How the words were woven was actually pretty beautiful. The characters and their motivations were solid. The prose is there. However, the story was not. And neither was the editing- far too many spelling errors for a professionally published novel. I would have given this one star, but I kept reading, even laughing at times. It held my scattered attention enough to finish it, which does say good things about the actual writing.

Writing historical fiction means both respecting history, while bending it for fun, right? But there are boundaries that shouldn't be crossed when you profess to have done an exceedingly large amount of research.

Like changing the dates of the Civil War for instance. Or starting fires when you've written yourself into a corner- which happened, to my count, four times. Perhaps the most egregious part of this, was the story behind the moniker of "Madame Moustache". The author admits to not knowing how the nickname came around for the real person our heroine is based upon. It could have been something cool and feminist to fit with the rest of the story- like she was accepted into the world of men and so she was rocking a metaphorical power 'stache after a jape during a holiday party. Instead, it was "she's getting older and got the hairy upper lip that ladies get so now she has to shave because a boy made fun of her."

Frustrating.