What readers think of Go as a River, plus links to write your own review.

Shelley Read's “Go As a River” does readers a favor by revealing little in the flap. A farm and drifter meet. Tragedy and romance ensue. That gets you to page 25. What results is a family drama about loss, grief, and development that will remind you of “Where the Crawdads Sing” with its love of the outdoors and its surroundings.

The Colorado landscape in a peach-growing community in the late 1940s serves as the backdrop, and the casual racism will surprise you but should not. It was a strange time. When crimes up to and including murder receive rationalization, you realize that people had a lot of hatred that they needed to release. A $20 reward motivated many narrow-minded people.

Heroine Torie goes on a journey of self-discovery under challenging circumstances, and you do not know how the story will go. You are meant to discover this on your own when the middle of the book reminds you of “Cast Away,” which turns out to be the false dawn. Like a river, you go from plotline to newer plotline seamlessly.

At the halfway point, you start to question how much pain and suffering an author can put on her main character. Reviewing this book is tough without revealing its trials. Some stories have their inevitable happy ending, but you must endure a lot to get there, and “Go As a River” is no different. Be prepared for the worst.

If you read a lot, you may predict what will happen, and that’s fine because star-crossed Victoria earns and deserves her happiness. She has a “Shawshank Redemption” level of hope and blind faith. The ending, which I will not reveal, has a nod to the power of writing in bringing people together that those who wanted to write professionally would appreciate.

Our book club has just finished this book, which was chosen because the author is from our area. The book is beautifully written and the love story is a tribute to anti-racial beliefs.