I actually haven't listened to or read this yet. We selected it for one of our library book clubs later in the year, so I'm waiting for that. The book has been so popular, especially here in Colorado. I love telling people about this book.

“Go as a River” by Shelley Read is an auspicious debut—a historical fiction novel set in the mountain town of Iola during the construction of the Blue Mesa Dam in the 1960s. The dam eventually flooded the town to create a reservoir, displacing hundreds of multigenerational family farmers. Through the singular narrative of Victoria Nash, a fictional peach farmer, we witness the heartache of relocation and loss. Read’s evocative writing captures both Colorado’s rugged wilderness and the landscapes of her characters’ troubled hearts. This novel resonates with courage, resilience, and the transformative power of love, even in the face of hardship.

I wanted to like this more. The story is sad and beautiful. The writing is great. Yet, somehow, I felt like I didn't connect with Victoria. It was somehow detached. By the reviews, it is a me thing. So don't let my lack of exuberance keep you from reading.

Cynthia Farrell narrates the audiobook. No complaints there.

I received an audio copy in exchange for an honest review.

this was okay, but read very juvenile and i didn't feel connected to the characters or what happens to them at all. i can see other reader enjoying this a lot tho!

— thanks to the publisher and netgalley for the free digital ARC.

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

Go As a River has become a #bookstagram darling, and there’s a reason why. It’s just so dang good.

It’s the story of Victoria, a teenager growing up in the mountains of Colorado. She falls in love with a Native American young man in a time and place where an interracial relationship was not okay in her community.

It’s a beautifully written coming of age story, but even more for me it was a love story to the land. The descriptions were evocative and vivid, and it made me homesick in a way a book never has. I raised my family in this same area and I could see and smell it as I was reading.

I was thrilled to attend an event where @shelleyread.author talked about the book, read a few passages, and it made this even better. I’m so happy for you (and your husband), Shelley!

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⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

WOW, this was one of the best books I have read in 2023 so far. This had everything that I truly enjoy in a book, a touching story, redemption, so much raw emotion, This book follows Victoria in the 1940's who works on her families peach farm- one day she meets Wilson Moon and falls in love. Unfortunately something terrible happens and Victoria has to leave the farm, which ultimately leads to her making one of the hardest decisions of her life. We get to see every emotion she's felt from beginning to end- and even get a new POV that explains how Victoria's choices affected another family so deeply. I loved this novel because we get to see Victoria so young and forced with so much loss- and how she has learn to overcome those obstacles and create a better life for herself and her community.

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.

Listened to this as I drove back and forth to work. Great story! Wonderful narrator!

I loved the story as it unfolded, such heartbreak, yet a rendering of lost souls all coming together! Highly recommend this author's debut!

We chose this as our BOOK OF THE MONTH April 2023

Once in a while, you come across a novel that really captures something special, that evidences real talent and inventiveness. This novel is one such book. The storytelling is sublime and the plot is heart rending. thoughtful and searingly emotionally intelligent.

Victoria Nash is growing up in Iola, a town that is eventually sacrificed for the greater good, drowned under a reservoir. Here, her life without her mother, who died in a car accident when she was young, proves challenging, as it is a male dominated household. She is tormented and controlled by her brother Seth, and her function as a female, essentially, is to minister to the needs of the men and keep house. After all, this is the 1940/50s. The family mainly farms peaches, an unusual but piquant variety, that her grandfather planted many years ago – a Nash peach is a thing of beauty and taste.

One day she meets a stranger and this encounter alters the trajectory of her life.

This is very much a story of its time, stretching through 1940 -1970, when people other than white people suffered a great deal, when a woman’s place was in the home and, as the story moves along, the author sets a backdrop of the Apollo missions and the Vietnam War. Did you know that one way the U.S. government conscripted young men into the army, to fight in Vietnam, was by pulling random dates of birth out of a hat and if you birthday was announced, you had no choice but to join the army? Frightening (and that is why I love reading fiction, because you often pick up little nuggets of information and get you thinking!)

This is a very carefully plotted and nuanced novel that delves into the souls of the characters, that is multifaceted in its choice of themes, and that is so very readable. It is a study of loss and rootlessness, of stoicism nurture, and womanhood and it all comes together so very well.

The sense of place is all about the natural setting, the mountains, the valley in which Iola sits, the breeze through the peach trees, the fragrance of the blossom, the harsh weather and the majesty of the natural environment.

I heartily recommend this read (and yes, you will see comparisons to Where The Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens, rightfully so!). This will deservedly by big in 2023. And I don’t think I will now pick up a peach without thinking of this novel.

This is a novel to watch in 2023

GORGEOUS.

Tori Nash is a teenager in Iola, Colorado, trying to keep her male-dominated family stay on the right track after tragedy left her motherless. Wilson Moon comes along and it's love at first sight, besides one major problem - he's Native American. The reader is taken along through decades of Victoria's life, through tragedies, births, deaths, and friendships.

This was a beautifully written piece of fiction that really truly lives up to the claim that "Shelley Read’s lyrical voice is a force of nature…. Completely unforgettable". I'm left a little speechless as I don't have much to report when I feel this content about a novel. I have nothing to tear apart and write paragraphs on the right way to write a book (I have no idea what I'm talking about, for the record).

The characters are well-rounded and three dimensional, where I found myself hating some (I'm looking at you, Seth) and loving others. It reminds me of how I felt reading Where The Crawdads Sing. The scenes are written so beautifully and fully that the reader can paint the picture of Iola and it's surrounding areas in its entirety.

Shelley Read will absolutely be on my radar in the future, as she has a true talent for writing fiction.

CW: racial slurs and very problematic writing of a Native character.

I took major issue with the way that this book was using slurs to describe the Indigenous character of this book, even though the book is situated in a historic setting (post-WWII Colorado). Several characters even "mis-race" the character, which opens up even more slurs used against him. While it's clear that the characters using the slurs aren't great people, I still though this was very problematic.

In addition, the characters felt underdeveloped and the Indigenous character felt like a token character, and this just felt really uncomfortable to me.

This was a beautiful book of loss and survival. Reminiscent of Kristin Hannah’s novels. It took a bit of time for me to get into it but once it picked up I couldn’t stop reading.

“If this makes you wonder whether the joys and pains of a place wash away as the flood waters rise and swallow, I can tell you they do not”

3.75 stars

The story starts in 1940s era Iola, Colorado on the Nash family peach farm. After losing her mother at a young age, Victoria becomes the only woman of the house, taking care of the men and navigating growing up on her own. After a chance connection in town blossoms into more, Victoria's life changes forever and it takes decades for truth and acceptance to be found.

I will start by saying the writing is vivid and full of sensory details. The prose flows almost like a river itself. One beautiful line was “My secret tickled at my insides as if I had swallowed a spiraling feather”
It was at times like a wave of figurative language describing settings, and if this book were adapted to educational settings, would have many excerpts that could be analyzed to explore metaphors, similes, etc.

Go as a River explores important thematic concepts such as feminism, independence, community, and inclusion. There were snippets of key historical context surrounding war drafts and gender equality progress that characters touched on but I would have loved to see deeper connections to. I also wish there was more reflection/revealed on Wilson Moon's background. I wanted more of his character and his representation, and wisdom. One of my favorite quotes from the book was when he said "No land has corners."

Overall, an emotional, gripping story that I was wishing for more of once it was over.

Thank you to NetGalley, the author and publishing team for an audio version of the work.

I really enjoyed this book, I loved the story and Tori and I could not stop listening. I also really enjoyed the narrator.

I really liked this story. It was very poignant and beautifully written. My heart broke for Victoria throughout this whole story. The only thing missing for me was Victoria and Lucas reuniting at that end.... I wish there was another chapter to wrap that up. I didn't like that was how the story ended was them walking to each other and that was it. My own selfish reasoning is just wanting to see closure on that but still worth the read and on my favorite list.

How many lives have to be ruined because of race? How can someone think it is ok to brutally murder someone due to their race? You will ask these questions multiple times while reading this book. If you don't like someone, then please just move along.
If you liked the book Where the Crawdads Sing, I think you will enjoy this story as well.

i'm going to keep this review short & sweet, but i really enjoyed shelley read's sweeping coming of age novel 'go as a river'. the story follows victoria nash, a young girl in small town colorado who helps her family run their peach farm. when a chance encounter with wilson moon, an indigenous man with a troubled past, alters both their lives, tragedy strikes and victoria is forced to flee to the nearby mountains. she struggles to survive in the wilderness and learns more about herself, and what the future holds for her family & her beloved peach farm. 'go as a river' is a heavy story of loss & grief & struggle, but shows one woman's resiliance to maker her way no matter what life throws at her. this had the beautiful descriptions of rural spaces that i loved about 'where the crawdads sing', and i was rooting for victoria every step of the way. this is not one to miss!

Go as a River by Shelley Read is a Historical Fiction Story with a Different Feel to It!

The past five years, seventeen-year-old Victoria Nash has been relegated to running the household on her family's peach ranch after her mother's untimely death. As the only living female in her family, this responsibility is expected, without question.

Victoria doesn't have time to dream of a life outside the family ranch. This changes when she meets Wilson Moon, a stranger passing through town. She's attracted to his kindness, his unique looks, and believes they're meant to be together.

The love they share is risky but the lessons Wilson teaches Victoria about the flow of the river will sustain her through her hardships, ease the pain of her losses, and guide her to find her niche in life.

Go as a River is a Historical Fiction story that has a different feel to it. It's a woman's story, but there's so much more. The four decades of the 20th century it's set in, the small rural Colorado community and location, the tedious and arduous pace of ranch-life, and the images the author's writing creates and stirs in my head are ones I couldn't stop thinking about.

It's hard to believe Go as a River is a debut novel. The writing is beautifully picturesque, despite a flicker of purple-prose in the beginning chapters that softens as the story progresses. The characters are well-developed and diverse, the setting is so well-described that you visualize the rugged terrain of the mountains, feel the heat of the sun, and smell the ripeness of the warm peaches the author writes about so lovingly.

Topics of racism and prejudice are depicted as harsh as the landscape of the Colorado wilderness and coalesce to feel as deep and frigid as the Gunnison River. Victoria is both resilient and brave and as her memory intently holds Wilson's words "Go as a river", she knows she is meant to always move forward with her life to find a better way.

The audiobook narrator, Cynthia Farrell, does a fine job with her narration, never skipping a beat with character voicing, and giving life and believability to the main character, Victoria.

Historical Fiction is not a genre I read often as most feel so similar, but after discovering, and listening to this one, I'll definitely look for more. I highly recommend Go as a River to those who love Historical Fiction and to readers, like me, who prefer HF that feels a little different!

4.5 stars!

Thank you to NetGalley, OrangeSky Audio, and Shelley Read for an ALC of this book. It has been an honor to give my honest and voluntary review.

5-star books for me must have a character or characters that I love and a story that I can’t stop reading or thinking about. In Go As a River, Victoria is so brave and her story will tug at your heartstrings. Her resilience and desire to always think of others before herself is admirable and I couldn’t stop thinking about this book every time I put it down.

Summary: Victoria Nash is a teenager working on her family’s peach farm in the 1940’s when she meets Wilson Moon, a drifter with a mysterious past. They fall in love quickly and when tragedy strikes, Victoria is forced to flee and survive on her own in a small hut in the wilderness. She eventually realizes that she won’t make it on her own and that her community is in danger due to the rising of the Gunnison River. Go As a River is the story of Victoria’s resilient quest to find love and stability as she navigates many losses.

The audio of Go As a River was very well done! When people ask for audiobook recommendations, this is one I will be sharing with them!

Audiobook.
What a poetic, written, and descriptive story this is. It is mesmerizing storytelling.
Life for her is tough. In this coming of age story set in 1940s Colorado. This story revolves around 12 yr old Victoria (Torie) who works on her family's peach farm. She is the only female from when 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. After meeting a “half-breed” life changes. With little confidence in the males in her family she leaves the farm.

What one small decision to fall in love with someone that is not a local leads to a life of lonliness . Where will these choices take her will she ever come to terms that give her peace.

Thank you NetGalley for this amazing ARC.