Ugh, I wanted to like this book so much more than I did. It's a fascinating premise, set in a time that probably most people don't know a ton about - pre-Civil War Philadelphia, where slavery was illegal but the city had a long, long, long way to go towards any type of racial equality. The plot had a ton of promise, and the contrast between Charlotte as a former slave and Nell as a member of the city's wealthy Black elite felt complicated and interesting. But the execution fell flat for me. The story moved really slowly (until it moved fast, in a way that didn't make sense and stretched credulity), and the relationships felt one-dimensional. There was something about the writing that felt empty, even though there were many turns of phrases that impressed me. It's hard to explain, but this book just disappointed me ¯\_(ツ)_/¯