Despite the wartime backdrop, this was a light-hearted story of two people falling in love. But that all it was really. There wasn't much fear of them not being together, because after the musical we all kind of saw it coming. It was kind of interesting delving into their romance itself, but in the end I had to ask myself how much of it was real and how much of it was fictionalized.

There's also something I don't like about Melissa de la Cruz's writing. It's... choppy? That's the best word I have for it right now. But I just didn't find myself connected to the characters or deeply engaged with the world. It was as if she just had a bunch of facts and was listing it off for me in book form and that was that. There was a lot more telling in this than showing. I guess that may be where this book fell short?

My favourite part of the book was the ball scene where Eliza and her sisters are ripping Hamilton a new one. It was funny and snappy and probably the only part of the book where I was like "Hey, I like these characters." Otherwise, it was just who is with who, who wears what dress, is she wearing a wig, or is she not, etc. It was quite boring, to be quite honest...

As a whole, just a light, quick read. I don't really know how much history you'll get from it, but it was cute.

Plot: 2/5
Characters: 2/5
World Building: 3/5
Writing: 2/5
Pacing: 3/5
Overall: 2.5/5
GoodReads Rating: 3.7/5

-review by Between Printed Pages