Review: Where the Lost Wander

Where the Lost Wander 
By Amy Harmon
348 pages
Published April 28, 2020
Lake Union Publishing

Note; I received this book from the publisher via NetGalley to facilitate my review. All opinions are my own and I received no other compensation.

About the Book:

 The Overland Trail, 1853: Naomi May never expected to be widowed at twenty. Eager to leave her grief behind, she sets off with her family for a life out West. On the trail, she forms an instant connection with John Lowry, a half-Pawnee man straddling two worlds and a stranger in both.

But life in a wagon train is fraught with hardship, fear, and death. Even as John and Naomi are drawn to each other, the trials of the journey and their disparate pasts work to keep them apart. John’s heritage gains them safe passage through hostile territory only to come between them as they seek to build a life together.
When a horrific tragedy strikes, decimating Naomi’s family and separating her from John, the promises they made are all they have left. Ripped apart, they can’t turn back, they can’t go on, and they can’t let go. Both will have to make terrible sacrifices to find each other, save each other, and eventually… make peace with who they are.

I am shocked to say this is my first Amy Harmon read! It's safe to say I've been missing out. This book was absolutely fantastic. I haven't read too much historical fiction set in the mid 1800's American west, so I really enjoyed learning about this period in history. Of course, I played the Oregon Trail computer game growing up and learned about the Oregon Trail (I'm an Oregonian, after all) but this book put their journey into a whole new perspective. They faced incredible and often heartbreaking struggles along the way, all in search of a better life in the West. I absolutely loved Naomi and John, and rooted for them the entire way. Once I mad it halfway through the book I could not put it down. A fantastic read!

"The more you love, the more it hurts. But it's worth it. It's the only thing that is."

"Hating never fixed anything. It seems simple, but most things are. We just complicate them. We spend our lives complicating what we would do better to accept. Because in acceptance, we put our energies into transcendence."