The Vow by Felicity Goodrich

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆

Obtained from: Netgalley

Read: April 7, 2016

It happens in the chill of a September night, 1939: Their small Polish village is raided, burned to the ground. Anna, a devoutly Catholic teenager, watches as her friend is shot, as her father is dragged off for conscription in the German army. Szymon, the young village priest, stands silently with his parishioners as their church is ransacked and torched. Anna clings to him—her dear friend and confidant—and by some luck, the Germans spare them. Five Septembers later, Anna and Szymon still cling together, now amid the turmoil of war. Though Anna dreads her engagement to a local ruffian and Szymon fears for his father’s life back home, the two find solace in their friendship. But when the Soviet army comes to “liberate” them, Anna endures an unspeakable atrocity and Szymon suffers his own tragedy. Now bound even more tightly by the sorrows they carry, they face a choice: honor the vows they’ve made to others or risk everything for the chance at salvation in each other.

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My interest in Felicity Goodrich’s The Vow stems from the time and location in which the story unfolds. I love WWII fiction and was instantly drawn to the narrative. Lake Union Publishing provided me a copy through Netgalley, but unfortunately, the book didn’t deliver the punch I’d been hoping for when I submitted my initial request.

Goodrich sets an intense tone in the opening chapters of the narrative, but she doesn’t sustain the momentum through to the end. I finished the book, but I had to fight off boredom the last sixty pages and was not at all satisfied the novel’s resolution. It doesn’t seem to have bothered other readers, but suffice it to say the conclusion was too predictable and tidy for my liking.

Anna and Szymon have their moments and while I appreciated the challenges of Szymon’s holy responsibilities, both leads struck me as cookie-cutter characterizations. If not for Tomek, I’d have likely given up on the story altogether. Of the entire cast, the war profiteer was the only one with a truly compelling arc. I will not ruin the story by getting into the details, but I think his journey the most thought-provoking of the narrative.

I enjoyed the suspicions and jealousies that pit neighbor against neighbor within these pages, but I can't claim The Vow had a particularly profound impact on me as a reader.

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Turning toward Anna, he took one last look at her. There would never be another girl like her in his life, and he knew it. He wanted to hold her one last time, to feel her kiss him the way she had in the church…

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The Sun King Conspiracy by Yves Jégo & Denis Lépée

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Obtained from: Netgalley

Read: March 1, 2016

Who can I trust in this nest of vipers? 1661 is a year of destiny for France and its young king, Louis XIV. Cardinal Mazarin, the Chief Minister who has governed throughout the King's early years, lies dying. As a fierce power struggle develops to succeed him, a religious brotherhood, guardian of a centuries-old secret, also sees its chance to influence events. Gabriel de Pontbriand, an aspiring actor employed as secretary to Moliere, becomes unwittingly involved when documents stolen from Mazarin's palace fall into his hands. The coded papers will alter Gabriel's life for ever, and their explosive contents have the power to change the course of history for France and the rising Sun King himself.

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*** Note: This title was previously published as The Sun King Rises.

Louis XIV

I’d love to say an appreciation of French history led me to The Sun King Conspiracy, but I’d be lying through my teeth. The reality is that the book has a genuinely gorgeous jacket and I, as we all know, am an unashamed cover slut. And when I say unashamed, I mean unashamed. I actually requested the previous incarnation of the title, The Sun King Rises, from Gallic Books last year for the same reason. Yeah…

As to the narrative itself, I hardly know where to begin. Historically the novel covers a lot of ground and I was thoroughly impressed with how Jégo and Lépée utilized both fact and period gossip within the fabric of their fiction. Louis XIV of France, Anne of Austria, Cardinal Mazarin, Jean-Baptiste Colbert, François d'Orbay, and Nicolas Fouquet feature prominently in Gabriel de Pontbriand’s story. The much celebrated Mancini sisters make notable appearances and there is even cameo by Charles II. The magnificence and magnitude of the stage Jégo and Lépée create matches the complexities of the conspiracy they construct. Some readers may find their approach somewhat overwhelming, but I personally loved every minute of it.

In terms of pacing, the novel never lets up which is saying something as various editions range between 415 and 496 pages in length. It’s got little on the unabridged edition of Les Miserables, but make no mistake, The Sun King Conspiracy is a beast. It is dense and atmospheric, but the story itself never stops moving. Hit after hit after hit, one twist after another, Jégo and Lépée kept me on the edge of my seat beginning to end. As before, their style and presentation may not be suitable for every reader, but I thought the velocity of the narrative one of its greatest features and greatly appreciated how it complimented the tension, depth, and intricacies of the plot.

That said, there were a few things that bugged. Not enough to downgrade to four stars, but they made a big enough impression that they deserve mention. There is a resolution, but Gabriel de Pontbriand’s story is by no means complete and that irked. I’m not sure if the book has a sequel or not, but it definitely needs one. I’d have also liked more definitive detail regarding the secrets the Brotherhood risks so much to protect. It’s a great story line, but comparatively, I felt it less developed than others in the narrative.

Would I recommend the book? In a heartbeat. The Sun King Conspiracy is a thrilling tale of power, riddles, and treachery. Definitely something I’d recommend as a standalone or as a companion piece to Enchantress of Paris.

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“You are taking terrible risks, Monsieur Superintendent. A crown is a heavy burden to wear when one is not its owner… “

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The Second Mrs. Hockaday by Susan Rivers

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

Obtained from: Netgalley

Read: March 1, 2016

When Major Gryffth Hockaday is called to the front lines of the Civil War, his new bride is left to care for her husband’s three-hundred-acre farm and infant son. Placidia, a mere teenager herself living far from her family and completely unprepared to run a farm or raise a child, must endure the darkest days of the war on her own. By the time Major Hockaday returns two years later, Placidia is bound for jail, accused of having borne a child in his absence and murdering it. What really transpired in the two years he was away? To what extremes can war and violence push a woman who is left to fend for herself? Told through letters, court inquests, and journal entries, this saga, inspired by a true incident, unfolds with gripping intensity, conjuring the era with uncanny immediacy. Amid the desperation of wartime, Placidia sees the social order of her Southern homeland unravel. As she comes to understand how her own history is linked to one runaway slave, her perspective on race and family are upended. A love story, a story of racial divide, and a story of the South as it fell in the war, The Second Mrs. Hockaday reveals how this generation—and the next—began to see their world anew. This is one of those books that progresses so seamlessly that you marvel at the authenticity of it. In fact, Susan Rivers has said that the novel was inspired by her discovery of a mysterious crime in South Carolina during the Civil War, and she wrote her novel to make sense of it; once she started writing, the story poured out through these myriad voices. But because Rivers is also a meticulous researcher, every part of the story has some basis in fact. As in Hillary Jordan's Mudbound, you will feel that you're in the hands of a natural storyteller who knows how to breathe life into this period of history, the young Placidia, and all of the people around her. This is a remarkable, moving, and unforgettable debut.

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I’m going to be entirely honest and admit that I picked up Susan Rivers’ The Second Mrs. Hockaday because it looked absolutely nothing like The Sun King Conspiracy. I’d just finished the latter and I didn’t want anything to ruin the high I’d gotten off reading it so I intentionally looked around for something different. I’d an ARC of Rivers’ debut on hand and the description bore so little resemblance to the French intrigue that I thought it’d make a decent transition piece, but I was wrong. I was very, very wrong. 

The Second Mrs. Hockaday is a fantastic novel in its own right and I’m a little ashamed of having underestimated it. It’s a quick read, loosely based on real people and events, but powerful in both its depictions and themes. Set on the southern home front during the American Civil War, the novel digs into societal norms, expectations, race relations, crime, punishment, cultural destruction, love, loss, and survival. It’s an ambitious piece, tragic, but beautifully so. 

Fair warning to all, the mystery at the heart of the narrative isn’t pretty. There is nothing overtly graphic in The Second Mrs. Hockaday, but there are a handful of relatively dark scenes and lots of period appropriate language. I personally adored Rivers’ dedication to authenticity, but I know a lot of readers feel differently and caution that demographic to look elsewhere. Rivers writes with intensity and grit. She embraces the good, the bad, and the ugly within these pages and prospective readers should anticipate the sort of challenges that style and tone produces. 

Looking back, I’d have liked more closure regarding certain characters. Sukie, Agnes, Nerissa, Abner, and Roberta fade like ghosts into the backdrop of the narrative and I wish there’d been more definitive resolution to their roles. I also struggled with the format Rivers chose. The letters and diary entries are written by multiple characters and I constantly tripped over the transitions between each voice.  Achilles Fincher Hockaday’s first letter, at the beginning of Part 2, is especially noteworthy in that it is nine pages told by a character that up until that point didn’t exist. I ultimately understood his role and importance, but in the moment I lost track of the story trying to sort out who I was following.

Structural issues aside, I have to say that I greatly enjoyed the time I spent on this piece and would definitely recommend it to fans of Civil War fiction. 

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We are no longer blessed with innocence, nor do we deserve to be. Paradise may have been lost, but paradise is a bad bargain. It costs too much. It conceals serpents, and is littered with graves.

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Cover Clichés: Polka Dot Dress

Sometimes, while browsing the virtual shelves on Amazon and Goodreads, I see an image that gives me an oddly disconcerting sense of deja vu. I could swear I've never read the book, but I know I've seen the jacket image somewhere before.

This phenomenon is what inspired Cover Clichés. Images are often recycled because cover artists are often forced to work from a limited pool of stock images and copyright free material. That said, I find comparing their finished designs quite interesting.  

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Like Snow Falling on Cedars, a stirring tale of wartime love

April, 1944.  The quiet rural village of Stark, New Hampshire is irrevocably changed by the arrival of 150 German prisoners of war.  And one family, unexpectedly divided, must choose between love and country.

Camp Stark is under the command of Major John Brennan, whose beautiful daughter, Collie, will serve as translator. Educated at Smith and devoted to her widowed father, Collie is immediately drawn to Private August Wahrlich, a peaceful poet jaded by war. As international conflict looms on the home front, their passion blinds them to the inevitable dangers ahead.

Inspired by the little-known existence of a real World War II POW camp, The Major’s Daughter is a fresh take on the timeless theme of forbidden love.

One extraordinary woman will come of age-and come into her own- in this haunting, elegiac portrait of an ever-changing America during the tumult and uncertainty of World War II. After the death of her mother, Elise Braun is sent to live with a new family in the United States and to start a new life. Her father only wants to save his daughter from the impending war in her native Germany-and the horrors of the new Nazi regime. But Elise can only feel a sense of abandonment and resentment toward the one man who is supposed to protect her. An accomplished pianist, music has become her only solace from the loneliness and loss that makes it so difficult for her to love or trust anyone...

Devastated by his wife's death, Herman Braun knows that he's incapable of caring for the daughter he loves so deeply. He also knows that Germany is becoming a treacherous country in the hands of a tyrant, one he must defy at any price-even the price of sending his daughter away to a strange new land. It's a choice that may cost him his family-and his life.

Now, with the war over, Elise has grown into the beautiful and brave young woman her father always hoped she would be. But underneath the polished facade, she remains torn between her love for her adoptive home and the heartbreak caused by her homeland. As she struggles to find her place in a harrowing new world, she must also learn to acknowledge her love for her father, the man who traded his happiness for her own...

With Victoria Roubideaux now at college, the McPheron brothers are alone on their farm once again, yet struggling to settle back into old ways and routines; Tom Guthrie and Maggie Jones, meanwhile, are finding their future together more assured, even while they're still finding their feet as a couple. Alongside these familiar faces and places, however, are new characters and their stories: Betty and Luther, who are struggling to keep their heads above water and their children Joy Rae and Richie out of care; eleven-year-old DJ who has spent much of his supposedly carefree childhood caring for his cantankerous grandfather Walter; DJ's friend Dena, her mother and sister, all of whom are trying to adjust to life and a home without the girls' father.

I am convinced that at birth the cake is already baked. Nurture is the nuts or frosting, but if you’re a spice cake, you’re a spice cake, and nothing is going to change you into an angel food.

Tall, slender Violet Mathers is growing up in the Great Depression, which could just as well define her state of mind. Abandoned by her mother as a child, mistreated by her father, and teased by her schoolmates (“Hey, Olive Oyl, where’s Popeye?”), the lonely girl finds solace in artistic pursuits. Only when she’s hired by the town’s sole feminist to work the night shift in the local thread factory does Violet come into her name, and bloom. Accepted by her co-workers, the teenager enters the happiest phase of her life, until a terrible accident causes her to retreat once again into her lonely shell.

Realizing that she has only one clear choice, Violet boards a bus heading west to California. But when the bus crashes in North Dakota, it seems that fate is having another cruel laugh at Violet’s expense. This time though, Violet laughs back. She and her fellow passengers are rescued by two men: Austin Sykes, whom Violet is certain is the blackest man to ever set foot on the North Dakota prairie, and Kjel Hedstrom, who inspires feelings Violet never before has felt. Kjel and Austin are musicians whose sound is like no other, and with pluck, verve, and wit, Violet becomes part of their quest to make a new kind of music together.

Oh My Stars is Lorna Landvik’s most ambitious novel yet, with a cast of characters whose travails and triumphs you’ll long remember. It is a tale of love and hope, bigotry and betrayal, loss and discovery–as Violet, who’s always considered herself a minor character in her own life story, emerges as a heroine you’ll laugh with, cry with, and, most important, cheer for all the way.

Sam Tibbits loves life--especially life at PiddockBeach, where his family spends their vacations. It's here that he's come to care for Aubrey, his childhood confidante. So the year Aubrey's family moves away with no forwarding address, Sam is crushed. He was going to propose.

Aubrey McCart enjoys being with Sam; he accepts her unconditionally like her father never has. But when her father's pride and joy--her brother--is killed in Vietnam, Aubrey is unable to cope. She chooses a path that changes her life forever, leading her away from Sam.

Years later, when Sam and Aubrey find themselves back at PiddockBeach, the two are forced to confront their abandoned friendship and make peace with their lives. But can they do so without overstepping their moral boundaries?

In January 1945, in the waning months of World War II, a small group of people begin the longest journey of their lives: an attempt to cross the remnants of the Third Reich, from Warsaw to the Rhine if necessary, to reach the British and American lines.

Among the group is eighteen-year-old Anna Emmerich, the daughter of Prussian aristocrats. There is her lover, Callum Finella, a twenty-year-old Scottish prisoner of war who was brought from the stalag to her family’s farm as forced labor. And there is a twenty-six-year-old Wehrmacht corporal, who the pair know as Manfred–who is, in reality, Uri Singer, a Jew from Germany who managed to escape a train bound for Auschwitz.

As they work their way west, they encounter a countryside ravaged by war. Their flight will test both Anna’s and Callum’s love, as well as their friendship with Manfred–assuming any of them even survive.

Perhaps not since The English Patient has a novel so deftly captured both the power and poignancy of romance and the terror and tragedy of war. Skillfully portraying the flesh and blood of history, Chris Bohjalian has crafted a rich tapestry that puts a face on one of the twentieth century’s greatest tragedies–while creating, perhaps, a masterpiece that will haunt readers for generations.

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Which cover strikes your fancy and why? What colors draw your eye? Do you think the image appropriate next to the jacket description? Leave your comments below!

Have you seen this image elsewhere? Shoot me an email or leave a comment and let me know. 

The Midnight Watch: A Novel of the Titanic and the Californian by David Dyer

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆

Obtained from: Netgalley

Read: March 30, 2016

As the Titanic and her passengers sank slowly into the Atlantic Ocean after striking an iceberg late in the evening of April 14, 1912, a nearby ship looked on. Second Officer Herbert Stone, in charge of the midnight watch on the SS Californian sitting idly a few miles north, saw the distress rockets that the Titanic fired. He alerted the captain, Stanley Lord, who was sleeping in the chartroom below, but Lord did not come to the bridge. Eight rockets were fired during the dark hours of the midnight watch, and eight rockets were ignored. The next morning, the Titanic was at the bottom of the sea and more than 1,500 people were dead. When they learned of the extent of the tragedy, Lord and Stone did everything they could to hide their role in the disaster, but pursued by newspapermen, lawyers, and political leaders in America and England, their terrible secret was eventually revealed. The Midnight Watch is a fictional telling of what may have occurred that night on the SS Californian, and the resulting desperation of Officer Stone and Captain Lord in the aftermath of their inaction. Told not only from the perspective of the SS Californian crew, but also through the eyes of a family of third-class passengers who perished in the disaster, the narrative is drawn together by Steadman, a tenacious Boston journalist who does not rest until the truth is found. David Dyer's The Midnight Watch is a powerful and dramatic debut novel--the result of many years of research in Liverpool, London, New York, and Boston, and informed by the author's own experiences as a ship's officer and a lawyer.

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I feel like the only person who didn’t fall for David Dyer’s The Midnight Watch: A Novel of the Titanic and the Californian. I’ve been in the minority before, it’s no big deal, but I wanted to like this one and I am rather disappointed it didn’t work out.

I personally found the general idea is fascinating and give Dyer a lot of credit for attempting it. Explaining what might have prevented the Californian from acting proved a refreshing angle. Off the top of my head, I can’t think of a comparable narrative and I enjoyed the contrast this story provided alongside others featuring the disaster.

I was also impressed with the author’s utilization of the historic record. I think Dyer’s use of context masterful and feel his manipulation of the material intensely creative. A great deal of research went into this piece and as a fan of the genre, I couldn’t help admiring the dedication that so obviously went into the creation of this piece.

I preached a desire to see male protagonists at the Historical Novel Society Conference in Denver last year and Dyer’s work made that wish a reality in the best way. He creates a diverse cast of flawed individuals with a wide range of personal experiences. The story is naturally quite masculine in tone, but the novel doesn’t suffer for it and I hope the powers that be recognize that fact and open the door for more male protagonists.

Unfortunately for me, certain elements of the story’s structure undermined the novel’s strengths. I don’t mean to sound cruel in this admission, but the monotony of the narrative put me to sleep on more than one occasion. Despite all that I appreciated, there simply wasn’t enough movement to engage my imagination.

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So responsibility for action fell like a snowflake from the sky, landing gently between them, touching neither. And in this concentrated moment in history, nothing was done.

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Whispering Vines by Amy Schisler

Rating: ★ ★ ☆ ☆ ☆

Obtained from: Netgalley

Read: March 31, 2016

When Alex O’Donnell’s world falls apart, she finds it hard to imagine that a door to a new world will open. Leaving everything she knows behind, Alex moves from her Baltimore apartment to a villa in Italy where she discovers the inherited vineyard she never knew existed and a life of possibilities beyond her hopes and dreams. Arriving at the villa, Alex is taken aback by the animosity and scorn of the vineyard’s co-owner, Nicolas Giordano. Resentful of Alex’s sudden appearance, Nicolas struggles to maintain his control over his business and his feelings for his new partner. The discovery of a journal from World War II becomes the tie that binds Alex and Nicolas as they work to secure their future while putting together the pieces of a puzzle from the past. Unlock the hidden secrets within the Whispering Vines.

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At first glance, Amy Schisler’s Whispering Vines looked like my kind of fiction. I’m a bit of a WWII junkie and jump at anything set during the conflict. I was not familiar with Schisler or her work, but the subject matter was too tempting to ignore so I set about procuring myself a copy. Unfortunately, the novel didn’t live up to my expectations and I ended up speed reading the bulk of the second half. 

By the end of the first chapter I was annoyed to discover the author tells more than she shows. Schisler attempts to develop her characters by throwing a barrage of facts at her readers and I found little of note in the way of world building. I found the author's treatment exceedingly superficial and as such, couldn’t get relate to her heroine or envision the world Alex inhabited. I also found the novel formulaic, predictable, and sickeningly saccharine. I respect that some readers really enjoy this type of sugary storytelling, but I readily admit that I am not among their number. At the end of the day, I am drawn to intensity, tension, and conflict, the like of which Whispering Vines simply did not afford. 

Historically speaking, I wish the author had done more with the material. I appreciated the detail Schisler incorporated into the text, but I think there was room to dig deeper into the subject matter on which the narrative was based. The mystery surrounding Robbiano’s Madonna and Child was interesting and plays to curiosities regarding the methodical theft and appropriation of art by German forces during WWII, but I felt Schisler played it safe in her representations.

I did enjoy the details Schisler used regarding vineyards and the business of wine making and I appreciated the use of a war era journal to venture into multiple story lines, but I’m can’t say the novel rivals Teresa Neumann’s Bianca's Vineyard or Trini Amador’s Gracianna and would have a hard time recommending it to other readers. 

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“Love is all that matters,” Signora said, turning back to the younger woman. “Life brings hardship, and pain, and more loss than you think you can survive, but in the end, love will carry you through the agony and restore the breath you need to keep living. You must have love, or you have nothing.”

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Mrs. Lee and Mrs. Gray by Dorothy Love

Rating: ★ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

Obtained from: Netgalley

Read: March 30, 2016

A general’s wife and a slave girl forge a friendship that transcends race, culture, and the crucible of Civil War. Mary Anna Custis Lee is a great-granddaughter of Martha Washington, wife of Confederate General Robert E Lee, and heiress to Virginia’s storied Arlington house and General Washington’s personal belongings. Born in bondage at Arlington, Selina Norris Gray learns to read and write in the schoolroom Mary and her mother keep for the slave children, and eventually becomes Mary’s housekeeper and confidante. As Mary’s health declines, Selina becomes her personal maid, strengthening a bond that lasts until death parts them. Forced to flee Arlington at the start of the Civil War, Mary entrusts the keys to her beloved home to no one but Selina. When Union troops begin looting the house, it is Selina who confronts their commander and saves many of its historic treasures. In a story spanning crude slave quarters, sunny schoolrooms, stately wedding parlors, and cramped birthing rooms, novelist Dorothy Love amplifies the astonishing true-life account of an extraordinary alliance and casts fresh light on the tumultuous years leading up to and through the wrenching battle for a nation’s soul. A classic American tale, Mrs. Lee and Mrs. Gray is the first novel to chronicle this beautiful fifty-year friendship forged at the crossroads of America’s journey from enslavement to emancipation.

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Stereogram believed to be Selina Gray and
a portrait of a young Mary Custis Lee

I was introduced to the story of Mary Lee and Selina Gray when I was twenty-three years old. I was visiting Washington D.C. and after watching the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknowns, I wandered over to Arlington House. It wasn’t a planned stop, but it proved profound. Lee’s mistreatment at the hands of the federal government and Gray’s audacious effort to preserve her mistress’ inheritance struck a chord with me and I wondered if there was any chance it had inspired a novel. At the time the answer was no, but Dorothy Love’s latest release, Mrs. Lee and Mrs. Gray, appeared to fill the void. I eagerly set about procuring a copy, but the reality of experiencing the novel left me bitterly disappointed and unsatisfied.

The narrative is meant to chronicle the friendship between Lee and Gray, but their connection never jumped from the page. Love’s Lee is consumed with thoughts of her family, her husband and her children. Gray, by comparison, is more interested in the persecution of the black community and the meaning of freedom. Both women champion a worthy cause, but neither journey compliments the other which only served to divide them over the course of the narrative. At the end of the day, I felt Love’s incarnation of Lee viewed her slaves with universal affection and that the trust she placed in Gray was not based on confidence so much as limited convenience afforded her as she fled Arlington with her children. 

In looking back at the book, the cornerstone of Love's interpretation of the friendship is in fact Arlington, the home Lee and Gray shared despite social status and position. Unfortunately, Love completely misses this truth and virtually ignores the history of the home that housed and fostered the relationship between these women. There is little atmospheric description of the mansion or its grounds and absolutely no mention of the legalities imposed on it during the war. All things considered, the appropriation of the home by Union soldiers should have had a profound impact on Lee as the property owner and Gray as its custodian, but Love entirely omits these politics from her narrative. 

There is not a single reference to the law Congress passed in June 1862 which empowered commissioners to assess and collect taxes on property in ‘insurrectionary districts’ to raise funds for the war effort and legally punish those who’d sided with the Confederacy. These taxes had to be paid in person, but Lee, trapped behind enemy lines and suffering from rheumatoid arthritis, could not make the journey. In effort to obey the law, she sent her cousin, Philip R. Fendall, to pay the tax, but his effort was rebuffed and the federal government appropriated the estate. Arlington was put up for auction and purchased for a total of $26,800. The rape of Lee’s inheritance and the unjust treatment she suffered under a blatantly bias law should have impacted Lee’s half of Love’s story. The details also impact Gray as she championed the Lee family throughout the war, effectively pitting her against Washington itself, but Love’s narrative is silent on such details. This fact led me to question the extent of Love’s research for while I acknowledge that the details she presents are in keeping with the historic record, I am keenly aware that they are by no means complete. 

Key events, such General Lee’s decision to reject President Lincoln’s offer and join the southern cause, were casually referenced. I personally felt this light-handed treatment undermined the magnitude of such moments and openly questioned the author’s reasoning during my reading. The pacing of the narrative was also sluggish and I struggled to finish the story. The situational drama lacked intensity and tension and despite my interest in the historic material, I was often bored with the narrative. 

Bottom line, I did not appreciate the time I spend with this piece and would have great difficulty recommending it to fellow readers.

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To be a woman was to be under the absolute control of fathers, husbands, sons, brothers, or uncles, powerless to manage one’s own money or to make decisions about anything. Of course it wasn’t the same as slavery, but womanhood was its own kind of bondage.

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