Thank you to Harper Perennial for this eARC! I seem to be in the minority of not liking the book 😅

The story is mostly told through Mimi’s POV but there are some chapters from other characters perspectives like Rivkah, Lottie, and Frederick.

It paints a vivid picture of Gilded Age New York City, but at times it was too descriptive and made the story drag. Some things were unnecessary, there was a whole chapter of 8 year old Miriam going to the library? Like what was the point of that?

The book was way too long and should’ve been condensed because then maybe it would’ve held my interest. A lot more telling than showing, with overly described and alliterative run on sentences made me decide to ultimately DNF. I did keep  reading longer than I would have normally, and luckily it did start to get better around the 25% mark but then it quickly declined again around 36%.

Frederick is creepy as hell, I hated reading his chapter. The other characters were fine but again there was so much telling that I didn’t feel I really got to know/see the characters. Since I’m in the minority opinion, it could just be me and others will love the book 🤷🏻‍♀️