ashurredly's reviews
453 reviews

The ending of this book was so good that it made me cry. The whole series is magical.

This book is brilliant. Roberts weaves her family's own story throughout the history she tells of Indian removal to Oklahoma and the multiple waves of settlement by the Five Tribes, followed by Freedpeople and black people from the US after the Civil War, and then eventually white folks, the land rush, and Oklahoma statehood. I learned so many details about the conflicts that happened in Oklahoma - from the way the Five Tribes [attempted] to use the American military against Plains Indians, the fact that Freedpeople got land they might not have otherwise received under the Dawes Act, and a tracing of the way that settler colonialism and anti-Blackness made the Tulsa Massacre an inevitability. This book is informative, illuminating, and extremely readable.

I don't usually care much about hetero romances, but I like Linda Holmes' work for NPR and her Twitter presence and her dog, so I gave this a shot. I'm glad I did! You can hear Holmes's voice loud and clear, and more than that, I found Evvie really relatable. Not the terrible marriage, obviously, but just...being a single woman in my thirties who is doing my own thing and has strong friendships. I like that she and Dean could have not gotten together and she would have been okay; I'm also very glad they did.

Reread. I wish I could remember what it was like to read this book for the first time, but it's been so long ago that I can't remember what I managed to figure out as the story went on.

3/22/2023 - stayed up too late rereading. It's nice to know that this book will stay good.