I think my eyes are bleeding. They cried themselves to death. They cannot function properly anymore.My heart hurts. It is already broken. My tears drained. I cannot gather my emotions anymore because they’re at everywhere. This is real heart ripping, soul crushing and truly earth shattering, shaking you to the core reading experience! Ms. Hannah did it again! She shattered my soul in tiny pieces and captured my heart as like she did with Nightingale, Great Alone, Firefly Lane. I turned into a hu...

A warrior believes in an end she can’t see and fights for it. A warrior never gives up. A warrior fights for those weaker than herself.It sounds like motherhood to me. Kristin Hannah's books seem to get pigeonholed as "women's fiction", whatever that means, but the three books I've read from her - The Nightingale, The Great Alone, and this one - have all been, for me, nothing short of survival stories.The theme of women surviving impossible times runs through all three of the books I've read

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ ⭐️ Forgive my indulgence by starting this review on a personal note, but as a child, my parents had a saying - “Never judge a person’s life story by the chapter you find them in”. It was said with kindness and concern for others’ misfortunes, and never was this more pertinent than in The Four Winds! 1930’s Texas, the dust bowl, the stock market crash, and for the farmers across The Great Plains, came burning winds that destroyed everything in their path, and a drought so fierce that it

4.5 stars “Hope is a coin I carry: an American penny, given to me by a man I came to love. There were times in my journey when I felt as if that penny and the hope it represented were the only things that kept me going.” Kristin Hannah has written a number of novels and I’ve read several. In my view, her strength lies in historical fiction. This novel depicting the trials of so many people in the Dust Bowl in Texas and other places during the 1930’s, and the Dust Bowl Migration, who endured the

This is epic historical fiction from Kristin Hannah, a harrowing, tough and painful read of one of American history's darkest period, the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl, the tragedies, poverty, starvation, unemployment, the sacrifices made, set in Texas and California from the early 1920s up to WW2. It is impeccably well researched with all its excruciating details, an era seen through the eyes of a woman, a mother, and her family. The tall Elsinore or 'Elsa' has suffered poor health, is fro...

Kristin Hannah novels are so hit and miss for me. For instance, I absolutely loved Night Road...it's probably one of my all-time favorite books. Yet, I really fecking hated the The Nightingale. And here's why... Every time I read Hannah's historical fiction, I end up feeling as though she researches like a mad woman, jots down every tragedy she can find during that time period, and then destroys her main character by making her suffer through every. single. calamity.It's too much. This book w

***NOW AVAILABLE***I have read five of Ms. Hannah’s novels. I would give the read itself a 3* but the beautiful writing and the incredible research that went into this book definitely earns it a 4* rating.This book was an incredibly depressing read. I felt so much for the characters that I really had to hold myself back from crying. Particularly when injustice after injustice was endured and things kept going from bad to worse. It made me wonder how much can a person really stand before their s

Review also posted on blog: https://books-are-a-girls-best-friend...A Beautifully Written, Heartbreaking Novel!The year is 1921, the setting is Texas, during the Great Depression.Elsa is a young woman who has never known love. Ignored by her family, she yearns for a different life. The first time a man pays attention to her, Elsa becomes wholly smitten. That man is Rafe Martinelli. His intentions are less than stellar, as Elsa comes to find out when she discovers she is with child and she finds

For a long time I have wanted to read a book on the Dust Bowl, explaining reasons behind it and telling stories of all brave people who survived that environmental disaster that happened in the early 1930s in the Great Plains. I came across the Dust Bowl tragedy while reading some reviews of books tackling this subject, and was puzzled by the phenomenon which had such a horrific impact on the lives of millions. The times were hard, the Great Depression struck and added to the near famine and pov...

“The wind picked up, ruffled [Elsa’s] dress. She paused in beating the rug, sweat running down her face…and tented a hand over her eyes. Past the outhouse, a murky, urine-yellow haze burnished the sky. Elsa tilted her sun hat back, stared out at the sickly yellow horizon. Dust storm. The newest scourge of the Great Plains. The sky changed color, turned red-brown. Wind picked up, barreled across the farm from the south. A Russian thistle hit her in the face, tore the skin from her cheek. A tumble...

This is a hard hitting historical fiction book. This is the third Kristin Hannah book I have read, and this is was not my favorite one. I really enjoyed this book a lot, and it was very well written like all the other Kristin Hannah books. Kristin Hannah books are not for the light hearted because they are hard hitting and goes into the dark parts of the subject the book is covering. This one takes place during the great depression it starts in Texas. I have to say the characters are well develo...

Be sure to visit Bantering Books to read all my latest reviews.This is a “meet you in the middle” kind of review. An “I liked it, but I didn’t love it” review. And unfortunately, it’s a “Hannah had me for the first 75% and then blew it with the ending” review.Yep. It’s that type of review. (Hangs head.)In The Four Winds, Kristin Hannah’s latest novel of historical fiction, we travel back to the harrowing years of the Great Depression – one of the most challenging eras in America’s history.It is

Four things you’ll want to do after finishing The Four Winds:1. Drink a ginormous glass of water. Kristin Hannah has created such a vivid portrait of the American Dust Bowl in the 1930s that you can almost feel the dirt in the back of your throat. It’s hard to imagine the ground being so dry and the weather so ferocious that you could catch dust pneumonia, yet you’ll believe it after only a few pages. 2. Look up photos of the farmers and migrants of the era. You can probably close your eyes and

An easy 4 stars for a book of courage in face of soul destroying poverty. Four Winds is the story of Elsa Wolcott and her marriage to Rafe Martinelli, after she becomes pregnant with his child. She is disowned and shunned by her family because of this forced marriage to someone they regard as lower class. She moves into the Martinelli home. Rafe's parents welcome her as one their own in 1921 rural panhandle Texas. But then the drought comes and crops no longer grow. This period is now known as t...

This is America during the 1930’s.This is America after the stock market crash.This is America of the dust bowl.This is America of the forgotten farmer and the unemployed turned migrant worker: homeless, poverty stricken experiencing starvation, cruelty, and despair.This is a book that urges us to look back and lament.Given what is going on in my country this is an America perilously close to a precipitous edge. Let’s hope that these hard times don’t become the “worst hard times.”

I’d wanted a book that would make me cry, and this one really delivered. The hardships faced by Elsa are simply relentless. This is a good novel for the era of Covid when many Americans are publicly bitching about having to wear their masks at the Walmart--read this and you will stop complaining. The story is set at the same time as The Grapes of Wrath: the Great Depression combined with the Dust Bowl. Now I’m going to have to re-read that novel, although this is a wonderful story from the point...

WarriorKristin Hannah’s latest novel is an outstanding historical saga sparking memories of the classic John Steinbeck story, Grapes of Wrath. Based during the great depression, the hardships and demise of small farmers and the migration of people from the Dust Bowl states in America to the land of milk and honey - California. Except, California was where “I came west in search of a better life, but my American dream was turned into a nightmare by poverty and hardship and greed.” The Four Winds

"Sorrow lacerates my skin and I don't feel the pain." (Unknown)And sorrow, hopelessness, tragedy, and loss were served up in heaping amounts to our grandparents and great-grandparents on a daily basis during the Great Depression. Mother Nature laced the countrysides with dust storms so thick that breathing became a struggle to survive and grit filled the air with darkness embedding itself into every corner of every life.The Four Winds is a heavy, brutal read. Know this going in as we, ourselves,...

Beautiful.. Heartbreaking..Set in the 1930’s Great Depression, Dust Bowl Such a tragic time in history.Great characters.This is a story of hope, resilience and fighting for what is right.A story of America and the American Dream.4+ starsThank you to Netgalley and St Martin’s Press for the ARC!

’If I close my eyes sometimes, I swear I can still taste the dust… Born into a family who lived a comfortable life, if only financially, Elsa feels like an outsider inside these walls where words are spent only to diminish her, to tell her what she will never be - good enough, healthy enough, pretty enough, wanted enough. Any attempt to live a normal life is met with words of disapproval, disdain and disregard for what she wants, let alone needs – someone to show her that she has value, someo

“Love. In the best of times, it is a dream. In the worst of times, a salvation.”4.5 stars rounded up. I already know this is going to be one of my favourite historical fictions of 2021. Though books always have a way of playing with my emotions, it’s been a while since one has left me ugly crying like this did.It’s also a place and time in history that I’m not overly familiar with which is one of my favourite things about historical fiction. Kristin Hannah’s writing is so descriptive and beautif...

This is the story of Elsinore (Elsa) Martinelli, her daughter Loreda, and mother in law Rosa. This is a fantastic saga which takes us on a heartbreaking journey from the Texas ‘Dust Bowl’ of the 1930’s to search for a better life in California. This is a story of survival, of clinging on by your fingertips, of being tough and resilient in the face of unbelievable hardship, they are indeed warrior women. This is an amazing book which is so well written that the descriptions almost make you taste

I loved The Four Winds. The Four Winds is an excellent story and told well. I am a big fan of Kristin Hannah and The Four Winds lived up to my high expectations. Elsa is a wonderful character. She would do anything for her family even when they don’t appreciate it. Elsa grew up with a family that didn’t love her. Then she married into a family that didn’t want her that became the family she always wanted. The relationship Elsa has with her in-laws is what she always wished she had with her paren...

4.5 starsThis book is the fourth or fifth I have read by this author and it's definitely my favorite. I fell in love with the female lead character right away in this historical fiction novel as you couldn't help but want to root for her. The story takes place in the 1930s during the Dust Bowl Era. Elsa and her family are experiencing the same hardships as so many other farmers from that time period. Fair warning, this is a bleak and depressing read and it was very similar to the reading experie...

I received an ARC digital copy of Kristin Hannah’s The Four Winds directly from St. Martin’s Press and am delighted to offer my unbiased review. My thanks to Erica Martirano and DJ DeSmyter of St. Martins Press, Net Galley, and to Kristin Hannah.Having read The Nightingale and The Great Alone, I was familiar with Ms. Hannah’s ability to portray strong female characters. She writes with fastidious attention to detail; she does her research well. In several reviews, I have seen comparisons, even a...

I have loved all of Kristin Hannah's book, re-reading many, The Great Alone being one of my favorites and now The Four Winds jumps into 2nd position, right behind it. I heard many stories from my beloved Grandma all about her life in Kansas during the Dust Bowl and their journey to California just as Elsa, Loreda and Ant. I so appreciate the depth at which Kristin took me into what might have been my own family's experience. Elsa Martinelli is a force to be reckon with and she raised a strong, i...

Every country has it's ugly secrets and at some time or other, their citizens have been treated horrendously. Its only by looking back we can look forward to a time when we hope to have finally learned from our mistakes Set during the great depression in America, the novel focuses on the strength of women and especially mother and daughter relationships. While this is historical fiction, it certainly educates and informs the reader about a time in American history when farming families were dri

**Many thanks to NetGalley, St. Martin's Press, and Kristin Hannah for an ARC of this book! Now available as of 2.2!**Devastating, brave, and heartbreaking!Elsa Martinelli hasn't had an easy journey in life from the start: her parents have allowed her to believe she is plain and easily forgettable. A brazen decision one evening leads her to her husband, who is not only Italian but Catholic (and therefore unacceptable to her parents) and she begins to lead a new life with him, quickly becoming pr...

DNF @ 13%. I don't have to read any more to know I'm not going to enjoy this. The writing feels like Kristin Hannah Googled all possible references (slang, brands, historical events) from the 1920's and crammed the novel full of them. Plus, the characters talk in cliches; they are more cardboard cutouts than real people. I feel like since The Nightingale, which had it's moments of melodrama for sure but at least had more interesting characters, Hannah's books have become more and more like soap

The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah is the third book I’ve read by this author. The other two being The Nightingale and my favourite of hers, The Great Alone. After seeing the numerous five star ratings for The Four Winds on GR, my expectations were high.  The story is about Elsa Martinelli and her struggles living through the dreadful depression years during the terrible drought experienced in the Dust Bowl in 1930s America. Elsa and her family, like so many others, need to make the decision to le...