Backwards to Oregon

The first half of the book would have easily, easily, been five stars and I was happily looking at a top ten read of 2018. What's really sad is that the moment I was waiting for excitedly was the moment that started dropping my enjoyment of the book.

You see, I was wanting Luke to tell Nora the truth. That doesn't happen until after the fifty percent mark and I was so excited for it, having visions of their sweet friendship finally blossoming and the slow romance getting a kick to the seat of the pants.

Instead I was treated to a probably historically accurate depiction of ‘she's unnatural because she dresses like a man' and ‘it's a sin for two women to be together.' A minor part of this did come from Nora, but a huge majority came from another woman. (And there was even a moment where Luke was going to tell another man that she was actually a woman and the thought on everyone's minds was that she could be killed because of it.) One of the final straws for me was Nora actually considering that she'd been turned gay by being a prostitute.

As I said, it's all probably accurate - but I sure don't want to read it in my historical romances.