Kat @ Novels & Waffles
Under a Painted Sky is an emotional coming-of-age tale set against the vibrant backdrop of the American Wild West that spotlights the uplifting power of sisterhood and the edifying nature of female friendships.
WHAT I LIKED:
♀️ The Female Friendship! The most beautiful note Stacey Lee manages to hit in this book is the sweet vibrato of sisterhood that naturally develops between Sammy and Andy, two teenage girls on the run from the law. The way they bond, support, uplift, and sacrifice for each other is, without a doubt, the soulful heart of this touching story.
🏜️ The Wild West Setting! As somebody who's interest in cowboys extends about as far as Toy Story's Sherif Woody, I was skeptical that this book would be my jug of maple syrup. But I loved Stacey Lee's The Downstairs Girl so darn-tootin' much that I decided to give it a try anyways. Once again, Lee cast her black writing magic and completely enchanted me into enjoying a genre that I typically avoid like cholera. By the end of this delightful frontier adventure, I was hollering, "Yee-haw! Ride 'em cowboy!" like the cattle-herding gunslinger that I most decidedly am not (but now sort of wish I was).
👪 The Found Family! In a desperate bid for freedom, Sammy and Andy take refuge with a group of three strapping young cowboys traveling to California – the stoic West, his skirt-chasing cousin, Cay, and Peety, whose love of horses eclipses almost all else. At first, I thought that these three boys were your generic cookie-cutter characters. I assumed that they were tossed into the narrative mixing bowl just to add a dash of romance and a pinch of teenage angst. Boy, was I wrong. Each cowboy is endearingly flawed, painstakingly nuanced, and plagued by his own set of demons. Together, these five create an unforgettable family dynamic that vaporized my heart into a pile of goo.
👔 The "Girls Disguising Themselves as Boys" Trope! So, I might or might not have hummed, "I'll Make a Man Out of You," incessantly while listening to this audiobook. (And possibly envisioned a shirtless Shang more than once because…of reasons.) But iconic Disney power anthems aside, this is an all-time-favorite trope of mine that I regularly encounter in YA Fantasy. Seeing it play out in a genre that I'm less familiar with was nothing short of a delight.
WHAT I LIKED....LESS:
💛 The Romance! Although I like both Sammy and West's characters individually, collectively, I was unimpressed with their relationship. Rather than sharing an electric spark of chemistry, their interactions held a charge as weak as a dying iPhone's. And while I liked the idea of their romance, the actual execution felt stilted, awkward, and even a bit forced to me.
