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bree_of_the_woods's review
challenging
dark
informative
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent, War, Violence, Child death, and Murder
Moderate: Sexual assault and Animal cruelty
saribee's review against another edition
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
For a kid obsessed with Kirsten the American girl doll, Little house on the prairie, and anything else dealing with pioneers and westward expansion who is now all grown up, this book checked nearly all the boxes. This was everything I loved reading as a kid but more grown up with more intensity, more mature themes, more heart wrenching storylines. My main complaint is the pacing is frustrating. The first 25 percent drags. Then 50 percent is brisk. The last 25 percent should be done in one setting while you try not to bite your fingernails from the tension. It has just enough literary-ness to feel sophisticated while remaining accessible.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Sexual assault, Child death, Murder, and War
voyage_of_a_time_wanderer's review against another edition
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Kidnapping, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual assault, Grief, and Death
booksandjaime's review
adventurous
emotional
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death of parent, Sexual assault, Death, and Child death
in_love_with_bookish's review
emotional
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.0
I’m blown away by how much I didn‘t care. I sure as hell surprised myself with my reaction to this story. I felt underwhelmed, distanced, and indifferent and I just don’t know where all of it came from.
We spend our lives complicating what we would do better to accept. Because in acceptance, we put our energies into transcendence.
Where the Lost Wander is the type of story that should rip my heart to pieces and make me sob but I felt nothing. The disconnection was unreal and as much as I tried to care, I simply couldn’t. I knew how I was supposed to feel about the story but I did not feel any of it.
I understand what people are loving the story, It is a story about loss, family, grief and it’s an epic love story as well. A lot of people can relate to that easily and Amy Harmon has a beautiful writing style that just hits hard and deep.
It is impossible to explain to someone who is surrounded by their own language and people just how lonely it is to not understand and to not be understood.
For me, I really struggled to engage in the story and to invest in the characters and their journeys. I also didn’t really feel the love story the way I should. Honestly, I was also bored and kept getting distracted easily. The story failed to captivate me and keep me intrigued so the reading experience was a hard one for me, I kept rereading chapters because my mind kept wandering. I kept forgetting characters' names because there were many of them and the author didn’t develop them that much to make them different. I just struggled big time and that cost me everything.
But I’ll say to take this review with a grain of salt. This is a well-loved story and It has a lot of elements I’m sure will appeal to a lot of readers. If you can connect to the characters, you’ll definitely enjoy it way more than me.
If nothing matters, then there’s no point. If everything matters, there’s no purpose. The trick is to find firm ground between the two ways of being.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence
Moderate: Blood, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Grief, Kidnapping, and Violence
kristijospud's review
adventurous
emotional
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Animal death, Blood, Death, Grief, Kidnapping, Miscarriage, Murder, and Sexual assault
annesbookishtravels's review
adventurous
informative
sad
medium-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
4/5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death and Violence
Moderate: Sexual assault
nuin_giliath's review
adventurous
emotional
medium-paced
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.5
I'm clearly in the minority here, but I really struggled with this book. Despite the fact that I've enjoyed several other books by this author, I found this one to have characters I never connected with, a weak romance, and a plot that relied too heavily on conveniences.
What I liked:
• John's personal journey toward self-acceptance as a "Two Foot" and his experiences within both of his cultures
• The descriptive writing that painted a vivid picture of what life might have been like for both the pioneers and the natives living in this part of North America at the time
• Naomi's artistic abilities and how her work was meaningful to the story and characters within it. Some of the scenes the included her sketching or painting were quite touching.
• The younger May children (Wyatt, Webb, and Will) - even though I could barely tell them apart - and their fondness for John and his mules
What I didn't like:
• Many of the early chapters felt confusing - especially in regards to John's backstory and his family situation.
• I wanted to like Naomi for her fierceness and sometimes quirky behavior, however she mostly came across as manipulative, selfish, and stubborn. Much of her early behavior toward John bordered on obsession and their interactions often made me uncomfortable as Naomi seemed determined to kiss/sleep with/marry him after only knowing him for a few weeks. What made it worse was that she later confessed that she deliberately threw herself at John and even learned his habits in order to get closer to him. There was also a chapter where she prioritized getting him a gift over providing items for her family's basic needs.
• Then there were the conflicting messages about whether Naomi's first husband ever meant anything to her. One minute, she's remembering how her grief kept her from even sitting in what had been his chair. The next, she's recalling how he never truly pleased her. Every time Naomi brought up something negative about him, it felt like she was justifying her pursuit of John.
• The insta-love ruined what could have been a compelling romance. I felt there was limited emotional development after the initial attraction which led to little interest on my part. The level of devotion that was demonstrated in later chapters didn't feel earned based on what was presented to readers.
• John's hesitation over whether or not he and Naomi should get married made no sense to me. The excuses he gave were weak and were overcome after a couple of convincing conversations.
• The drama between Naomi and her in-laws was pointless and ended without any real resolution.
• The primary antagonist for the first half of the novel felt cartoonish and unthreatening. And this ended up going nowhere.
• It was difficult to keep track of the many secondary characters that weren't given enough traits to be memorable. This became especially frustrating as more were added at each new location. Since I had little to no idea who some of them were (after only being briefly introduced), I didn't feel emotional when something bad happened to them.
• Much of the action in the middle chapters came across as "side quests" and felt like a waste of time.
• There were multiple instances of plot conveniences where someone just happened to be at the right place at the right time or something occurred to magically resolve a major conflict.
• There was a scene of sexual assault between an indigenous man and a white woman which felt completely unnecessary as it was only added to create emotional drama between the main protagonists.
• The narrative is definitely skewed toward the perspective of the white pioneers. 90% of the white settlers that were introduced to are good-natured and tolerant while a larger percentage of the native Americans were presented as unreasonable, uncaring, hostile, or downright vicious. To be fair, there were some indigenous characters who were kind and helpful, but it definitely felt unbalanced.
If this hadn't been a buddy read, I probably would have DNFed this. Based on my past experiences with this author and her other historical romances, I had high hopes for this story. Unfortunately, I was left disappointed.
What I liked:
• John's personal journey toward self-acceptance as a "Two Foot" and his experiences within both of his cultures
• The descriptive writing that painted a vivid picture of what life might have been like for both the pioneers and the natives living in this part of North America at the time
• Naomi's artistic abilities and how her work was meaningful to the story and characters within it. Some of the scenes the included her sketching or painting were quite touching.
• The younger May children (Wyatt, Webb, and Will) - even though I could barely tell them apart - and their fondness for John and his mules
What I didn't like:
• Many of the early chapters felt confusing - especially in regards to John's backstory and his family situation.
• I wanted to like Naomi for her fierceness and sometimes quirky behavior, however she mostly came across as manipulative, selfish, and stubborn. Much of her early behavior toward John bordered on obsession and their interactions often made me uncomfortable as Naomi seemed determined to kiss/sleep with/marry him after only knowing him for a few weeks. What made it worse was that she later confessed that she deliberately threw herself at John and even learned his habits in order to get closer to him. There was also a chapter where she prioritized getting him a gift over providing items for her family's basic needs.
• Then there were the conflicting messages about whether Naomi's first husband ever meant anything to her. One minute, she's remembering how her grief kept her from even sitting in what had been his chair. The next, she's recalling how he never truly pleased her. Every time Naomi brought up something negative about him, it felt like she was justifying her pursuit of John.
• The insta-love ruined what could have been a compelling romance. I felt there was limited emotional development after the initial attraction which led to little interest on my part. The level of devotion that was demonstrated in later chapters didn't feel earned based on what was presented to readers.
• John's hesitation over whether or not he and Naomi should get married made no sense to me. The excuses he gave were weak and were overcome after a couple of convincing conversations.
• The drama between Naomi and her in-laws was pointless and ended without any real resolution.
• The primary antagonist for the first half of the novel felt cartoonish and unthreatening. And this ended up going nowhere.
• It was difficult to keep track of the many secondary characters that weren't given enough traits to be memorable. This became especially frustrating as more were added at each new location. Since I had little to no idea who some of them were (after only being briefly introduced), I didn't feel emotional when something bad happened to them.
• Much of the action in the middle chapters came across as "side quests" and felt like a waste of time.
• There were multiple instances of plot conveniences where someone just happened to be at the right place at the right time or something occurred to magically resolve a major conflict.
• There was a scene of sexual assault between an indigenous man and a white woman which felt completely unnecessary as it was only added to create emotional drama between the main protagonists.
• The narrative is definitely skewed toward the perspective of the white pioneers. 90% of the white settlers that were introduced to are good-natured and tolerant while a larger percentage of the native Americans were presented as unreasonable, uncaring, hostile, or downright vicious. To be fair, there were some indigenous characters who were kind and helpful, but it definitely felt unbalanced.
If this hadn't been a buddy read, I probably would have DNFed this. Based on my past experiences with this author and her other historical romances, I had high hopes for this story. Unfortunately, I was left disappointed.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Child death, Death, Sexual assault, and Violence
Minor: Child abuse
je_re_la's review
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
Content Warnings
Moderate: Sexual assault, Violence, Death, and Child death
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