I'm conflicted on my review, on one hand you have interesting characters, lush settings and a really great peek into an alternative love in another time, what brought this down to a 3 for me was a few things that I'll talk about below. At the end though I did like this book. I would consider reading the rest. I love western stories and overall liked that the book took place over many, many years. It was super slow burn but didn't feel that way (the story was a little long, but not boring) and the side characters where given depth and made to feel real. I really want to rate it higher, but POSSIBLE SPOILERS
The main problem being this would have worked better as a revenge tale, with a stronger lead. A horrible thing happens graphically in the first 44 pages, and that's the last time time the sorry really has a sense of passion. Until the end the story it is a sweet meandering slow burn. You as the reader are expected to move on and yet it's hard to. It's hard to find joy in a story that sweeps aside (until a cluttered ending) the graphic horrors that you started with.
Other issues I had were that the two leads had suffered horribly at the hands of rapey men, I dislike the trope that women are only together bc men have failed them. I also felt the lead was described constantly as both HYPER masculine and but also very feminine- which is fine but it made it hard to get a sense of the character herself. She's at odds with herself, as well. Abby describes her as very handsome etc, but the narrative makes her out as very slight and refined featured. From the readers view it made it hard to emphasize with her. She clearly so hated dressing as a man (which honestly was just wearing trousers and cutting her hair), that it was hard to imagine that she would want to stay in the cabin in the wilderness, or tolerate dressing as a man for a full month when Abby stays.
My last issue is with a few things that were so unbelievable that it took me out of the story -SPOILERS Jesse telling Abby in detail where her super secret mountain trail is, when they are just getting to know each other. Frieda never mentioning or them seeing an ENTIRE tribe of secret native Americans that just pop up when needed and Abby's utter confusion about women together (so much so the magical native americans have to explain it to her). Abby works in a brothel, even if she wasn't sleeping with men (it's unclear, but seemingly not), she would know about homosexual relationships, and lastly Jesse going from never touching another human being in that way, to in .5 seconds knowing exactly the where and how of going down on someone...I just was left like whaa?
The author often tells us how to feel, versus letting us feel it through description or actions and in the end the story lacks a level of passion and connection with the reader.