The Cherry Robbers immediately drew me in with its engaging and beautifully descriptive story of a famous and reclusive artist, Sylvia Wren, who has a mysterious past. I was expecting the book to follow the present day storyline as a journalist reveals she knows the truth about Sylvia’s youth. Instead, the book takes us to the 1940s and 1950s as the artist herself reveals her past on her own terms. Sylvia and her five sisters desperately wanted to escape their odd family, yet choices for women were limited and forced them to face mortal consequences. Desperate to break away from her cursed female lineage, Sylvia made bold choices that led her to finding her voice and her truth. This sad and empowering story artfully incorporates the feminine mystique that women were forced to restrain in the not-so-distant past. The richly descriptive writing is meant to be savored as the reader gets to know the well-developed characters, their fatal flaws, and follow Sylvia’s journey.