A girl is forced to be the caretaker of her younger brother because of family circumstances. We see her life as a girl in 1919 and a mother of two in 1955. I liked both stories in both times. I liked how they interspersed the Hansel and Gretel story into this one.

A beautiful story in the past and present that wants to give us a girl, not really seen, seen. To give her a rightful place as an artist as she should have been all along.... Had she not been a slave. I loved Josephine's story. Her dedication to her "missus" and the resilience in her nature.
I also loved Lina's dedication to bringing Josephine's story to light in the present.
Well written for a wonderful debut!

Story of 3 sisters and a brother, one sister who's in jail, one who is taking care of the daughters of the sister in prison, and one with an eating disorder and 15 year marriage falling apart. The brother is a small side character with not much focus on him (though we find he was a little abusive to the youngest sister)
I just couldn't connect with any of the characters, even with all the tough things they were going through. Nai Nai (mother in law of the sister taking care of the daughters) was my favorite and she was hardly in there.

Mallory goes back home to her parents vineyard and tries to correct mistakes of her past. Her and her best friend, (since second grade) Kelly, had a falling out 10 years ago and Mallory wants to make it right. An old flame, Sam, arrives and Mallory needs to figure out if she still feels the same for him as she did 10 years ago.
I'm a little upset with the end.... There are some things still left up in the air and I hope there might be a second book to continues the story. But the writing is easy to breeze through.

12 stories of girls daring to do things outside their norm to help them find themselves, defy expectations and showing others what they believe is the best for themselves. Showing faith and courage in their lives. I loved the diversity of the characters in each story.

Victoria gets kicked out of her house by her father and gets put into the foster care system. It's not really known for a bit why but once it comes out..... It's on a very hard subject. There are some other issues that are dealt with. Victoria finds a great friend and great boyfriend that eventually help her confront her past and help some people she left behind.
My thanks to Netgalley for this free copy.

How far would you go and what would you risk for a loved one?
I really admired Charlotte. She was so strong and she was a great sister. I loved the women she encounters in the asylum. I can't believe the horrible reasons some of them were there! I was so in love with the ending, it was a very good conclusion to the story.

Wow....I can tell you that the main character, Juliette, is certifiable! She is just so crazy in her obsession. There is a point in the book that you find something out that set Juliette on her crazy course. I think the author did a good job of making you feel sorry for Juliette a "tiny" bit but that feeling doesn't last!
The first maybe 30% seems extremely slow but the rest.....I flew through as the plot just got more twisted!

The writing was excellent and it was a very good "suck you in" thriller.
It's rare that I read a book and "figure out the mystery" in the middle of the book. Now I say it like that because I had NO CLUE about myself because there was still more crazy things to come.
Emma is a very interesting person and I really liked her character. I really disliked Adrian, but the way he was written....I think you are made to! I didn't much like Carrie until the end.

I love learning everything I can about this case. I love that it's still such a mystery over a hundred years later. Even after reading this book, I'm not entirely convinced that Lizzie did it. I'm not entirely convinced she didn't either I guess we'll never know the true story....