Really great story with plenty of mystery and history combined. It was well written and was easy to be invested in the characters’ stories as they unraveled mysteries or tried to protect their friends and families. 

I enjoyed Ollie’s story and learning about what was going on during time with the land theft and how the kids survived as a family to escape it, as well as Kate Barnard’s influence. It’s crazy to me to learn about her initial success as a politician and advocate even before women’s voting rights came along. It’s so sad how much abuse was happening for the sake of money and greed, and the book helped paint that picture well. 

Valerie’s story brought a really great mystery and I also loved the focus of a women in a lonely role of a federal Park Ranger in a world dominated by men, and how she navigated that with courage, even when it was difficult. I thought her sections brought great intrigue and unfolded well. 

The only reason it was a 4 star book for me instead of 5 stars was the dual timeline. I don’t mind them in general but for some reason I had a hard time switching gears between Valerie’s and Ollie’s stories. It was sometimes difficult to remember where I left off previously. But I did love how the story tied the timelines together in the end. 

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

I liked the little told story of the Donut Dollies and it was full of great information on what they experienced and saw. Also loved the friendship between Dorothy and Irene. 

However I did not care for the writing style. It read like a nonfiction most of the time - very narrative based, info-heavy and distanced - and the dialogue was stilted and odd, quite often no more than a handful of words for each person in a single sentence. I’m glad I listened to the audio because it was just a bit dry to get thru. 

If you’re looking for a different fictional account of the Dollies that was more immersive, The Beantown Girls was a great read.

The bones of the story were good and interesting but the format of a dual timeline with only small bits of each character focus and time was so abrupt and disjointed. You couldn’t get into each part of the story before you had to switch gears again but when you returned it was at a further point in the story, and I had to both struggle to remember where I was but also infer into the gaps. It felt like riding in a car and hard-pressing the gas, then slamming the brakes, only to repeat it again.

The characters felt inconsistent to me as well, especially Will and Amos. They would be portrayed one way at one point - Will being awful or good, Amos being gossiped as “a beast” tho I never understood why - and then be completely different at other times. I could never figure out if I liked or disliked either of them. And the whole feud thing never made sense to me even when it Charlotte mentioned it at the end. But maybe in the disjointedness I just missed it. 

I think the intention was to create mystery and intrigue but when that happens so ambiguously and in tiny bits, I feel like it becomes more work to read it than is enjoyable, at least for me. 

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

Gosh that was beautiful and absolutely devastating. So much of it was heartbreaking but it was so honest and heartfelt too. I thought the grief was handled in such a real way, raw and genuine and not glossed over, and thread of the emotion, love, sacrifice and hope was woven in throughout. Really well written and so hard to put down. Loved it. 

Enjoyed the characters, setting and description of the building of the Grove Park Inn in Asheville. I enjoyed the cameo of Charlotte in there a few times too. 

I liked Belle and her forthrightness, being willing to take risks and get her hands dirty rather than fit the mold of a society lady only, and to champion the workers at the Inn. I did like Worth too and how he supported her but he sometimes felt a little annoying how much he was constantly vacillating in his mood and behavior. Also people seem to faint a lot in the book lol. 

But I thought the story was great and very interesting, and the writing was excellent. I could identify with the characters, and I wanted to know what was going to happen next. I enjoyed it quite a bit. 

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

 I liked following the next murder mystery for Jack, Kate and Sarah, as well as the new members that have joined their group from the last couple books. It was an easy mystery - not dark, not super emotionally invested outside of the end with Sarah’s revelations - so I liked the little threads to unravel while still being relatively light. 

There were some times it felt like there was little detail on what was happening - the settings were glossed over and all the sudden the characters were in another location or whatever. I would have liked it to be a little better described so I didn’t reread sections trying to figure out what just happened. The beginning I also couldn’t figure out if Kate was literally having a psychotic break or what was going on. The memory flashbacks were just weird. 

And I still don’t get some of the timeline - the last couple books did the same thing where they keeps mentioning it’s been “years” of Jack and Kate being friends or that Randall was around after his release. But it just doesn’t make a lot of sense, given the actual timestamp of each book’s setting. Small pet peeve but still. 

Overall, I liked the book and the easy mystery that it was, and I liked how it wrapped up with some of our MC’s. 

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

Such an interesting character perspective on a “minor” player in the Manhattan project and the moral implications and difficulties the men and women involved in it had to struggle with. 

With movies like Oppenheimer recently and other books that focus on the subject, I’ve often gone back and forth considering the right and wrong of it and it’s just such a hard concept - the horrific and long lasting destruction and loss of life, vs the brutality of a continued war of the bombs hadn’t dropped. Totally insane and awful. And I’m so thankful we’ve never had to face it again. 

I loved Charlie as a character, and I loved Brenda’s mom. I think I want to BE Brenda’s mom. Brenda on the other hand…. She started out ok, making mistakes but thought provoking ones a lot of us do. But the latter like 60% of the book she was so self centered to the point of cruel, it was frustrating. 

Overall well written and enjoyed the story. 

Enjoyed the dystopian, post-apocalyptic theme. I thought the plot was well done, adding mystery, landscape changes, running and rebel themes.

The characters felt a bit flat and there wasn’t a ton of character development. You understood Elsa’s emotion in the midst of what was going on but it felt like hers and Walker’s characters jumped quickly from plot change to plot change without much transition or fleshing out. Some of the other semi-main characters I would have liked more backstory/fleshing out as well. 

Overall it was interesting though and I enjoyed the story, and am interested in the next book. 

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

Really well written and engaging. I thought the dual timeline and tie-ins between Shekiba and Rahima were well-correlated and I felt invested in both their stories. Beyond the environment and corruption they were forced in, it’s additionally so sad how isolated the women were and how often they were pitted against each other. While it was overall not a happy landscape of a book, it was still hopeful and inspiring. 

Overall really sad story, and a super heavy topic, though important. 

The saddest part is how much Lou dealt with the disbelief or betrayal from so many people. I know that is realistic and unfortunately frequent with abuse but it felt like my worst nightmare and was difficult to enjoy some of the book for that reason. 

I also struggled to like all the characters, with so much mean-girl attitude even in the adults. I could not stand Alex at all to the point that she just made me angry every time she showed up. With everything Lou went thru, her selfishness and lack of grace, not to mention her utter ridiculous advice to Lou about her daughter, made me hate her character. 

Important and relevant topic but not one I really enjoyed, if I’m honest. 

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