I want to thank Netgalley and the author for gifting me the ebook. Highly recommend. Perfect weekend read. Light hearted.

I think I requested/downloaded this title just because of the beautiful cover but without actually reading the description. And that should teach me a lesson for not doing it again because I had to stop after a few chapters as I couldn’t find it to be of my liking unfortunately.

Very grateful to the publisher for my review copy

A stunning conclusion to a three book series that brings the frontier experience alive for readers. Bryan is a good writer with her prose and settings that make readers sad,this particular series is over.

The River is the third book in The Valley Trilogy, a generational saga which began in 1751 with The Valley. The second book, The Mountain, ended in 1899. This series focuses on the town of Grafton, Virginia, and the numerous generations from the few founding families that settled the area. This final book picks up in 1882 to introduce Katie Marshall running away from her home. Her mother, Comfort Marshall, claimed to have found Katie abandoned in their barn, but early in the book Katie discovers that Comfort and a runaway slave are her biological parents. Vengeance grows from Katie’s bitterness and hatred over years of lies and mistreatment by her mother and family. This thread carries through the book.

The beginning narrative grabbed my interest, but as soon as I settled into the story and became invested in the characters, time moved quickly forward to the children, then on to the grandchildren and great-grandchildren. With such a swift passage of time, the reader doesn’t get to know the characters enough to care about them before moving on to the next generation. Fast-forwarding also means the story lacks depth and interest. Bryan does provide a survey of the way life changed through the 20th century and into the 21st, mainly the social and moral norms of a community. In the final third, the story slows to focus on Rose-Linda from 1986 until the present time, and the encroachment of the outside world and modern times into Grafton’s insular world. After following four generations over 100+ years, I had nothing memorable to take from this book.

--Historical Novels Review, February 2021

I received a copy of the book from Netgalley to review. Thank you for the opportunity.
A long saga of a book. It had some good writing and an interesting idea behind it. The dialogue was also reflective of the time.
However, this book seems to consist mainly of racism and at times this is done insensitivly. More could be done with descriptions to really evoke the time set.
On the whole, an OK book.

A sweeping tale through the generations of one family, this book spans from 1882 to present day and with each generation you get to know the women and how they handled the struggles and successes that life provided them. I normally shy away from slower paced reads, but this one had me invested in every birth, marriage, and death. I stayed up several nights past my bedtime reading under the covers to hide the light of my Kindle from my husband. I began rooting for the Marshall family and could not see what would happen to them next.

This was the third book in a series, but without knowing that outside of the book, I would have never known. I did not miss anything by not having read the first two books. However, I looked into it and the previous two books go back even further in generations of this family's history, and sound great.

This book is closed door for romance
Content heads-up: Rape, Murder, Racism/Racist Language, Loss of a child, Miscarriage, Back Room Abortion, Mental Illness

The River by Helen Bryan was a book written about ancestors in Virginia. Is a very historical fiction book.

I've struggled with this series= its huge and there are a lot of characters. So many characters that it's been hard to feel a tug from any of them. That said, fans of family sagas and historical fiction will appreciate this for the careful research Bryan has done and the effort she has made to be inclusive. Set in Grafton, Virginia, this last installment of a series which started with the arrival in the US colonies of Sophia Grafton who inherited a tobacco plantation, it's now moved to the late 19th century. Everyone is grappling with the aftereffect of the Civil War and how to move forward. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. You will be fine with this as a standalone.

The author masterfully details families in the heart of Virginia in post Reconstruction. The book is very atmospheric and I love that.
Many thanks to Lake Union Publishing and to NetGalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion b

The River in the epic historical series The Valley Trilogy, Book 3 by Helen Bryan is historical fiction set in post reconstruction Virginia in the 19th Century through the 20th Century. I love to savor a historical book that transports the reader to a time and place I can never imagine without the author’s story. She tells of the joys and sorrows of generations of families in Grafton Virginia. Bryan’s character’s seem so real they could be family members or friends. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to read about your ancestors and learn what their life was like. Read how each character’s life choices and world shaped and changed their lives. I hope there will be more in this series to finish everyone’s stories.
I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. I appreciate the opportunity and thank the author and publisher for allowing me to read, enjoy and review this book. 5 Stars

Helen Bryan's talents continue to shine though in The River. It was so very good. I am giving it five stars.

Not having read the two previous novels, perhaps I would have enjoyed this book more. But not having done so, for me this book was just okay. I have read two other books by this author "War Brides" and "The Sisterhood" both of which I enjoyed. However, this book wasn't for me. My thanks to NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I grew up in the area where this book is set (as did my ancestors for the last couple of hundred years), and this book just didn't ring true. There was nothing in this novel that even remotely reminded me of my home. None of the characters seemed familiar at all.

Otherwise, this novel attempted to cover a breathtaking amount of time and several generations of characters. Needless to say, the characters were thinly drawn and did not catch my interest.

Katie left Wildwood with clothes and jewelry. I was bored with some of the descriptions of events . The dialogue was okay. I didn't feel a connection to the characters