unfold before you is so much more pleasurable. I will post about a couple of impressions. I don't think books like this get published that often anymore. It is a story about times in the not too distant past, but rings true and heartfelt. What makes it rise above other books is the author's writing. It is lyrical, and I would argue that her title, "Go As A River", which has meaning in the story, also could be used to describe her writing style. If you slow down and give it time to seduce you, you will drift slowly but happily away on the words of this story, as they lead you through one life.

I give this disclaimer because my usual reading style is mysteries with a lot of action. The story seemed to start off slow to me, but in reality, this is just the author's storytelling style, and if you let yourself enjoy the pace, it may enchant you as it did me.

As a read I would rate this 4.5, but I think it's an extraordinary effort by a debut novelist, so on writing prowess I am giving it five stars.

Thank you to author Shelley REad, her publisher, and NetGalley for allowing me to read this ARC.

As I read this I kept putting it down as the first 1/3 didn’t really peak my interest. However I’m glad I kept coming back to reading it as the struggles Torie/Victoria faced in this time period were so gripping I had to know more. A wonderful coming of age story that brings two mothers together. 3.5 stars