“Luke” Hamilton has always been sure that she’d never marry. She accepted that she would spend her life alone when she chose to live her life disguised as a man.After working in a brothel for three years, Nora Macauley has lost all illusions about love. She no longer hopes for a man who will sweep her off her feet and take her away to begin a new, respectable life.But now they find themselves … find themselves married and on the way to Oregon in a covered wagon, with two thousand miles ahead of them.
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I both loved this book and found it frustrating, yet it made my Favorites of 2016 list. How’s that possible? I bought it expecting a lesbian Western and quickly realized that it was a trans Western more than anything else. Luke Hamilton is clearly a transman and I loved the aspect of the book that dealt with how stunted Luke’s life had to be to keep his secret. But, again, it’s advertised as a lesbian Western, and written as such in that it consistently calls Luke “she” even when written from Luke’s own point of view. Which, well, really made me uncomfortable. I started to replace the ‘she’ with ‘he’ in my mind just to ease the cognitive dissonance. I wish that the author would edit this book to reflect Luke as a transman, removing the female pronouns, because it was, otherwise, an excellent, well-researched, very engaging read that’d I’d highly recommend. It’s a shame that it’s so good and yet this issue makes it deeply uncomfortable at times. Or maybe that’s a good thing, too. It certainly made me think. I’d be curious if other readers feel the same…
This is such a well-researched immersive historical lesbian romance and I have never read anything like. It’s original, engrossing, and you’ll be thinking about it years later.
It’s a western so that alone gets mega points from me. Beautifully described epic journey of two women and a child to Oregon. Brilliantly written so you are on the journey with them. Scenes full of vivid emotion and physical effort that I felt like I was walking along with the oxen. I loved Luke and Nora’s slow burn romance. Loved the characters of Luke Nora and Amy, and couldn’t put the book down, I had to see what would happen to them. Masterful storytelling as usual by Jae. A total page turner and wonderful book.
This was the first story I’ve read by Jae. I switched between the ebook and the audio version because I could NOT put this book down. This story was absolutely wonderful. It was so well written (and narrated). The characters were fantastic as was the description of the scenery on the Oregon Trail. Highly recommend. A very well earned 5 stars! I’ll definitely be adding more Jae books to my TBR! (less)
Oh how I love this book! I first read it about three years ago, and it’s been a favourite re-read since then. I’m currently listening to the audiobook for the second time, and that’s prompted me to write this quick review. The audio, by the way, is definitely worth it too.
This book has so many plus points it’s hard to write them all down, but basically this is an historical romance with a woman living life as a man in order to survive and thrive. Luke’s emotional journey is as challenging as her physical one on the Oregon Trail. But Nora, the woman she marries, who has no idea Luke is a man, also makes her own journey that is totally captivating too. There’s so much happening in this book, and you won’t want to put it down as each mini chapter unfolds.
Highly recommended!
I write few reviews but I had to drop a few words to encourage anyone that likes westerns and good reads to try this book. The author does a great job introducing you to the two main characters and gives enough back ground information to help the reader understand their choices and mindset within the story. Although the story is a HEA, the struggles that the women go through with enemies and with each other will keep you reading well into the night. Make no mistake there is romance and love in this story but the journey to get to that HEA was paved with the pain that became the glue that would eventually bond them tighter than they ever thought possible.