Thank you Berkley Pub, #partner, for the advanced e-copy of Before Dorothy in exchange for my honest review. I borrowed the audiobook from the library.
Publisher: Berkley / Penguin Audio
Published: June 17, 2025
Summary:
The greatest journey is the one you least expect…Kansas 1932
When news reaches Kansas that her beloved sister has tragically died, Emily Gale must become a mother overnight. Her sister’s orphaned child, Dorothy, desperately needs a home.
But Emily doubts her ability to fill her sister’s shoes; her life on the barren Kansas prairies is no place for a child.
On the unforgiving plains, Emily’s courage is endlessly tested. The prolonged drought and relentless dust storms threaten to destroy everything – including her home and her marriage.
Can Emily overcome her grief and let Dorothy heal her heart?
From the promise of Chicago in the 1920s to the harsh beauty of the Kansas prairie during the dust bowl of the 1930s, this is a story of family, duty and one woman’s journey of self-discovery.
My thoughts:
I am a huge fan of Hazel Gaynor and will read anything she writes. This is Auntie Em’s story before Dorothy comes to live with them and being a big Wizard of Oz fan of course I had to read it…and what a delight it was!
I loved how Gaynor took the real-life history that inspired the Wizard of Oz stories and gave Auntie Em life. Through journal entries, we see what life was like during this time, the time of The Great Depression and the Dust Bowl. I have always been intrigued by what life was like then and I think Gaynor does such a fabulous job bringing that to life. The story moves between Chicago in the 1920s and Kansas in the 1930s. We also learn what led Em to Henry and how Dorothy came to live with them.
This story was so much more than I expected, and I loved every second of it. It has me longing to watch The Wizard of Oz again with all the Easter Eggs that Gaynor incorporated into the story. This is historical fiction at its finest and I cannot recommend it enough!
Audio thoughts:
This was amazing on audio, narrated by one of my favorite narrators, Saskia Maarleveld. She brought this story to life in only the way she could and I loved every second of it!
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