Review Detail

Second book in a row that I read mainly for the cover, I think this is becoming a habit. This cover is gorgeous though, I love the expression on her face, her dress, the whole atmosphere of it. Which just so happens to fit the book perfectly. I haven't read or learned much about the 1920s so there were times when I had trouble picturing things and understanding what was being talked about. I, of course, knew about speakeasies, the Prohibition, flappers and jazz but the basics were about as far as my knowledge went. While reading the book I learned a bit more, but was challenged to research more about the 1920s and found it quite a fascinating time period, which made me enjoy the book more than I thought I would.

The characters were as a rule intriguing. My favorite of the main characters was definitely Clara, I think she was the most likable and interesting, with her own mysterious past to boot, plus her relationship with Marcus was so sweet. While I liked Gloria and Jerome there was something about both of them that made their love a bit hard to believe. I think it was partly do to the fact that while they spent a lot of time together, we never actually saw that time, we just heard about it from Gloria afterwards along with her great love for him, I would have much preferred if the book was a little longer and we got to see more of them falling in love before seeing them run away together. Lorraine was probably the most difficult character, she had such a hard time and all her efforts to make things right only made them worse. I felt sympathy for her because all her friends abandoned her because they thought she was a horrible person, but all she had tried to do was help them, but unfortunately she accomplished that in the wrong way and it made them hate her.

The plot was good, not much happened, but when it did it was engaging and thrilling. Even the parts that were slower were interesting and fun to read. The back story with Clara was my favorite part, it was the main thing that kept me reading early on in the book, I wanted to find out what had happened to her in New York City. Gloria's rebellion and her growing confidence and independence was enchanting, she went from a girl trying to prove that she could be a flapper into someone who was not to be taken lightly. I loved it, plus the involvement of the mob and the socialite tied everything together into a fun, interesting package.