Genre: Historical fiction
Release date: November 10, 2026
Goodreads: 4.04
My rating: 4.5
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This is a great book, and I definitely recommend taking the time to read the author’s foreword first… it’s what hooked me in! Nina de Gramont shares that the story is based on her own great-grandmother’s experience which made me especially invested. It also served as a reminder that situation like this were all too common not that long ago, sadly.
The story follows 18-year-old Mariah in Gilded Age New York. Her mother, recently widowed, forces her to marry a wealthy, much older man to ensure the family’s financial security. Mariah resents this forced marriage and quickly finds ways (and allies) to rebel and pursue her own passions.
The story shows how dependent women were forced to be on men in the early 1900s, and how a single life-changing event like the death of a husband, could upend everything. It also shows the emotional toll this dependency took on women and the strain it placed on their relationships with one another. On one end, we see Mariah being betrayed by her own mother, but we also witness friendships that highlight the solidarity between women and the support they could offer one another.
I also found Ned and Hetty to be strong characters in this story. Ned is a feminist who doesn’t discriminate by class or race. Hetty is fighting to overcome the barriers of her race and class as she strives to become a professional editor in the book publishing industry. Both are far ahead of their time and help make this novel feel like a good representation of the social changes occurring in the early 20th century.
Thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster Canada for granting me an advance copy in exchange for my honest review.
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