Nell has fought bravely in the Great War as a veterinarian. Constantly healing horses and other animals only to send them back out into the fray has made her a changed woman. She's no longer the lady she was when she left. She brings her captains warhorse back to him, taking months to travel by foot. When she arrives, she is drawn in to a number of family problems and her interest captured by the captain's daughter, Beatrice.

Beatrice has basically lived the life of a servant for her family. Her father, who she cannot even call that name as he demands he call her Captain, is overbearing, selfish, and cruel. And war has made him that much worse. Beatrice takes care of everything and everyone in the house. When she sees Nell, she begins to dream of everything she's been missing in this life.

I think you should give this book a try if you are looking for
-a FF story – neither woman is a virgin, but neither is extremely experienced
-a post WWI time frame – It seems so hard to find romance that takes place in this time, so kudos for adding another
-class differences – Nell is a lady and comes from money while Beatrice has lived her life with much less
-a diverse character map that includes people of color, discussions on slavery, problems with class distinction, and the unbalanced world between the sexes.

Kudos for this author for being one wanting to tackle all of this. There's a lot of heavy themes being addressed in this book and I respect that. I really hope this hits all the spots for some readers.

But, as a romance reader, I was not a fan of this book. I was so excited to try my first FF relationship, and especially excited about the time frame of the book. I found myself liking Nell as the book started but as it went on, I couldn't find anything I liked. I found Nell's behavior a bit disappointing on a number of occasions and also slightly out of character for what I had seen from her thus far in the book. But nothing compared to Beatrice. I found her utterly unlikable. She seemed like a miserable, jealous lump that couldn't wait to lash out at an available victim. This story I found so depressing. I had to force myself to read it. I felt morose reading it. I felt like I needed to put on a large black billowing dress, climb the tallest gothic tower I could find, and stare out in to the mist while I finished the book. There was a lot of mopping up water. I still don't understand how it could rain that much. It was overwhelming and constant themes of how unfair life was to women, to other races. There seemed to be no relief, I was just continually beat over the head with it until the book ended. I also read the words “Oh, crap.” and wasn't a fan of that. I guess for that time period it might be appropriate. For me, it felt out of place. It feels almost like Beatrice just uses Nell for sex because of her looks. Because she surely doesn't seem to like her. She repeatedly makes nasty comments about Nell's aristocratic family and background and it's like she wants to punish her for that. She reprimands Nell for her coping strategies from the war and calls them dirty little habits. She's just...ugh. I felt like Nell walked into a house of horrors when she brought back the horse. She should have run away. But she stayed to be abused. I did have issue with some of the things Nell said too. But not to the level of Beatrice. Beatrice demands things of Nell then cruelly pushes her away because she's not family. She's downright mean. Sadly, I didn't like anything about this book.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC, all opinions on the novel are my own.