This was a well-researched, though fictionalized, look at Harriet Beecher Stowe's life in a specific lens of her family and domestic life. It was interesting, though I felt often relegated the servant characters to non-speaking roles, which is a bit ironic considering Stowe's passion. I felt like the book's focus was a little early and then we rushed into mentioning Uncle Tom's Cabin at the very end. It would have been more interesting to see her ideas and her early speeches/writings more on the page.

This was a good read. It was interesting to consider the Regency perspective on a clubfoot and on autism, though sometimes the portrayals seemed very one-note and the characters seemed to act much younger than they were stated to be. I did like seeing married people grow in love; it felt historically accurate for people to choose a marriage of convenience. There were some side characters that were underdeveloped and too large of a focus on the cat imo. But overall I enjoyed the story!

I loved Helen's perspective but didn't connect with Gilbert as much. I also thought it was interesting that Anne, like her sister Charlotte, used "Helen" as the name for the pious self-sacrificing kind woman character...I did definitely feel like there were other commonalities with other Brontë works, which was fun, but this was ultimately a downer, even with the "happy ending." 

I liked this read overall - there were a lot of interesting ideas about truth, age, and purpose, and it was overall an easy fun time. I wanted George's character to get more depth. Pacing was off at a few points.

I felt like there wasn't much growth or depth to the character arcs in this story. There was some really good description but often not in the areas I wanted more explanation. 

Some poignant passages and helpful tips; organization felt random.

Overall, this book didn't capture me the way I expected. The pacing with three viewpoint characters sometimes was fine but often felt off. Even though there were some great worldbuilding aspects, I definitely still wanted more! I felt like the different groups of people had motivations in the war that weren't fully explained beyond very basic desires like vague revenge or gaining land - I didn't feel the specificity of deeper emotion without a stronger understanding. I understand that this is supposed to connect to her other series, but imo the depth wasn't displayed here, which was disappointing. I had a similar feeling with secondary characters - for example, I didn't get the page time with Sufiyan and Ariella to care much about them or their relationship. The cliffhanger ending also felt like a disappointing cop-out.

I didn't know when I picked this up that it was part of a series, but I don't think it really matters, because we had plenty of info-dump explanation. The tone and diction in this novel were jarringly modern, almost like Netflix's Persuasion, which is saying something. The main character did have an arc of change, even if it was predictable, and she had a ridiculously non-Regency name. The couple did have chemistry, but the way they interacted often felt too childish and unrealistic for the time period. I was disappointed.

This book definitely doesn't take itself seriously, and I get that that was the point, and maybe I'm not the target audience, but the on-the-nose narration and random modern references felt insulting rather than funny. I think the root concept of magic animal transformation as a metaphor for religion could've worked in a more serious retelling, but here, it just felt like VERY young teens messing around with first kisses. And I do see the point that the people involved in the history were young, but that doesn't mean the tone has to be gratingly juvenile. 

This book imo would've been much better if Benedict made up a fake Carnegie substitute rather than writing "historical" fiction. Carnegie is a real person, with a real wife, so it felt too weird to make up a side story for him. The actual story was pretty good, with some good atmosphere, but ideas and plotlines felt overly simplified. The portrayal of Ireland felt too one-note, and the idea that a random person could pretend to be an experienced lady's maid defied belief. There wasn't a nice resolution at the ending either.