I loved this sapphic romance.

Historical romance is tough for me sometimes. Especially a queer love story, but it was delivered beautifully.

Special thanks to NetGalley and Ylva Publishing for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I personally am not a fan of books where the main pairing has a really large maturity/emotional age gap. I felt like the relationship between the two women was always very one-sided and I was not a fan.

In 1899 two women (Kicker Stuart & Madelyn Bristow) fall in love and this love sends them on a journey to the New World where they search for freedom to live and love who they choose to love.

I really enjoyed this novel. I initially downloaded it because I loved the cover. Then I read the synopsis and internally groaned, I am not usually a fan of historical fiction. The fact the novel was a lesbian story coerced me read it. The book was well written and you can't help but fall in love with Kicker and her ethics immediately. While I was reading it, I thought about it often and could hardly wait until the next block of time I had carved out to be able to read again. The characters were well developed, and this helps draw me in as a reader especially if I can relate to them, but I felt as if I personally knew them. The setting was described in enough detail to understand the hardships and the environment but not so much that it was boring. I would recommend this book, although in my mind it is a romance at it's heart not so much a historical fiction. Thank you to NetGalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Historical Fiction is one of my favorite genres. I’ve always loved reading about history, historical characters, and the way folks lived in the past. Add in a lovely Sapphic romance, and I’m hooked. That’s why I was so pleased to get my hands on Kicker’s Journey by Lois Cloarec Hart.

This novel takes place in the late 1800’s into the early 1900’s and takes us from England into the wild and mostly untamed lands of Western Canada. It tells us about the love story of two very different women, Kicker Stuart and Madelyn Bristow. The two meet at a Grindleshire Academy for Young Ladies in England. Kicker is a farrier and hostler in the school’s stables and Madelyn works as a teacher. The two meet, fall in love, and end up traveling over the ocean and into Western Canada in search of a place to live where they can be together.

I truly enjoyed this story. It is an older book, written several years ago. In fact, it was originally written as fan fiction which may have something to do with the length, though I am not complaining about that at all. The setting is everything I look for in a tale like this. The characters are written realistically for their time period and circumstances. I especially connected with Kicker in the story.
If you are looking for a great historical fiction/romance tale set in both England and Canada, then try this book.

I received an ARC from NetGalley and Ylva Publishing for an honest review

Kickers Journey, a book about love and self discovery wasn’t as appealing as the description made it out to be. The author writes well and the author does an excellent job with the historical aspects of the book, but for the time period and location she chose this book is super unrealistic so much so that it was even difficult to pretend with the book. The book was difficult to read because of it is predictable, repetitive and has unnecessary conflict. Like these two unaccompanied women move here and then become the darlings of the towns richest and most influential family. No one ever suspects they are together and those that do just so happen to be gay as well. Overall everything in the book just seemed too perfect down to how the conflict was resolved. Also Maddie is the worst protagonist I have ever read she is completely selfish and mean to Kicker who should have told her to go back to England when she came back after leaving. So yeah the story was far fetched the characters were okay although not truly developed well. The book moves at a very slow pace and it is not worth it in the end. I see that this was published many years ago so perhaps the author has become a better storyteller.

I received this book as an ARC from NetGalley and YLVA Books in exchange for an honest review.

DNF: %20. I'm upset with myself for this one, truly. I wanted to like the book so much, and had been eager to read with help from the rest of the glowing reviews... but I just could not get past the cringe worthy dialogue. It's written in what I suppose is "era-correct slang", but it took me too far out of the story to just ignore it and hunker down for the story line. I'm disappointed. I wish I had not had such an adverse reaction to the admittedly creative style of dialogue present in this book. It was just too heavy handed for me to get over. I've read plenty of historical fiction with period appropriate speech between characters, but this was too much. I'm sure this is a fantastic read for those who don't have to argue with their self-sabotaging brains every other line to carry on reading like I did. I feel like this may be a helpful distinction for some who are interested in reading this book.

It took a while to warm up to this book, but I enjoy historical fiction with LGBTQIA+ protagonists so I did not bail. What I found was a nuanced story about the hardships of moving to a rural environment, the expectations we have of our partners, and the compromises we make for the sake of love.

I absolutely loved this book! It captivating and unique, with the added bonus of being decently historically accurate. I can't remember the last time I was this excited about reading a book. The plot was engaging all the way through. It was brilliantly written and drew me in from the very beginning. However, the main characters' friendship developed quite rapidly, going from the encounter at the train station to a secret courtship in just a “few” pages. I think this might have made it harder for readers to form a deep emotional bond with their relationship. In my opinion, a more thoughtful approach that explored their shared interests and took the time to develop their connection gradually would have left a stronger and more lasting impact on readers.

The problems that the two main characters encounter are ones that have been proven timeless. Today, there are still those that have to hide their relationships for their own safety or feel unworthy of certain situations because of their fiscal status. There is a trope within the LGBQ community that sapphic stories, in particular, don’t have happy endings. Sometimes, this is a true reflection of the world we live in. Not all trials and tribulations are overcome just because we love someone. Sometimes, relationships crumble under such scrutinies. Fortunately, this relationship overcame those hurdles and gave us a very rare happy ending. I would have appreciated a well rounded epilogue! Overall, it was still a fantastic read! I could not recommend it more.

The setting for this historical fiction was the late 19th century England. Kicker Stuart was a sweet and gentle young lady, a commoner, skilled with horses who worked as a hostler at the Grindleshine Academy For Young Ladies. Madelyn Bristow, highly educated, from an affluent family, joined the school as a teacher. Kicker taught the new teacher how to ride a horse and Madelyn taught Kicker how to read. They became friends, frequently riding together and eventually fell in love.

Because of the social restrictions and their social differences, Madelyn knew she and Kicker could never have a life together if they stayed there. She convinced Kicker to join her on a journey to Canada where they could be free and reinvent themselves in a new life together, exploring the many opportunities that her good friend had written to her about her life since she had moved to Canada. They posed as cousins, as part of a well thought-out ruse.

Life in Canada wasn’t as simple as Madelyn believed it would be. There were joys, but the struggles were many. The book had a lot of depth as I enjoyed the many experiences and facets of their life, many wonderful secondary characters, some endearing and some foes who were threats to their safety. Their love was strong but they had to face brutal winters, threats of fires and their own disagreements over decisions about whether they should stay or give up and return to England.

I listened to the audiobook. Even though it’s 17 hours long, I devoured it, not wanting it to end. It was an emotional adventure that led me, someone who never cries, to tears of sadness and tears of joy. The story is so compelling and the incredible narrator, Amy Landon, doubled my enjoyment of the book with her soft, sweet voices. I simply melted whenever I heard Maddie’s softly-spoken endearment of Kicker, “dearest,” and Kicker’s sweet reply of, “aye.”

I more than heartily loved this book and thank Ylva-Publishers and NetGalley for the arc in exchange for my honest review.

This book reminded me of an old school epic film from the 50s that would've starred someone like Elizabeth Taylor or Debra Kerr. But would've had some boring man be the romantic hero. Which is so not what I'm here for. Lucky for me Hart wrote Kicker a FMC with such personality that I'd die if they made th8s into a movie.

Aside from all that gushing, I did have to read this sweeping story over 3 days because if I didn't I would've never left my house. Its just that good.

Thank you to NetGalley and Ylva Publishing for providing an eARC for a honest review.

Epic adventure romance, aptly named (4.5 stars)
I'd been curious about this book for years and hadn't gotten around to reading it until now. I'm glad I waited.
It took me a little while to get used to the author's writing style and the character voices, some of whom dropped letters in the words of their dialogue due to their social class and the local accent, but once I was acclimated I was totally sucked into the story, cheering for Kicker, feeling for her as her life undergoes massive upheavals in a short period of time. She's a charming main character and easy to care about. I rooted for her happiness more than any other character's even though there were plenty of other characters to get attached to and invested in. The book is long and the arc of the story is epic and at times has a cinematic feel to it, easy to imagine right down to the music soundtrack playing in the background for certain scenes. I chuckled frequently while reading and got teared up a few times but when a part of the story made me outright bawl it caught me by surprise to realize how invested in Kicker and the other characters I had become. Chapters are long but many have scene breaks within them if you need to stop reading before the chapter end. There was one plot thread whose resolution I guessed ahead of time but loads of others where I had no idea where the story would go or ultimately end up. It kept me interested throughout and, while a few very minor questions lingered in my mind after I finished (that could have been addressed in an epilogue chapter), overall, I was satisfied with the way the story ended and happy to have gone on this adventure with these characters. Now I am curious to read more by this author to see what other stories have been put to print.
I loved the feel of the story, clearly well researched but written in an easy to read way rather than a slew of historical facts strung together in narration or dialogue. I also appreciated reading an older story absent of emojis and text messages but with characters who have communication issues all the same, at the turn of the century, and mostly set outside of the usual big city locale choices for many wlw stories. There's humor, romance, drama and horses seasoning the wealthy city mouse/poor country mouse dynamic of main characters Madelyn and Kicker; of the two Kicker was always my favorite and Madelyn had her likable moments but some less than stellar ones as well.
If you're wanting to read a sweeping adventure romance partly set in small-town Alberta Canada that does not sugarcoat the difficulty of unaccompanied (by men) women travelling to and settling in a new country in 1900 era, and taking a break from modern technology give this one a read. Be aware of the long chapters and if you're likely to get pulled into the story as I was (unexpectedly) then have a box of tissues handy in case there are tears while reading and also set a timer so you're not up late at night reading having completely lost track of time (especially on a school/work night).