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lezreadalot's review against another edition
4.0
“I don’t want you to act like a woman or a man. Don’t act at all—just be yourself.”
3.5 stars. Gah, I enjoyed this so much. Looking at it as a whole, this could have turned out to be one of my favourite historical romances ever. All of the elements are there. There were a couple little things that impeded my enjoyment, but I'm happy to say that this is my favourite Jae book to date.
Luke Hamilton has been living as a man since she was 12. Once a soldier, she's looking to set up as a rancher in Oregon, and figures the journey west will be easier if she has a wife to legitimise her position. She proposes to Nora, a single mother prostitute working at her friend's brothel, and they begin the 2,000 mile journey together as a married couple. Easily my favourite thing about this is the slow burn. There are few things more satisfying in a romance than getting to see feelings slowly, organically, and realistically develop. Jae does her pacing really well, and there are enough tender moments and enough romantic tension and sexual tension to keep us interested in the relationship and rooting for them. They begin their marriage as strangers, and slowly become more comfortable, and then become friends, and then romance starts to develop, and it's sooooo so good. So many moments where I was smiling like a fool or wanting to shake them both. There are obviously obstacles to the romance, and they're both keeping secrets from one another; Luke's secret, o0f course, being that she isn't actually a man. Secret-keeping is something that can really kill my vibe in a romance, and this particular secret was keep for a liiiiittle too long, imo? But not by too much, and the revelation and fallout and everything that followed was perfect.
It's obvious that Jae did a lot of research for this book, and it shows. It's super immersive, and I was absolutely swept away by all trials and danger and action and the details of the journey. The story does include a trope/plot point that I don't love reading about, but it didn't bug me as much as I had anticipated. I love seeing gender nonconforming women in historicals, so I really liked Luke! She doesn't really read as cis. AFAIK the author hasn't said anything about this, but a case could definitely be made for her as a nonbinary lesbian.
The biggest thing I didn't really like is how the book talked about sex work. Nora is a former prostitute and Luke [mild spoiler] grew up in a brothel. Any woman can, of course, feel however she wants about sex work, especially if it wasn't her choice to begin with, but the book really went hard on treating Nora's former life like something she had to rise above/grow out of in order to get respect, rather than just a fact about her. I understand why other characters would be shitty about it, but both Luke and the narrative seemed low-key judgmental. Sometimes Luke would get frustrated about Nora "falling back into her role as a prostitute" or think about the fact that she was "more cultured and smart than the average prostitute" and it was really annoying and made it seem like Luke wanted to completely erase that part of Nora's past? Which was weird, since Luke was so awesomely accepting about everything else? IDK, maybe I'm reading too much into it, but it was irritating. Additionally, this got a bit gender essentialist at times. I'm also beginning to realise that something I dislike in romances is when the love interest is continuously compared to other people. Especially in a "she doesn't wear makeup... unlike OTHER women!" type of way. No matter how benignly it's done, my eyes start to roll out of my head.
ETA: I would be remiss if I didn't mention: that whole bit with the Sioux braves being so enraptured by? Nora's hair? That they became overcome with desire and were willing to trade anything for her? Haha what the fuck.
Listened to the audiobook as read by Hayden Bishop and I REALLY loved it. At times she was slightly wooden and some of her pacing was a bit off, but there was all the emotion and heart that you could ask for. Also, Nora's 3 year old daughter plays a pretty big part in the book. I don't always love how narrators do children's voices, but Bishop's rendition of Amy was soooooo cute. T__T I loved it. I'm looking forward to continuing this series and hopefully loving those books even more.
Content warnings:
Spoiler
violence, rape, attempted rape, sexual harassment, domestic abuse, miscarriage, drowning“I decided to take the risk and let myself love you.”
denjzen's review against another edition
3.0
I often have a hard time finding lesbian writers who can actually write. This book moves quickly and has an actual plot. A quick and fun read.
rachelslacey's review against another edition
5.0
I am so late to this party, but yes, this book is wonderful - Jae at her best! I can't wait to read the rest of the series.
marinagray's review
adventurous
emotional
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
4.5
rachelslacey's review against another edition
5.0
I am so late to this party, but yes, this book is wonderful - Jae at her best! I can't wait to read the rest of the series.
rebl's review against another edition
4.0
Jae is one of those writers that I kept hearing about, especially given how active she has been, working to become a fairly prolific writer in the world of "lesfic" by producing a huge number of books as well as being an editor for YLVA. As such, I thought it was time I finally read something of hers. I must admit to not having been a huge fan of Radclyffe despite all of the hype surrounding her (and that's a shaky limb to stand on, really, because it almost seems blasphemous to not love everything Radclyffe writes), but with Jae, I can certainly see why her work is so popular. (As a side note... it's not that I don't appreciate Rad's work, but I don't personally feel the need to read any more of her books after having read two of them. Everyone has their preferences, right?)
Backwards to Oregon is a well-researched historical fiction, though the research was focused on geography more so than the history of the era. Don't get me wrong, the historical context is handled well, but if you're looking for the level of social and political depth you might find in a Sarah Waters novel, this isn't what you'll find here. That said, the aspects of this world Jae has engaged with makes it all quite convincing. Her depth about the nature of Oregon Trail itself and how people had to navigate the various challenges along the trail makes it quite an immersive novel.
It's great to read books with characters who aren't strictly 'binary' lesbians, with Luke existing somewhere undefined on the gender spectrum and Nora perhaps being (though labels aren't ever applied - which is AWESOME) bisexual, or at least very fluid in her understanding of her own body and desires. Luke is not established as being entirely trans, but nor is she strictly 'female' in her gender identity, preferring to live her life within the safety and comfort that being a man offered her at that time in America's colonial history.
Luke and Nora are enjoyable characters overall, though at times I found aspects of their personal transformations a little bit forced. This was especially towards true the end where Nora's insecurities started to feel unreasonable to me given what had already taken place, and given Luke's HUGE leap in sharing her true sex with some of the people around her. But take that with a grain of salt, given that I picked this book up for the genre elements (I love historical fiction) as well as the Twelfth Night-esque story line of Luke's hidden sexual identity, rather than for the angsty romance. Reader expectations and interests are impossible to cater for, as every reader is so different. If you liked Lise MacTague's trilogy, think of this book as having a similar story-line, swapping the sci-fi elements for old Western nostalgia. That's a good thing, by the way.
This is the ultimate in 'slow burn' genre romance, and that's probably exactly what many readers want. For me personally, some aspects were too slow. It felt, at times, like every part of the journey to Oregon was "the hardest" or "the worst" part of the journey. I also skipped a few pages due to reading what felt like extensive and repetitive detail about how the wagons were moved up and down steep hills and across bodies of water. I love descriptions of nature, but the repetition of some sections felt unnecessary and I didn't think it added much to the story in the last thirty percent of the book. This was a minor point overall, and didn't detract much from my enjoyment.
This was, overall, a well-executed story that kept me coming back to my Kindle when I should have been getting some work done or maybe even been, you know, parenting my children. There are a lot of writers I want to discover, a lot of stories I want to read, so it's definitely a huge compliment to the author that I'm interested to read some more of what Jae has published.
Backwards to Oregon is a well-researched historical fiction, though the research was focused on geography more so than the history of the era. Don't get me wrong, the historical context is handled well, but if you're looking for the level of social and political depth you might find in a Sarah Waters novel, this isn't what you'll find here. That said, the aspects of this world Jae has engaged with makes it all quite convincing. Her depth about the nature of Oregon Trail itself and how people had to navigate the various challenges along the trail makes it quite an immersive novel.
It's great to read books with characters who aren't strictly 'binary' lesbians, with Luke existing somewhere undefined on the gender spectrum and Nora perhaps being (though labels aren't ever applied - which is AWESOME) bisexual, or at least very fluid in her understanding of her own body and desires. Luke is not established as being entirely trans, but nor is she strictly 'female' in her gender identity, preferring to live her life within the safety and comfort that being a man offered her at that time in America's colonial history.
Luke and Nora are enjoyable characters overall, though at times I found aspects of their personal transformations a little bit forced. This was especially towards true the end where Nora's insecurities started to feel unreasonable to me given what had already taken place, and given Luke's HUGE leap in sharing her true sex with some of the people around her. But take that with a grain of salt, given that I picked this book up for the genre elements (I love historical fiction) as well as the Twelfth Night-esque story line of Luke's hidden sexual identity, rather than for the angsty romance. Reader expectations and interests are impossible to cater for, as every reader is so different. If you liked Lise MacTague's trilogy, think of this book as having a similar story-line, swapping the sci-fi elements for old Western nostalgia. That's a good thing, by the way.
This is the ultimate in 'slow burn' genre romance, and that's probably exactly what many readers want. For me personally, some aspects were too slow. It felt, at times, like every part of the journey to Oregon was "the hardest" or "the worst" part of the journey. I also skipped a few pages due to reading what felt like extensive and repetitive detail about how the wagons were moved up and down steep hills and across bodies of water. I love descriptions of nature, but the repetition of some sections felt unnecessary and I didn't think it added much to the story in the last thirty percent of the book. This was a minor point overall, and didn't detract much from my enjoyment.
This was, overall, a well-executed story that kept me coming back to my Kindle when I should have been getting some work done or maybe even been, you know, parenting my children. There are a lot of writers I want to discover, a lot of stories I want to read, so it's definitely a huge compliment to the author that I'm interested to read some more of what Jae has published.
herrityk's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.75
bai96's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
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
sterling_sapphic_reads's review against another edition
5.0
Oh My Wow!
This was the first story I've read by Jae. I switched between the ebook and the audio version because I could NOT put this book down. This story was absolutely wonderful. It was so well written (and narrated). The characters were fantastic as was the description of the scenery on the Oregon Trail. Highly recommend. A very well earned 5 stars! I'll definitely be adding more Jae books to my TBR!
This was the first story I've read by Jae. I switched between the ebook and the audio version because I could NOT put this book down. This story was absolutely wonderful. It was so well written (and narrated). The characters were fantastic as was the description of the scenery on the Oregon Trail. Highly recommend. A very well earned 5 stars! I'll definitely be adding more Jae books to my TBR!
tricia_r's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
informative
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? It's complicated
5.0