2.5 stars, rounded up.
I had really high hopes for this book, but I didn’t enjoy it as much as I hoped. I think Stacey Lee did a fantastic job with the historical details in this book. I loved the relationship between May, Gemma, and Peony, and the lengths they were willing to go to seek justice for Lulu. All of them demonstrated strength and independence which I love to see from female characters. That said, I was never really invested in any of the characters and it didn’t feel like there was much character development.
This had a pretty slow pace, but the writing was well done. There really wasn’t suspense so while it is a mystery, the stakes felt incredibly low. I also think the romance piece was unnecessary. There wasn’t enough romance for it to be a solid side plot, so it felt a bit misplaced. Overall, this was just okay.
Thank you to BookishFirst and Penguin Teen for the ARC.
I had really high hopes for this book, but I didn’t enjoy it as much as I hoped. I think Stacey Lee did a fantastic job with the historical details in this book. I loved the relationship between May, Gemma, and Peony, and the lengths they were willing to go to seek justice for Lulu. All of them demonstrated strength and independence which I love to see from female characters. That said, I was never really invested in any of the characters and it didn’t feel like there was much character development.
This had a pretty slow pace, but the writing was well done. There really wasn’t suspense so while it is a mystery, the stakes felt incredibly low. I also think the romance piece was unnecessary. There wasn’t enough romance for it to be a solid side plot, so it felt a bit misplaced. Overall, this was just okay.
Thank you to BookishFirst and Penguin Teen for the ARC.