This book is a difficult book for me to recommend. It was a page turner that I could not put down, as Serena Burdick’s writing truly drew me into the story. I stayed up half the night to finish it. But there were so many triggers: Suicide, child molestation, child rape, violence, drug use and overdose. Another reviewer described this as “trauma porn” and while the violence wasn’t very gratuitous in my opinion, it’s definitely there and had I known about it beforehand, I would not have picked this up. I bought a sweeping historical drama and what I got was a sad book where trauma was the driver to move the story forward.

3.5 stars and I need a palette cleanser.