This book is DIRTY (complimentary, very historically accurate), and I spent the first 20% just desperately manifesting clean bathing water for my beloveds, and that is absolutely a testament to how authentically Hadley builds out her Civil War setting. This leans all the way in on historical detail and shows us how a Minnesota community finds its way into the Union army and how a woman might find a new identity and new path in wartime. The chemistry and tension between Henry and Charley is A+++ and I loved the emotional journey these two are on together. This is a slow (slow) burn that singes with all its repressed longing. Expect some forays into Turners, gymnastics, suffragist drama and more.