A review by linesiunderline
The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah

adventurous challenging emotional sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

There’s something about a new Kristin Hannah title that always calls to me. Maybe it’s the promise of a long story to really get lost in, or the idea that maybe this will be the book that will make me get what all the fuss is about. I’ve read 3 of hers now - The Nightingale, The Great Alone, and this one, and I’d say of the three, this one falls in the middle in terms of my ranking. For reference, The Nightingale was still in the 3⭐️ range for me, and The Great Alone left me with very mixed feels.

Here’s what I appreciated about The Four Winds:
- Excellent sense of place: Hannah is very good at this. In my opinion, the sense of place was one of the redeeming aspects of The Great Alone. Here, you can see / smell / taste / hear / feel what it might have been like to live through the Dust Bowl. 
- The relationship between Elsa and her daughter felt true and complex and I thought it evolved in a believable way.
- The pacing at the start made it hard to put down and drew me in immediately, which is one of my fave reading feelings.

Not so much:
- Tragedy upon tragedy upon tragedy (which I’m sure is pretty realistic given the historical period), but that’s what put me off with The Great Alone so it felt a little deja vu to me.
- At times it was super melodramatic and overwritten in the emotional department.

Will I keep reading Kristin Hannah? Probably. Her books are right for a certain reading mood, and that’s enough for me.
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