Beautifully written! Debut author! The title is perfect for this book.

The cadence and writing of this book is perfect for the story.

I'm really not sure how to write a review for this book. It really has captured my heart.

The audiobook was narrated by Cynthia Farrell who did a wonderful job.

Thank you to NetGalley for approving my request to review Go as a River by Shelley Read in exchange for an honest review. Also thank you to the publisher Spiegel & Grau by OrangeSky Audio for approving my request to review the advance read/listen copy.

Highly recommended and looking forward to future novels by Shelley Read.

A solid debut novel. A historical fiction, coming-of-age novel that follows a teenage girl post WWII and then chance encounter that changes the course of her life. Well drawn characters and a compelling story drive a story that keeps the reader truly interested in how it all turns out.

Go as a River by Shelley Read is a beautifully written, poignant story about one woman’s journey after a fateful choice that changed her life forever.

Story Recap:
Victoria Nash is a teenager in the 1940s living on her family's peach farm. As the only woman in the family, she learned to run the household early. She meets a mysterious stranger in town, Wilson Moon (Wil), a young drifter from the local tribal lands. Although dusty and grimy, Will has kind eyes and Will and Victoria are immediately drawn to each other. However, a white woman with a native man is not acceptable to many in those times and tragedy ensues.

My Thoughts:
Hard to believe this novel is written by a debut author. The writing is beautiful and drew me right in. I also loved the setting of southwest Colorado. I’ve visited that area of the country many times, and some of the locations of the story are very familiar to me.

The blurb didn’t grab me and when I got to this book, I wasn’t excited to read it. But, from the very first page, the writing and the story drew me in and I found myself engrossed in the story immediately. It’s also a book I continue to think about long after I read the last page.

Recommendation:
I highly recommend Go As a River to anyone who enjoys fiction. I received a complimentary copy of this book. The opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

Go As a River follows Victoria from her young days growning up on her families peach farm to her uprooting the peach tress and moving them to a different town in Colorado. Victoria meets and falls in love with a young man Will, who is a Native American. Will is brutilly murder by her brother and his friend one night. Vitctoria then finds herself in a family way and is unable to let her dad about it. Victoria decides to keep her pregnancy a secret until she can no longer hide it. She then packs what she needs and heads to the little hut that she and Will would meet. Knowing that she can't take care of her newborn son, Victoria leaves him in the backseat of a car that has parked by the river to have a picnic. This is a very good book and I would defintly recommend to our book club book. This books has so many topics wrapped up in one book. Interracial relastionships, adoption, family bonds, Vietnam War, drug abuse. These are all great topics in a book to discuss as a group.

I had very little that connected me to this book and the writing did not help me feel more connected. Set mostly in the 1950's and 1960's in Colorado, Victoria has made choices that profoundly changed her life. As she gets older she is completely on her own but has one huge regret. Readers who like descriptive writing, especially about nature and land, will be drawn to this book.

An incredibly moving and at times heartbreaking debut story of a young woman's life growing up in a small Colorado town. Life on her family's peach tree farm following the Second World War is often lonely for Victoria Nash, especially after her mother dies and she's left with only her father and brother for company. When a mysterious Indigenous boy comes to town, Torrie can't help but befriend him leading to a forbidden interracial romance that ends with fatal consequences.

Told over the span of decades, we get to see just how much strength one woman has in the face of incredible loss and the sacrifices she's willing to make in order to save the ones she loves. Ultimately a story about motherhood, loss, and love. I couldn't put this one down and highly recommend it for fans of books like Where the crawdad sings. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early digital and audio copy in exchange for my honest review!

Set amid Colorado’s wild beauty, a heartbreaking coming-of-age story of a resilient young woman whose life is changed forever by one chance encounter. A tragic and uplifting novel of love and loss, family and survival—and hope

Go As a River is a story about forbidden love, a mother's toughest choice, an adoption. Read's writing is beautifully descriptive. I could picture the mountains and wilderness so easily and almost taste those Nash peaches. Some parts of the book reminded me a little bit of Where The Crawdads Sing, The Great Alone and Great Circle. Maybe because all of these books have a similar theme going. They are all tragic stories and they are about perseverance and survival no matter the cost. This story spans decades from the 40s to the 70s. It is an engrossing and moving tale. I cannot exactly pinpoint why it is not a 5 star read for me. I just wanted more. It is getting great reviews and I think I might be in the minority.

Torie is a motherless teenager and falls in love with a native American boy named Wilson Moon. Their love is doomed from the beginning. After Torie loses Will in a bloodchilling way, and finds herself pregnant she has to leave the only home she's ever known and learn to survive. But she has to make the hardest decision for her baby boy and leaves her with another mother. Inga raises baby Moon as her own. Torie turns back home to find her father sick. After her father passes away, Torie sells the land to the government. But she cannot bring herself to let the peach orchard stay under dam waters so she finds a botany professor and carries the orchard one tree at a time to a new location and starts a new life there. She finally makes friends and years later lets her friend in on her big secret.

Go as a River by Shelley Read was a powerful, tender and compelling coming of age story about love, loss, motherhood, bigotry and survival. Victoria is a character to root for and one you won’t soon forget.

In small towns, any outsider is immediately seen, sized up and often loathed for no other reason than his or her differences. When Victoria stumbles into dark skinned Wil, she sees a kindness in him that she’s never seen before. He is immediately ostracized by the community along with Victoria’s brother who see’s nothing but his otherness.

This is what initially drives the story forward followed by monumental and life-altering choices that Victoria makes as she pushes forward through the life. The peaches on the cover have great symbolism and Victoria’s care of them in insurmountable. Watching Victoria grow from Torie to Victoria and become a strong, independent woman made for a beautiful story.

The second half of the book moves much faster than the first, but the first half sets the scenarios for the story. I really enjoyed this book and think it’ll make a fabulous book club pick. Also, I had to Google to find out if peaches could really grow in Colorado, and alas, they certainly can. Who knew?

LINKS to come!

After her mother's death, 17 year old Victoria Nash becomes the woman of the house in the town of Iola, Colorado during the 1940s. She lives and cares for her father, brother, and disabled uncle, cooking, cleaning, and helping them tend to the successful family peach farm.

But when she meets Wilson Moon - a young man passing through town, displaced from his tribal land - everything changes. The two fall in love, and the course of Victoria's life changes when racism finds its way between them. What follows is a tale of love, loss, and loneliness that had me in its grip from the start.

Tenderly told, with so much longing for what could've been, as well as what could still be, <i>Go as a River</i> quickly and quietly became my favorite book so far this year.

I was born and raised in Colorado, so I tend to gravitate towards books that are set here and also judge them for any inaccuracies. Shelley Read obviously did her research for the book. I asked my mom and dad about various aspects and they confirmed the validity (as well as a good google search lol). This story was heartbreaking but I loved it. Shelley Read is no doubt an author to keep an eye on if her debut novel has already made such a great impression.

This is beautiful literary fiction. This novel reminded me so,’so much of Where the Crawdads Sing as the descriptions of nature and the land are so poignant and emotional that the landscape becomes a character. Go as a River tells the story of Victoria, the daughter of a peach farmer in Iola, Colorado. Her life is marked by tragedy, and she is forced to be a caregiver for her family after the death of her mother. Horrific event after horrific event follows, and Victoria comes to realize that the only person she can count on is herself. This novel has moments that are very tough to read, but if ends on a hopeful note and is a truly beautiful story. I hope this book finds the acclaim it deserves!

Thank you so much to Spiegel & Grau for the ARC!

WOW- this was such a moving and heartbreaking story! I'd highly recommend this for fans of THE GREAT ALONE or WHERE THE CRAWDADS SING. It just gave me those comforting vibes!

The story is mainly focused around Victoria who is as strong as she is brave. She endured hardship after hardship and made decisions that broke my heart. Every other character was well portrayed and so unique. I wish we could have had more time with some of them and learned more about their backstory or had chapters from their perspectives.

Ultimately, my only complaint would be that I wanted this story to go on and on! There is so much of her life packed in here that sometimes I feel like it flew too fast. That being said, I will still easily recommend to this book to everyone!

4.5 stars rounded up to 5 for GR

I love finding a new literary voice that reminds me why I am a reader. Shelley Read is that writer and Go as a River is the debut novel you will want to find next week when it publishes. If you loved This Tender Land or Where the Crawdads Sing this is a good pick for you, but Go as a River also stands firmly on its own as an original work of art. So much of this story is a spoiler, but here’s what I can tell you: Victoria Nash is a seventeen year-old living and working on a rural Colorado peach farm when she meets a boy passing through her town who will change her life forever. Lyrical, sad, wistful, and evocative, this is a stunning debut. Thank you, Shelley, and to the publisher Spiegel & Grau, as well as Edelweiss and Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review.

Incredible debut!!! I was immersed into this book right from the first page!!!

1940s Colorado

Torie lives on a peach farm with her dad, brother and uncle who was injured in the war. A chance meeting with Wilson will change her life forever!!

Highly recommend this book!!!

What a beautiful coming of age story that covers love, loss, grief, resilience and so much more! Some parts were more drawn out than I would have preferred, where as I wanted more of other parts. Overall,, this story was well written and I’d definitely read it again! Thank you for the opportunity to read this debut!

Go Like a River is a beautiful, almost poetic, novel of literary/historical fiction. When I saw the mention of the book resembling Where the Crawdads Sing, I just had to read it. While both are lyrical and immerse the reader in nature, they are two entirely different stories. I found this story to be darker and more depressing. The first half of the book was a tough read, but I really enjoyed the last half. Although I’m happy with how the story finished, the ending came abruptly and left me wanting more. While reading, I often stopped and reread many passages, savoring the author’s words and emotions. The main character, Victoria, is dealt many losses in her young life, but her strength and resilience were inspiring, and her story is well worth reading. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC. Wishing you much success with the novel!

“But if these mountains had taught me anything, it’s that the land endures, riding out human folly when it must, reclaiming itself when it is able, and moving on.”

The setting is a family peach farm in a small Colorado ranch town in the 1940s, and the orchard and surrounding landscape play a pivotal and evocative role in this gorgeous debut novel. A peach itself, rough and textured on the outside containing tender and sweet flesh, was the perfect metaphor for this narrative.
We meet Victoria Nash, a teenager who has been the sole homemaker at the farm for 4 years following the loss of her mother, aunt and cousin. Generations of troubled and complicated men set a framework for how she navigates her world. A chance encounter with a mysterious young man sets this story on track, where Victoria’s journey of self discovery and survival develops at a frenetic pace. Her joys and sorrows along the way are volatile and at times heartbreaking but the way in which Ms. Read enhances each event with generosity and compassion is perhaps her greatest achievement. Revealing more details would rob the reader of a thought provoking experience which I thoroughly enjoyed.

Sure to be this Spring’s book club darling, devotees of This Tender Land by William Kent Krueger will especially savor Go As a River.

Thanks to NetGalley and Spiegel & Grau Publishing for the opportunity to read this in advance in exchange for my honest review.

Thanks to Spiegel & Grau for the copy of this ARC!

This is a really tender, beautiful story set in rural Colorado starting in 1948. Victoria works on her family’s peach farm and one day falls in love with Wilson Moon, a Native American who is NOT welcome in the community and actually gets placed in wanted ads around town. This story blends a coming of age story with motherhood, acceptance, racism, land rights, adoption, residential schools, family drama, nature, and friendship. It’s pieced together incredibly well to make it lyrical, beautiful, heartbreaking, and a really special story spanning decades.

Read if you:
- enjoy impactful historical fiction
- are a mother
- want your heart to be both broken and squeezed

Every once in a blue moon a book comes along that you just have to sit with awhile after you finish to let it really sink in, absorb it all. This was one of those blue moons…and from a debut author, no less.

First and foremost, Read’s writing is simply beautiful. Evocative and emotional (without being overly maudlin), it transported me both physically and mentally into the setting and dynamics of the story. The descriptions of nature were especially visceral with elements of both deep wisdom and whimsy all at once. There were so many haunting and lyrical passages that I gave up trying to highlight them all as it just served to distract me from the easy flow of the narrative. Writing and imagery this well done is a true gift for a reader.

Like Victoria Nash, I fell in love with Wilson Moon on the corner of North Laura and Main Street, and there was no turning back. The characters in this story, especially Victoria, Wilson and Ruby-Alice are achingly real and so very well fleshed out. I felt for them, wept with them, cheered for them and hurt with them. Through tragedies and triumphs, ebbs and flows, they were so very real and deeply rooted that I honestly had the strange feeling that I might have met them somewhere before.

I won’t talk too much here about the storyline as it needs to be experienced on a personal level by each reader. But there’s an iconic peach orchard, a mountain cabin haven, and a river that can’t be tamed, as well as messy family and social issues. The first chapter lured me in, beginning with a sentence that set the tone for the entire storyline. And I never looked back.

Highly recommended. I’m already looking forward to the re-read.

My heartfelt thanks to the author, NetGalley and Spiegel and Grau for providing the free early arc of Go as a River for review. The opinions are strictly my own.

OH! How this novel pulled at every heartstring I think I can/could/may/might/would feel! Go as a River is an emotional roller coaster ride with imagery so vivid, I was transported to every location with each descriptive sentence, feeling every heartbeat, and every heartache.

Taking place in rural Colorado between the 1940's and 1970's, this coming of age novel deals with both the depth of loss and of becoming, as well as the social, moral, and political issues of the American West (and westward expansion) at that time. Additionally, I fell for this book is because it also touches on a bit of our American history I hadn't known - the drowning of several Colorado towns buried under governmental river reservoir projects. I love it when an author writes historical fiction so well, you must seek out what is truth verses fiction for yourself!

Read's novel not only challenges extreme loss and strength of self, but the ideology of self worth. "but in the known world, each step surely unfurls the next, and we must walk into that open space, mapless and without invitation. Right or wrong, my next step lay before me, and I tried my best to trust it." There are just too many favorite quotes from this debut novel of Shelley Read, so rich with feeling and perspective! After reading this particular quote, though, I felt it really sums up the book without giving away any true spoilers:
"the unforeseen ripple effects of an honest act do not make the choice less truthful".

I really do not want to give any spoilers away, as I was treated to an advanced reader copy from Net Galley and the publisher. What I do want is for you to run out and grab this book as soon as it hits the shelves on February 28th!