Got this from Prime First and it truly was a treat. Soothing and evocative, beautifully written, thoroughly enjoyable.

The book started off well, capturing my interest and with good writing. But as the story progressed, there were parts where the story dragged, and then the story shifted to switching perspectives from different characters, some of whom seemed to behave at times out of character. And the end of the story had me wondering what the author's point had been. So the book started as a 5, went down to a 4, and then probably ended with a 2.5.

The characters are engaging and real. The manner / style of Laura McNeal's writing I thoroughly enjoyed. She employed different means to move the story along and did so with great style. I marvel when writers can take you on an emotional journey....where everything thing is not black or white, right or wrong, or beautiful or ugly. There is such an array of things we can't fully understand....unless we are fully engaged in a persons life. This story takes you on an emotional journey with the back dropped of the dust bowl as much as a character as the human ones. A great read.

I just started another book that leads off with an unmarried woman in prison, about to be shipped to a penal colony in 1840…and it is already more uplifting and optimistic than this one.

Lordy. Tragic with a side of tragic. Oh wait! Part 2…More tragic with bad decisions thrown in. And yet I kept reading. So verdict? Tragic story well told. And free with Kindle Firsts.

This was a Kindle First Book for March so I'm glad it was free. It sounded like an interesting read but it really wasn't. The story was all over the place & there wasn't much development of the characters so I felt like I didn't know what their motives were for some of their actions. I seriously thought about not finishing it but I trudged through. Here's the plot school teacher boards with family during the dust bowl in Kansa. She never gets paid but still gets fired. She has an affair with the father of the family she boards with. She has a daughter, the father dies of TB then she goes back to live with her sister with her baby. The end.

All 109 chapters of the most sad depressing story I have ever read. (Or rather listened to - did the Audible Version) Had hoped for a better ending but as it was it just ended up as it began. Nothing exciting ever happens in 1930's Kansas other than the dust storms, and like one of those dust storms, this book seemed to go everywhere and nowhere. In the end nobody was really better off than they were in the beginning, they were just different and in a few cases worse. If it was bad and could happen, it happened, and just when you thought the story was going to take a turn for the better they would get hit with some fresh new catastrophe. Historically though, it was very accurate. In fact I started watching the Ken Burns Documentary about the Dust Bowl while reading this and everything in the story lines up quite well. If you're looking for a happy ending go look elsewhere.

This book is really a 3.5. I enjoyed the book and it was a quick easy read.

All in all a good story. Not terribly written, some anachronisms of speech, I thought, and the first and second halves of the books felt almost like entirely different stories, especially with the shifted focus from the main character to mostly the supporting cast of the family.The second part of the book was tedious at times, and eventually very sad but I appreciated the somewhat happy wrap up in the epilouge.

This book could have been so much better. It had a lot of potential but fell flat in parts. The book dragged for a while in the middle and towards the end. The ending ultimately felt rushed. I'm disappointed.