Julia Kydd is in America for one reason only: to get her half of her father's fortune. She hasn't ever really gotten to know her half-brother Philip, he's much older than she is, but she doesn't really like him. He seems to take great pleasure in making her crazy for absolutely no reason.When her (sort of) friend's sister dies, the role of women in the 1920s comes into stark relief for Julia. Naomi Rankin's family seems to be more concerned about covering up her death than figuring out what was wrong. Her brother controlled the family finances and seemed to take great delight in making the sufragette's life as hard as possible.
Philip makes an off-the-cuff wager that Julia can't figure out what happened to Naomi. If so, he'll stop fighting their father's will and let her have her share of the Kydd money. In doing so, Julia is going to have to confront any number of inequities and a truly horrible family.
This book was so slow to begin with and then piled up so much information into the end that felt overdone. I also had hoped to have a little more history thrown in. For a book that is nearly 400 pages long, we could have gotten some more about that time period. And a little bit deeper character analysis. Everyone felt a bit shallow. It was an okay start to a series but not a barn burner.
Three stars
Followed by Passing Fancies
This book came out August 1st
ARC kindly provided by Lake Union Publishing and NetGalley
Opinions are my own
