Loved the 3-veined story that intertwined for the 3 women in each time period. Also loved the ties to the Last Night in London. Was not overly predictable and the differences and growth in each woman was really enjoyable. Loved the humor with Babs too.

The concept of bringing beauty to people who don’t have access to it, is such a fantastic subject. There’s something so insightful and incredible that God loved creativity for creativity’s sake, and gives us things like flowers and nature, sometimes for no other reason than for the sake of beauty in our lives. The mental reprieve it gives those in stressful or unthinkable circumstances I think is so inspiring and thought provoking. There is so much more to us than material need and practical things. Sometimes the impractical has as much impact as the practical. Art, beauty, nature. It’s easily overlooked and yet he spent so much time orchestrating it for us.

The concepts of generosity for no intended return was also beautiful and emotional. So important and inspiring.

I loved the pieces of history in Rye, NY, as I’ve been thru there on the way to NYC. And I loved that this is based on the authors real family story.

Some of Sadie’s naïveté felt a little overdone and redundant at times. How she was constantly deluded enough that her father would defy all societal notion and give the nursery to her willingly despite his constant voicing to the contrary. The flip flop of her father after the storm when she did what he asked her and he felt terrible, felt disingenuous and didn’t make sense also. Those were my only real objections for the storyline but enough that it diminished the concept a little for me as a story. Otherwise I absolutely loved the concept of nature, beauty and generosity.

Thanks to Netgalley for the advanced copy of this book. All opinions are mine.

Beautiful, deep, and thought provoking. The wounds of loss, shame, abandonment, rejection, and regret, I think are relatable and familiar to all of us in some measure, and the stories of Daniel, Sebastian and Massimo pulled you into different perspectives to identify with how they dealt with and responded to that. You felt for all of them and what they warred with, how it developed them, good or bad.

Amanda did an excellent job countering their struggles with the opportunity of hope, love, acceptance and belonging in those around them who were or became their families. I also loved how much the friendship and community of those around them were so vital. God created us to need connection, and when we are struggling with who we are or what we regret, we tend to isolate rather than allow others to be his voice and reassurance. The depiction of a broken vessel vs a mosaic was fantastic. This was a beautiful unfolding of belonging and hope found.

Very relatable and endearing book. You were fully invested in Hubert and his fellow characters - your heat went out to him with the heartache and struggle he experienced. It was a great topic of loneliness that is so prevalent today, but how we all can play a part to end our own, and someone else’s, loneliness by reaching out and investing in one another.

4.5 ⭐️ rounded up. Best in the series I think. I liked that it conveyed some very real drawbacks that come with fame, the honesty (for the most part) with Ben and Whit, and the insecurities they both dealt with.

While some things felt glossed over and unfinished by the end, it was hard to put down.

Family centered and sweet, it ended on a (ultra predictable) heartwarming note, but a bit slow and super melancholy. Honestly I kept losing interest and getting distracted reading it plus it just had this overall sad/down feel pretty much the whole time.

A Woman of Intelligence dealt with so many insightful and complicated but brilliant concepts. The 1950s was very much an odd, and for many women, demoralizing or at least diminishing time period for women. With so many women having the opportunity to work outside of the home during WW2 and be involved in things they loved and were actually educated to do, only to have many of those opportunities yanked back after men returned from the war, for many there was a lost sense of purpose and control. Add in the often crude and male-dominant outlook then that a woman’s fulfillment should be solely as a housewife and mother and she should enjoy every second of it, it was not a healthy environment for many. The author did a great job at conveying all these things and the emotions of it.

While motherhood is a wonderful calling, it is not a simple one, and while for some woman they may desire to stay at home full time with their kids, many do not. But men expected that was required back then, as well as a wife should be obedient to her husband - not an equal, as we see often with Tom and Rina in the story. Certainly infuriating reading about it now. Being a mother is often ridiculously difficult and thankless, as Rina struggles with, let alone without the controlling and subservient way it was often done in the 50’s. Rina’s husband was able to find his fulfillment in his job, but unfortunately had a very simple and idealized view of what his wife should find fulfillment in with absolutely no empathy or involvement. And like happens so often in marriages, but so much more so with that type of lopsided environment, what was once love and care for each other became their own vacuum of experiences and needs, without communicating any of it to each other or finding common ground. Once Rina finds purpose and fulfillment working with the FBI during the communism-focused period of time, she begins to find herself and begins to be honest at the very end with her husband to potentially rebuild their relationship under new rules.

The author did a great job at highlighting much of the common but not always talked about struggle of mothering, how much marriages suffer when either spouse looks after their own ambitions rather than giving and empathizing with each other, and how women need each other and each others’ compassion instead of judgement, while not being afraid to be honest about our struggles.

Thank you to Netgalley for the advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.