I learned quite a lot in this Dutch Golden Age historical fiction, but it wasn't an easy read. A young woman murders her abusive husband and runs to the city, where her skills as a painter eventually lead her to Delft at the start of the pottery boom. There are quite a few real historical figures and events, so I definitely feel like I learned a lot, but several portions were a little traumatizing with the awful male characters and events. I'm not sure if it was translated weirdly, but the sentences were too simple and the pacing was inconsistent. The main character also annoyed me on numerous occasions, but I have to give her grace due to the awful circumstances she constantly found herself in.