Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Unavailable
    Bittersweet
    Unavailable
    Bittersweet
    Unavailable
    Bittersweet
    Ebook502 pages8 hours

    Bittersweet

    By Nevada Barr

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    Listen to the audiobook instead

    About this ebook

    In her very first novel, award-winning author Nevada Barr reveals another side to her remarkable storytelling prowess with this heart-wrenching yet tender tale of two women whose boundless devotion to each other is continually challenged in nineteenth century America.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateOct 13, 2009
    ISBN9780061840937
    Author

    Nevada Barr

    NEVADA BARR is a novelist, actor, and artist best known for her New York Times bestselling, award-winning mystery series featuring Anna Pigeon. A former National Park Service Ranger, she currently lives with her husband in New Orleans, Louisiana.

    Read more from Nevada Barr

    Related to Bittersweet

    Related ebooks

    Western Fiction For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Leah Swann

      Mar 25, 2020

      Leah Swann, 49, was born in Melbourne where she remembers a childhood “full of daydreaming, playing outside, storytelling, drawing and reading”. She was always filling notebooks with stories and says over time “it dawned on me I was a writer”. A volu

      1 min read

    • Article

      Night Flying

      Aug 2, 2018

      Night Flying
      10 min read

    • Article

      Lost Children

      Aug 4, 2022

      Lost Children
      5 min read

    • Article

      FIRST Steps

      Sep 26, 2023

      FIRST Steps
      6 min read

    • Article

      The WITCH GIRL

      Oct 20, 2021

      The WITCH GIRL
      6 min read

    • Article

      Like Ripe Fruit

      Nov 5, 2020

      Like Ripe Fruit
      7 min read

    • Article

      The Traveler

      Oct 1, 2020

      The Traveler
      7 min read

    • Article

      Broken Wings

      Aug 24, 2020

      Whenever Gemma Faber came to London for work, she stayed at Searle’s. It was a luxurious club-type hotel and every time she visited, she felt she’d really made it. The taxi pulled up and her heart lifted at the sight of the lilac-and-gold striped awn

      5 min read

    • Article

      The Song Of Songs

      Mar 8, 2022

      The Song Of Songs
      6 min read

    • Article

      The Witch GIRL

      Oct 24, 2023

      The Witch GIRL
      6 min read

    • Article

      THE HOUSE with the BLUE DOOR

      May 7, 2020

      THE HOUSE with the BLUE DOOR
      6 min read

    • Article

      First Steps

      Sep 14, 2021

      First Steps
      6 min read

    • Article

      In Love And War

      Jun 10, 2021

      April 1943 - Krakow, Poland Irena was bent over her needlework, stitching the frayed seam of her skirt when she heard a single gunshot ring out. She jerked and then scowled. After four years of war, she ought to be used to it. Why, the other night a

      11 min read

    • Article

      The Library Of Gromma

      Feb 10, 2021

      Zac was sweating and panting as he reached the top of the hill. The crooked beams of the library loomed over him. He dropped the buckets of water, swore at the few drops that spilt, and escaped the piercing morning sun in the shade of the library. He

      22 min read

    • Article

      The Library of Gromma

      Jul 10, 2023

      Zac was sweating and panting as he reached the top of the hill. The crooked beams of the library loomed over him. He dropped the buckets of water, swore at the few drops that spilled, and escaped the piercing morning sun in the shade of the library.

      22 min read

    • Article

      The Good Servant

      Aug 8, 2022

      Windsor, March 1932 “Good evening, Miss Crawford.” A smart young man in uniform was waiting on the platform when she stepped off the train. She was startled. “Aye. That’s me. How did you know?” “Easy.” He smiled. “There aren’t that many young ladies

      6 min read

    • Article

      Remembrance

      Mar 2, 2023

      Remembrance
      2 min read

    • Article

      The heartbeat OF PARIS

      Apr 10, 2024

      The heartbeat OF PARIS
      9 min read

    • Article

      ‘Photos Like This Meant SO MUCH’

      Aug 4, 2022

      My mother was 25 when she had her first child. She always told us she felt desperate to get going, knowing she wanted a big family, like the one she had come from. She was proud of us, wanted to show us off, knew, without being told, that these are t

      2 min read

    • Article

      Writing Family History

      Dec 15, 2021

      Writing Family History
      5 min read

    • Article

      Letters from Leo

      Jul 1, 2021

      Letters from Leo
      4 min read

    • Article

      Shoes for MY LADY

      Nov 8, 2023

      Shoes for MY LADY
      9 min read

    • Article

      Excerpts From The Works Of The 2024 Whiting Award Winners

      Apr 10, 2024

      The 2024 Whiting Award winners were announced Wednesday night. Below are excerpts from their work.

      19 min read

    • Article

      Your Poetry

      May 28, 2021

      Email your poems to: (editorial@choicemag.co.uk) or post to Your Poetry, Choice, 4 Milnyard Square, Orton Southgate, Peterborough PE2 6GX There’s a train that runs on barren track, along the side & at the back,of the caravan. The children laugh & sho

      3 min read

    • Article

      Too BAD

      Aug 30, 2022

      Too BAD
      6 min read

    • Article

      The Governess

      Dec 30, 2020

      The Governess
      10 min read

    • Article

      The Governess

      Dec 27, 2020

      The Governess
      10 min read

    Reviews for Bittersweet

    3.5/5

    119 ratings8 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 2/5
      Not well written. I was going to say that it wasn't badly written, either, although that isn't exactly true - but it's written in such a way that I can go for several pages at a time without seeing a piece of writing that I would have done differently.

      Similarly, I didn't really like either of the main characters, but I didn't dislike them, either. I didn't care about them a whole lot one way or the other.

      The pacing of the book also seemed weird and disconnected to me. It ended very suddenly. The storyline went on for a long time and covered a long period (despite being only ~360 pages) but a lot of scenes seemed like they could be taken out without having any effect whatsoever on the overall story.

      On the other hand, it had some nice descriptions - and I haven't really read Western-type novels before, so maybe part of what I didn't like was the genre itself. I'd probably give it 2.5 stars overall.
    • 5/5
      I wasn't sure what to expect when I decided to read this. There are oh so many things that can go wrong near the end of books where there are women who love other women.Still, it wasn't the happiest of novels either. It was very much like Jane Eyre, and other books from that era. There's an older guiding character and a young innocent here they just happen to both be women.It was Barr's first novel and in places you can tell that. The end kinda drops off a cliff, the reader is chugging along and. Done. Also, sometimes the transitions between the parts are a bit rocky. But, the characters, both the main ones and the supporting cast are for the most part very good. (Though here and there some of them aren't always written totally consistently).But it was a great book, especially for a first novel, and it's sort of sad that she went from th is to her mystery series and hasn't gone back, but, at least the world has Bittersweet.As an aside, it's sort of freaky how alike the Imogene/Sarah story is to the Xena/Gabrielle story from Xena: Warrior Princess, considering that Bittersweet was first, by a lotta years. (A whole lotta years).
    • 4/5
      Love this book so much. And I thoroughly enjoyed the audiobook, too. I highly recommend it.
    • 3/5
      Stays with you. Makes one think about how many women have gone underground throughout history. The characters are memorable.
    • 2/5
      I would have absolutely lived this book if it had just managed to stay in one place long enough. The frequent time lapses all to often let out the steam between the two main characters. Which is, let‘s face it, the whole reason for reading the book.
    • 4/5
      Whew. I can’t say I enjoyed this novel, exactly. Although I don’t regret reading it either. But I do feel as if I've been put through the ringer a bit.Mystery writer Nevada Barr’s foray into historical fiction is so convincing in its depiction of the hardships of the Old West, I could practically feel my skin leathering in the relentless desert sun and taste the dust rising off the stagecoach trail. It tells the story of Imogene Grelznik, a "spinster" schoolteacher forced by a scandal [involving a female student] to leave her lifelong home in Philadelphia and move to the untamed West in order to start over anonymously. Like many contemporary LGBT novelists, Barr has a bit of an axe to grind with modern society and the weakest aspect of the story is when she attempts to force Twentieth Century stereotypes onto people of the Nineteenth Century. For example, the autocratic father who insists on keeping a thoroughbred horse that costs the family money they don’t have, even though he hardly ever rides it. The passage is a thinly veiled version of the modern day redneck with his beloved vintage muscle car. Or the promiscuous best friend of Sarah, Imogene’s star pupil, gloating while her bohunk boyfriend gets to second base on a very public hayride. These episodes, among others, simply don't ring true and detract from the authentic atmosphere the author has otherwise successfully conjured.But that all comes to an abrupt halt in the third and final section of the story. When yet another scandal forces Imogene and young Sarah to move to a remote stage coach stop in the Nevada desert, the book really comes to life. Every aspect of the hardscrabble life they live - from the parched, silty landscape and sulphuric taste of the drinking water to the subterfuge necessary for two women running a business without a man, is brought startingly to life. Barr spares the reader nothing. And if you think two lesbians had it bad in the Old West, wait until you see what the animals had to endure. I’ll grant, this book is only for the stout of heart. If you’re looking for a classic love story with a neat little happy ending, give this one a wide berth. Each time the reader thinks Imogene has settled into a comfortable, workaday existence, something catastrophic happens forcing her to remake her life from scratch. This character is nothing if not resourceful. So, for any open-mind readers with an interest in the Old West, fans of historical LGBT fiction or maybe even folks who enjoyed "Albert Nobbs," this might be the one for you.

      2 people found this helpful

    • 4/5
      A refreshing change of pace from Barr's mystery novels. Definitely not as polished and there were annoying typos throughout, but Barr never let the story faulter and kept the reader hooked until the very end. Barr's raw talent shines through foreshadowing her successful career. Interesting plot and very tastefully done. No voyeuristic sex scenes here (or any sex scenes at all) - the subject of lesbianism is handled with integrity and the kind of restraint suited for a novel about rural America in the 1800s.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 2/5
      To be fair, this is Barr's first novel. The premise is interesting - two women become romantically involved in 19th century Nevada - but the execution is poor. The plot is outlandish and too much happens at a breakneck pace. I never got inside these women's heads, and I felt nothing about their relationship. I don't want to reveal a spoiler, but the way the women choose to solve a real estate problem just about ruined the book for me. Their decision could have made the book interesting indeed, but the author just looks at things on the surface, as a neutral observer, and you learn very little about how the women feel about what they chose.

      1 person found this helpful