Review Detail

I feel like this story could have taken place in any other decade and been exactly the same. I was really hoping for more insight into the Roaring 20?s, but instead got a few mentions of flimsy, sparkling dresses and people peacefully drinking their illegal liquor. Where was the excitement and the glamor?!

The writing was also pretty dense, with paragraph long sentences. By time I’d get to the period, I forgot what the sentence was about.

Example 1: “By then she knew that the flaky, crescent-shaped pastries they brought in the morning were called croissants, and she had gathered–although she still hadn’t heard anything to confirm it–that the bizarre flowers filing the tall, rectangular silver vases all over the room were calla lilies, even though they were more austere and futuristic than any lily she had ever seen, like flowers that grew on the moon.“

Example 2: “She cried for being so stupid, and she cried for the man who’d lost his life, for the things she’d known about him and the things should now never know, and she cried for the carefree, privileged world that had been hers for only a few glorious weeks, and she cried for all the years no one had loved her and all the many future years when no one would love her again.“

Aside from those two negatives, the story was interesting and moved at a decent pace (although I wished for more excitement earlier on!). It’s hard to write this without comparing it to Vixen by Jillian Larkin, which I think is definitely the better 20?s era read, even though there are quite a few similarities between the characters and plot. However, the final chapter was much better, and makes me want to find out what happens next.