Shelley Read writes an exquisite debut novel that immerses the reader in the stunning Colorado landscape, the breathtaking beauty of the mountains, the forests, the Gunnison River, the captivating if harsh wilderness, with its flora and fauna, and its scents, sounds and silence. All the good and obedient 17 year old Victoria 'Torie' Nash knows is Iola, the town and its small community, since the death of her mother, Aunt Val, and beloved cousin, Cal, at the age of 12, she has lived a solitary life stepping into the role and jobs done by her mother, taking care of the house, garden, and working on the only peach family farm. She has taken on the mantle of taking care of and cooking for her father, her disabled wheelchair bound Uncle Og, and her disruptive and destructive brother, Seth, being treated as a skivvy.

It is 1948, and Torie's life is turned upside down when she encounters Wilson 'Wil' Moon, a never before feeling of connection with another human being, being seen for the first time, gentle and kind, he informs her of the wisdom to go as a river. This is to prove the light that guides her through tragic events, loss and grief, and develop her capacity to become Victoria, a strong, resilient, and independent woman. On understanding her home and family history will be erased with the building of a dam, she oversees the moving of the peach grove to a new home and farm in Paonia in 1955. Victoria feels little in the way of regret, the Iola community's bigotry and Seth's deadly venom were hard to stomach, the hard hearted ostracism of Ruby-Alice Ackers with her mental health issues, its poisonous lies and rejection of Native American Indians.

We follow Victoria's life as she makes friends for the first time with the opinionated, loyal and well informed Zelda Cooper, see her through the decades with her yearly pilgrimage to place a stone for Baby Blue, burying her memories, until the 1970s when she comes face to face with all that she ever has wanted, learning to go as a river. Personally, I wished the author had concluded the novel a little later so that I could witness the key meeting in more detail. This is a beautifully tender read, of being pushed to the limits, a moving coming of age story in this turbulent period of American history, of love, grief, loss, ghosts and learning to live through life's challenges, set amidst the majestic and atmospheric Colorado location through the changing seasons. A wonderful book that I recommend highly! Many thanks to the publisher for an ARC.

Iola, Colorado, 1948

This starts with chance meeting between a filthy stranger with such kind eyes who asks Victoria Nash the way to the flop house. For some inexplicable reason, Victoria feels his life and hers are meant to intersect and that they are invisibly connected. He is Wilson Moon who has drifted like a river from his tribal lands but sadly for him, his path of a river is beset with harsh waters. We follow Victoria’s story over four decades from the dilapidated Nash farm in Iola to a peach farm a few hours away. The flow of her life tells a story of passion and betrayal, of heartache and the deep crush of loss and loneliness but ultimately it’s a story of resilience and love.

This is a really stunning, atmospheric and beautifully written debut which is almost lyrical in places. The author brings the landscape and people to life with all the harshness of the late ‘40’s and ‘50’s, from the things that are expected of her as a female of the family farm to the small town prejudice. Much of the bigotry comes in the form of her brother Seth which forces Victoria to make a difficult decision and ultimately a sacrifice. The characterisation of Victoria is masterful, she is one heck of a woman and you grow to thoroughly admire her as she meets obstacles with such strength, perseverance and fortitude. You are truly invested in the story, totally absorbed and I make no apology for the tears in my eyes at the end. Wilson Moon is not in the story for long but he leaves a haunting and calming presence and you feel their bond and deep love.

Shelley Read clearly has genuine literary talent, I loved this debut and recommend it wholeheartedly. I can’t wait to read what she comes up with next, she’s set the bar high. It was a genuine privilege to read this novel and it’s one that will stay with me.

With thanks to NetGalley and especially to Random House UK, Transworld for the much appreciated arc in return for an honest review.

Go As A River is a lovely book about a very resilient and determined young lady. Beautifully written with some wonderfully evocative scenes and some harrowing ones too. It's not a long book but I wish it could have gone on for few more pages. Really didn't want it to end. Thank you to NetGalley, the publishers and the author for the e-ARC to read and review. Highly recommended

I loved reading this book about a young woman growing up and finding her way against the odds. I devoured it in less than 24 hours, really wanting to know what happened! I'll definitely keep an eye out for Shelley Read's next novel.

As rivers, streams and creeks flow through her life so Victoria’s experiences take shape. All the joy and sorrow is detailed in beautifully lyrical prose. This descriptive writing takes you deep into Victoria’s story and sweeps onward engagingly and engrossingly.

This is a beautiful book, mired in tragedy but breathing resilience. A young girl guilty, as perceived by others bigotry, falls in love with a Native American who is then brutally lynched. This leaves the girl with a hopeless dilemma once she finds she is bearing their child. To escape a brutal end, abandons her child and forges a new life. It is a story based on dealing with prejudice, honouring love and persevering yet being open to the vagaries of how nature will treat you. A fantastic read.

Sometimes I do not want a book to finish and this is one of them. Beautifully written, describing the countryside and the life of a remarkable young woman. The author is not afraid to write about issues such as bigotry and racism but to show that life must go on, I cannot recommend reading this book highly enough.

A very thought provoking story about the power of love ,``I'll go as a River, said Will.` My grandfather told me it's the only way '. I nodded as if I understood . But it it would be many years later facing Bigotry ,Hatred of anyone perceived as different , hardship, loss & many other things life can throw at a person that the heroine of this story really knows the meaning of Will's words. This story is as much about the way things are happening in the USA & other parts of the world as they were when this book is originally set, in many ways showing that supposed Humankind hasn't moved on that far!#NetGalley, #GoodReads,#FB, #Instagram, #Amazon.co.uk, #<img src="https://www.netgalley.com/badge/358a5cecda71b11036ec19d9f7bf5c96d13e2c55" width="80" height="80" alt="100 Book Reviews" title="100 Book Reviews"/>, #<img src="https://www.netgalley.com/badge/ef856e6ce35e6d2d729539aa1808a5fb4326a415" width="80" height="80" alt="Reviews Published" title="Reviews Published"/>, #

From the first few pages I knew this book was going to become special, a favourite. Simply wonderful.

1948, Torie/Victoria Nash, lives with her family, doing the women’s work, and helping on their farm, predominantly peach growers, and sellers.
A chance meeting with a stranger, William Moon, Wil, her life will change, but in what way?

I was drawn into this book from the first few pages. The words played around in my head, the style of writing, the unusual to me American words adding to the feel of the story, firing up my imagination. The places were described so well, I could see it, I felt like I was there.
Some of the characters are nice, some not so, but this all adds to the story.
Survival, cruel resilience, in the face of little choice.
What happened to the small town of Iola, is similar to a village not so far away from my home, and though not connected in any way, see the odd tv programme’s talking about it. Though to add the book is much more than this.
Some books as they near the end start to lose pace, change tack, hurtle to the finish line. Not so with this book. The narrative flowed to the last written word.
There were tears at the end. For the story. For the book ending.
I will always remember this story.

Thank you NetGalley and Random House UK Publishers for an advanced e-book copy. Opinions of this book are entirely my own.

Torie Nash is a well behaved, obliging young woman. She looks after her father, brother and invalided uncle, at their home, a peach farm in Iola, Colorado. As well as keeping house, she also works the land, her knowledge gained from her father. An obedient daughter, Torie has no life of her own, little more than a skivvie for the men of the house, though she is a well loved daughter. One day a meeting with a stranger turns all Torie knows and understands on its head and life is never the same for her again.

Set in post war small town America, this is an absolutely beautiful story of love and loss and what might have beens. The author’s description of the landscape is really lovely, she is someone who definitely knows her subject! A very clever writer.

I loved this book, would highly recommend.

Thank you NetGalley.

Oh my goodness. I am having a great week of reading - this is my 3rd 5 star review in as many days. Shelley Read has obviously been writing for some time but this appears to be her debut as a novelist. She obviously writes about a place that she knows and manages in even the first few sentences to bring that place to life and to place it beautifully in the time period she describes. Her writing makes me think that she perhaps heard stories in her childhood, maybe told by parents and other family and has re-imagined these into this solid, remarkable narrative.

Victoria is a teenager, who has had a hard upbringing, not unloved but perhaps denied the knowledge of that love her mother having dies when she was young. Victoria falls in love, almost at first sight witha boy of different heritage - one who will never be accepted by her family. What follows is a story of love, loss, hardship and endurance but ultimately of love held tightly inside.

the characters are beautifully portrayed, each carrying their individuality. The narrative has a pace of its own, there is no wandering off into miles of unnecessary description, no waffle just pure story telling. Another author for me to watch

Well, what a great way to start my reading year with this fabulous story. It is a beautifully written piece of prose, which is heart moving, poignant and a joy to read. I was engrossed in the marvellous writing from page one and found it hard to put the book down. However, the ending left me wanting more, it stopped abruptly and I felt it needed another chapter or epilogue to complete it, with such a build up I felt a little cheated out of knowing what happened next.

Set in Colorado and spanning several decades, the 1940s to 70s, it tells the story of Victoria (Torie) who lives with her father, Uncle and brother growing peaches. Torie has a hard life with little love or care, so when she meets Wilson Moon, a young vagrant, it's not surprising she has strong feelings for this kind boy. Victoria has to go on and make a life for herself despite all the setbacks and heartache.

The story tells of the harsh realities of the day, the prejudices and difficulties for a woman fighting for a place. This coming-of-age story is a must read and I think it will probably be in my top books of the year. I highly recommend reading this well written story.

The story flows through love, grief, anger, regret and ends with a satisfying, but not cloying, resolution, The prose is descriptive, engaging and has the comforting, regularity of the Gunnison River flowing through the valleys. . It is a heartbreaking tale of racial bigotry, broken families and war. I was shocked by the Vietnam draft being televised (I am British so it doesn't feature heavily in our education) - what strange Saturday night viewing that must have made.

I very much enjoyed the company of Victoria and her peaches.

'Just as a single rainstorm can erode the bank and change the course of a river, so can a single circumstance of a girl's life erase who she was before'.

Life for Victoria Nash, growing up on a peach farm in rural Colorado is pretty ordinary. Left motherless at 12 years of age, she quietly stepped into her shoes; fulfilling the role of homemaker without having had time to be taught it. One day, a chance encounter with a stranger, Wil Moon, and her life is changed; simultaneously doors are opened and they are shut, 'But it is often the small fateful twist that can alter our lives more profoundly...' No longer satisfied with life as she has lived it, she realises that her life was a stagnate pond of preconceived ideas and judgements, and heeds Wil's advice to 'go as a river': to keep moving, wash over obstacles, change course if forced to and repulse agains the banks which define and shape you.

'Go as a River' is a beautiful coming of age. We follow Victoria's journey from a motherless, aimless teenager to a strong, self-sufficient woman who has known sacrifice and hardship but has found the inner-strength to move on and do better. Shelley Read has a lovely way with words and has somehow managed to relate a story which is both heartbreaking and heartwarming. I was so invested in Victoria's journey, that I would have appreciated an epilogue to see how the rest of her life turned out. Nevertheless, reading this story will give you pause for thought and reflection upon your own life choices.

Teenager Victoria's life is changed forever one day when she walks into town and meets filthy but magnetic stranger Wilson Moon. Set in Colorado and spanning three decades what follows is a heartbreaking tale of love, loss but above all hope. Beautifully descriptive and powerfully emotive, I could not put this down.
2023's Crawdads. This book will be one I recommend again and again.
Amazing.

Set on a farm in the state of Colorado the story is about a young girl who falls in love with a vagrant young indigenous boy who escaped from working down the coal mines. The book is beautifully written and I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. If you would like a change from the typical books being published today, try this one. Recommended.

It’s only January and already I think I have read my book of the year. It is hard to believe this is the author’s debut novel, both the writing and characters are so well constructed.
Victoria Nash, Torie at this stage, is a 17 year old going to market with her family farm’s peaches when she meets a confident young stranger who turns her world on its head. He tells her to “go as a river” and what follows is a series of rather dramatic and certainly life changing decisions by Victoria.
I’ve seen this described as a coming of age novel but that does not do justice to either the story or the telling. How Victoria copes with the adversities of her life is not the only star of this novel however. The other is nature, the harsh Colorado winters and the reawakening in Spring. The careful transplanting of her family’s peach trees when their farm is flooded to build a reservoir goes hand in hand with her own survival.
Buy this book when it is published in April, you will not regret a single minute spent with it. Thanks to Netgalley.co.uk and the publishers for this ARC in exchange for this review but also thanks to Shelley Read for writing this beautiful novel.

What a wonderful strong and uplifting story about endurance, and love and so much more. Amazingly descriptive prose that immersed me completely in the moment. Thoroughly recommended.

FROM THE COVER📚

I've come to understand how the exceptional lurks beneath the ordinary like the deep and mysterious world beneath the sea.

On a cool autumn morning, Victoria Nash heads into her village pulling a rickety wagon filled with late-season peaches. As she nears an intersection, a stranger in town stops to ask her the way.

She makes the decision to walk with him. 'Go as a river,' he tells her as they part ways.

So begins a mezmerising story of split-second decisions and considered acts that make up one woman's tumultuous life, as Victoria begins to absorb and follow his words.

Gathering all the pieces of her small and extraordinary existence, spinning through the eddies of desire, heartbreak and betrayal, she will arrive at a single rocky decision that will change her life for ever.

REVIEW ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This is a enchanting but heart breaking read told from the first POV mainly by Tori and letters further into the story. It spans over a period of time from just after WW2 to the Vietnam War showing the brutality of war and its lasting damage, it examines the reaction to grief and loss, the bond between parent and child and our wider society in terms of race, mental health and a women’s place. This book may be set in the past but many of the issues explored are still as relevant today. This book engaged me from the get go, the imagery is beautiful and in stark contrast to the sometimes dark tragic undertones of the story. It has a Where The Crawdads Sing feel to it and suspect it will be as big when published, I hope there is a tv/movie option. The is story that will stay with you, break your heart but leave you hopeful. I highly recommend this book. On end note I have never wanted a peach more in my life.

Thank you for the ARC, only January I have a contender for my top 10 books of 2023

Beautifully written. A book you will take your time with to soak it all in. I would love to own this in paperback.