Writing Style Bogs Down Fascinating Period in Iranian History

I feel really bad rating this so low, but unfortunately, I just didn't find this novel very engaging. The historical elements were fascinating, and I think another author could have pulled me into the story a little better. Bjursten has a writing style that feels very detached for me. I recall multiple pages where a character's emotional state was reduced to a single line in a way that felt very jerky and unmoored. There was quite a bit of telling, not showing in the writing style, and I struggled at times to feel sympathy for Amineh. She had several very significant areas of concern in her life, especially concerning her husband Farzad's behavior. Unfortunately, it felt to me as if she didn't take many steps to improve her own situation. I did really like the portion of the story that focused on Amineh forgiving herself after years of guilt over her parents' deaths. This, to me, was probably the most powerful and hard-hitting scene of the book. I don't think the book is badly written necessarily, but I do think readers more used to this writing style would enjoy it much more than I did, especially lovers of historical fiction.