What I enjoyed most about this novel was the focus on female liberation and strength. Penner wrote the mainly female cast to be independent and full of vitality. The characters themselves, though I believe their development was rushed, were fun and inspiring to read, and through Penner’s characters, women can ask themselves if they’re truly living the lives they want to be living. 

I also enjoyed the dual timelines paired with the triple point-of-views. This made the novel more dynamic, in my opinion, and without them, I believe the novel would have been much slower and much more dull. The triple perspectives gave readers the chance to dig deep with each character (as much as Penner allowed, which, honestly, wasn’t much) and piece the story together themselves, which leads me to my dislike about the story. 

I disliked the lack of suspense within the novel. It wasn’t pitched as a mystery/suspense, rather as a historical novel, but I would have enjoyed more of a mystery. Because of the triple point-of-views and dual timelines, it was incredibly easy for readers to piece together the story and the “mystery” stemming from it. I felt as if I were being spoon fed the conclusion, which wasn’t fun.