“No matter how perfect all these lives might have seemed from a distance, so full of possibilities and promise, we all wanted more.”
I was expecting this to lean a bit more towards the historical fiction genre, but it’s ultimately women’s fiction that just so happens to be set in 1938. There were some slight historical references but none of them had any real impact on the story.
Readers who typically gravitate towards romance might really enjoy this one.
The treatment of women was infuriating (not a negative of the book, but of the time). I immediately hated Beatrice’s husband. The author does a great job of covering the overall sentiment towards women, the “necessity” of having children, and the enforcement of very archaic, traditional gender roles. We do have at least one character who has branched out beyond her “place” as a woman, but even she has her problematic views in the end.
That ending though – I was content for this book to take the expected route (rather, one of two) and it didn’t. Which was frustrating because I felt like the way it wrapped up was simply drama for the sake of drama, instead of it serving a real purpose.
I received this book as part of the BookSparks Montauk pop-up tour.
Read with Aimee 