Where the Lost Wander: A Beautiful Story of Human Resilience

Amy Harmon is one of those authors that sits quietly on her trove of AMAZING books, and you don’t realize YOU NEED TO READ ALL OF THEM until you stumble upon one. I read (and loved) THE BIRD AND THE SWORD a few years ago and foolishly hadn’t picked up another. Wellll, WHERE THE LOST WANDER popped up on Netgalley (a website that allows me to read early editions of books), and HOLY COW it was completely perfect and everything I want in a story.

In this epic and haunting love story set on the Oregon Trail, a family and their unlikely protector find their way through peril, uncertainty, and loss.

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.

Reasons You Should Read WHERE THE LOST WANDER:

1. It’s set on the freaking Oregon Trail. Do I need to say more? NO. But if you need more convincing, Harmon manages to create a truly believable account of what life might be like when walking across the country alongside oxen and covered wagons. It’s admirable, beautiful, harrowing, and terrifying all at once.
2. It’s obvious that Harmon spent time researching Native American tribes. Her depiction of Native Americans feels authentic. Can I know that is it authentic? Absolutely not. But she handles both perspectives of Americans and Native Americans carefully and in a way that allows you to sympathize for both sides in what was a very tumultuous time in America’s history.
3. The love story is so, so exquisite. It’s subtle and quiet but intensely emotional and so beautiful. I LIVE FOR the way she writes love scenes. UGH, they are just so perfect and sweet and delicate. I could read them over and over and over.
4. The families are everything. Whether it’s the American, Native American, or mixed families, they make up the fibers of this book, and make it so much more than a love story. It’s about finding grit in times of struggle and how the people with surround ourselves with get us through it.

WHERE THE LOST WANDER is out in ONE WEEK (April 28, 2020). Put it on your to-read list (or, heck, pre-order it!) if you want to see the resilience and beauty of humanity during a fascinating time in American history. I am VERY confident that you are going to love it as much as I did.

A.S. Thornton

A.S. Thornton has evolved from book blogger to author with a particular fondness for writing forbidden love in ancient deserts. When not writing, she’s caring for dogs and cats as a veterinarian. You’ll never find animals at the center of her writing, though, because those fictional worlds don’t have veterinarians and her literal brain can’t accept that the poor critters would be without parasite prevention. Thornton’s debut, DAUGHTER OF THE SALT KING is available wherever books are sold.