I received Northbound from Aspect Books, a subset of TEACH Services Inc. through BookCrash to review and it was a fun read.

I was surprised to find that the book was set in the 1850s somewhere in Northern California, as I usually do not like historical novels. By the description I was expecting something modern. I was confused geographically by the town names as I knew the Feather River area. Somehow I had no idea they had gone so far north (to Yreka). But I enjoyed the story. Some of the references were obviously modern, like calling a family dysfunctional, but those things did not hurt the believability of the story at all.

These are believers caught in desperate situations. The good guys are actually good, yet real (which is rare these days). The bad guys are evil, but the telling is not offensive (which is also rare). The spiritual events were not goofy supernatural like so many are.

My only criticism is that I wish it was about twice as long with the people and places fleshed out much more. I found myself wondering about place descriptions, vegetation, views, buildings, wagons, camp sites, and stuff like that. The characters are developed well and realistically—though I would have liked to know more about them also.

Bottomline: It was a fun read. It was over much too quickly. The way it is written I’m expecting a sequel, & I’ll probably get it.