Reviews for Land of My Heart

The average rating for Land of My Heart based on 2 reviews is 2 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2017-10-04 00:00:00 Douglas C. Nelson technically DNF I read this while my family and I evacuated, but it was because I finished the other book I had been reading (the Rise of the Dawnstar) and I was SO bored in the car; it was also the only other book that I could read on Kindle. So that's the reason why I read it in the first place. My reason for not liking it? Many things, actually. Idk why, but it's hard to find really AMAZING historical fiction anymore. Like, almost all the characters feel the same??? All the female protagonists are so stinkin' similar, and I'm like, WOW this is so cookie cutter. It's painful. That's what happened in this book. Our main character was this boring girl that I didn't like, which was kind of vital because she's haunted by guilt most of the book and how can I hurt for her when I don't even like her? Not possible. That's one thing. The other thing that really shouted out to me was the writing itself. I was SO annoyed more than half the time because it's like the author had no idea what "show don't tell" was and whenever she referred to the love interest, she would call him by his full name. As if we don't already know him. That just really really frustrated me. Along with a lot of other things. So like I said, I technically didn't "finish" this because I skimmed through the second half of it. I read the first half, but by the halfway point I was like, oh c'mon this has to get more interesting... but it didn't and now I'm sad. Cuz I wasted time on reading this when I could've been listening to music and thinking about flying pandas. Seriously. To all the historical fiction authors (and aspiring authors): just because your book is in this genre, doesn't mean your characters should be just like every other historical fiction character out there; PLEASE. There are enough books like that! Do something different, make your characters actually interesting and relatable. I'm tired of picking up books about the same girl. We need variety in the historical fiction genre! Don't be scared to branch out and be different. You don't find treasure by staying in the same spot. Just my two cents.

Review # 2 was written on 2020-12-30 00:00:00 James White I really enjoyed Dianne as a character but I didn’t like her POV continually getting interrupted. There is a lot of tragedy that happens, but the story keeps trucking along and the distractions of the constant POV switches made it hard to fully enter into the feeling of what those events mean to Dianne and those around her. I guess I’m rather saying it could have wrung my heart and yet it failed to. It’s a solid story and mostly historically accurate to 1864 and on. Two things jumped out to me as being much later in scope; Texas ranches weren’t a thing until the western railroad came through; the huge cattle drives to Kansas began in the 1870s. Montana was considered the promised land of fertile soil and Texas was considered mostly worthless land by comparison. The “one-drop-laws” were introduced 1910-1924 with the rise of eugenics and weren’t applied at this time. There was nothing in American law at the time which prevented KoKo from inheriting her husband’s land, as the Indians who had renounced tribal life and were living as white were to be treated as regular citizens: “Where persons reported as "Half-breeds" are found residing with whites, adopting their habits of life and methods of industry, such persons are to be treated as belonging to the white population. Where, on the other hand, they are found in communities composed wholly, or mainly of Indians, the opposite construction is taken.”—1870 census. If he worried about the legality of his marriage, he had only to name her as his legal heir. But Montana didn’t enact miscegenation legislature until 1909 because several of the lawmakers had native wives. I guess it just bugs me for people to point out “racism, racism” where the laws the folks were upset about weren’t enacted until two generations later. I really liked the strong Christian lessons and clear Gospel presentation.