I have never finished a book in two days before. This book effectively dragged me out of my reading slump. I didn’t think I would be so hooked, as the first few chapters had me skeptical and a little confused. 

However, once the story picked up I couldn’t put the book down. The conflicts had me so on edge, and of course I needed to know how Luke and Nora’s relationship progressed. I feel like their individual struggles were really well-written along with the progression of their relationship. I’ve never been one for reading stories about kids or pregnancy, but I wasn’t revolted by it this time. The found family trope goes so hard, and I adored that the romance wasn’t the only kind of relationship explored here. I also felt great empathy for and interest in the side characters, despite them not being the focus. Also, as a lesbian with a complicated gender identity, Luke’s experience with her gender was a nice addition. 

As much as I enjoyed reading this book, there were some things that caused it not to be a five-star rating. I will say, the writing could be a bit repetitive. This is absolutely not a dealbreaker for me, and I could look past it to enjoy the story. It may bother other people though, which I can understand. Additionally, I can see aspects of how the prostitutes and Native Americans were described as problematic. I believe that wasn’t the intent of the author, and it’s obvious (at least to me) that Jae wanted to minimize those things despite the old-fashioned views of the characters. 

All in all, I would recommend this to anyone who’s into historical queer romance. It’s not the best piece of literature I’ve ever read, but it was so entertaining and I struggled to stop reading it for two days straight. 

I really enjoyed this, enjoyed it more than most things I read and wanted to keep reading and I think the source of that feeling was the wholesome relationship between Luke and Nora. It was like a cosy cup of cocoa to read about them and also because I am non-binary I appreciated the contradictions around Luke's gender (for all that Luke and I are not very similar, many of the questions and inabilities to settle for an easy answer rang true for me).

I often don't like children being in a romance story. I have brought up children and worked with children for a long time and hate the cutesy way they get depicted in romance stories. Children are neither as irrational, as selfish or as innocent as they are usually (patronisingly) depicted by adult writers. Still in this case I did feel that Nora's kids were essential to showing us what sort of a person Luke was and that was totally loveable and a version of fatherhood I was very happy to see. It also made the theme of childhood trauma a redeemable one.

I rarely like romance as much as this because rarely do the MCs treat each other so well. Their difficulties and angst were validly caused by things outside of each other, neither was perfect but they were sweet enough for this to be escapism. 

I did not enjoy the rapey man and DV man in the story. I know conflict is necessary for plot but those are probably the most traumatic versions of conflict I can think of and it felt yuck to read any scenes with either of them in it. Apart from that it was managed well and there was even some acknowledgement (without derailing the cosy romance) that there was a whole social context around why men felt emboldened to act that way (Nora's family was little or no better). Jacob presented a good counternarrative to these horrible masculinities. He was not openminded enough to really understand the situation but he was a caring and good man within his society.

I felt that aspects of the way "Indians" were depicted was problematic, though the author made a good effort not to be reductionist or generic. I understand that American pioneers are always already problematic and that Jae avoided the one-sidedness of source amterial like little house on the prairie. I also felt that the way "prostitutes" were depicted was problematic, I felt that Jae steered a good course into the complexity between the time (when it was seen as obscene and immoral and women had limited agency within most professions including that one) but not being too slut-shaming....mostly. Luke reflecting on "she's smart fo a prostitute" or "a good mother for a prostitute" DOES get explained late in the book but it's still a bit uncomfortable and I question whether it added a lot.

Overall this was a much better than average sapphic romance and I do like to read sapphic romance from time to time as a way of unhooking my brain from more stressful thinks.