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Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for giving me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Full review will be posted on my blog on April 5th.

To call this a retelling of Cruella is a bit of a stretch if I’m being honest. This is fully a historical fiction novel, with the concept of Cruella as an afterthought. This is very clearly a setup to be directly connected with the new Cruella movie, which is fine. The pacing of the book was strange, and while I’ve often liked Johnson’s writing for being cut and dry, this missed the mark. None of the characters in this book are particularly likable. I really wanted to like this book. The cover alone was beautiful. However, I kept waiting for the story to reveal itself as the beginning of Cruella’s story. I never got that satisfaction. If this had been marketed as just historical fiction, about a girl who tries to make it in the ranks of the elite while balancing a life of crime- it would have a higher rating from me. Unfortunately, this story allowed itself to pretend to be one thing when it really was something entirely different. This is a huge pet peeve of mine and took away from my enjoyment.