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karrama's review against another edition
3.0
This is a solid read where a girl is fish-out-of water and learning how to make her way in the Society, an almost-magic school-esque collection of spinsters and powerful tea party gossips who actually liberate abused women and save children from fates that are death or worse.
emtees's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
A young woman living in 1920’s America, Elsie Fawcett knows what her future holds: she will marry and spend her life in her husband’s shadow, guiding him to achieve great things. As a member of the First Ladies Society, Elsie is part of a line of women going back to the founding of the United States who have weaponized their femininity to control the direction of the country. While some hide in the shadows, collecting information, and others focus on rescuing abused women from dangerous men and planting them in places where they can do the most good, Elsie has been selected to become a Wife, marrying a man who the society has decided to make a Supreme Court Justice, Senator or even President. Andrew Shaw is one of these men, and so Elsie and her friends are sent in to “charm” him - a competition in which they vie for his attention, knowing that whomever he selects will eventually wield great, if secret, power. But Elsie is conflicted; while she wants the power that a powerful marriage could give her - not just to shape the country, but to lead the society itself - a part of her wishes that her accomplishments wouldn’t have to be overshadowed by a man’s.
The idea of this novel is an interesting one, but I found a lot of the execution messy. The biggest issue was with the First Ladies’ Society itself. It was difficult to grasp exactly what it was - an organization of women supporting women in a patriarchal and sexist world? A ruthless political cabal completely controlling the country while clueless men follow the path laid out for them? An idealized depiction of a sorority, where all women are accepted equally? The answer was ultimately all those things, but the result was a story that seemed to be struggling between realistic alternate history, feminist utopia and one of those teen girl competition fantasies that were so popular a few years ago. Some of that messiness ended up serving the story. For example, it was implied that the First Ladies Society literally controlled the country, that they had chosen every powerful man, secretly written every law and policy, since the very beginning - and yet, other than some presidents with different names, nothing about the world seemed to be any different. But that ended up being part of the point.By focusing on the (admittedly not very realistic) way they could influence men as wives and mothers, the Society had ended up reinforcing the very systems that kept women oppressed, something Elsie realized when she saw the way the society discouraged women from running for office out of fear of them being ridiculed or pushed girls with other talents to become wives and mothers only. That was an interesting direction to take the story and it led to some really good scenes where the characters debated the value of women’s different types of work.
But in other ways it really felt like the concept of the society wasn’t completely thought out. This was especially clear when it came to the handling of race, sexuality and body diversity. The society is presented as embracing all races, sexualities and body types; though there are only a few token characters of color, we are assured that women of color play a significant role in the society, and Elsie’s circle of friends includes one woman who is trans and another who is asexual, both of whom find acceptance in the society. Elsie herself is fat and proud of it. For me, this easy acceptance of all types of women felt uncomfortably idealistic, especially when compared to how nuanced the book was in handling sexism. I just couldn’t buy that an organization founded by the wives of the Founding Fathers would inadvertently continue to enforce patriarchal norms - but not, say, racism or transphobia. That’s just not historically how feminism has worked and it had the probably unintended effect of diminishing those other types of oppression. The book has characters arguing passionately over issues that were very important to people in the 1920’s, but are, if not resolved today, at least areas where we’ve made a lot of progress: things like the way women in power are viewed, or how to support working women while still valuing work like motherhood. Meanwhile, it completely glosses over areas like racism and transphobia, significant issues in the lives of real women today, with an attitude of “we got over that by just learning to value everyone!”
Elsie’s character arc felt similarly messy to me. Elsie and several of her friends are selected to charm a “priority one,” a man the society intends to set up as president. The girls are therefore competing for his attention, a process that mostly involves setting up fake “meet cutes” and twisting their personalities to fit his expectations. For Elsie this creates two conflicts - one between her desire to win the competition and the power that comes with it and her desire to support her friends, including one who has genuine feelings for their target, and another between the potential future a relationship with Andrew represents and the one she secretly dreams of as a woman with power and ambition in her own name. The conflicts are nicely set up, but once Elsie’s character arc begins, it is very erratically written. Elsie changes her mind about her goals often multiple times within a single scene, learns the same lessons over and over. It isn’t until a shocking series of events at the end of the book that the point of Elsie’s story became clear. Some of this erratic writing in her character arc may have been intended to highlight an anxiety disorder - aka “nerves” - that she is implied to have, but the depiction of anxiety felt more like a plot device than a real attempt to portray a character with a mental illness.
The last twenty percent or so of the book is really good - clear themes, strong emotion, some exciting action. The resolution of the plot and Elsie’s relationships is really strong and well written. I just wish the rest of the book had lived up to the ending.
The idea of this novel is an interesting one, but I found a lot of the execution messy. The biggest issue was with the First Ladies’ Society itself. It was difficult to grasp exactly what it was - an organization of women supporting women in a patriarchal and sexist world? A ruthless political cabal completely controlling the country while clueless men follow the path laid out for them? An idealized depiction of a sorority, where all women are accepted equally? The answer was ultimately all those things, but the result was a story that seemed to be struggling between realistic alternate history, feminist utopia and one of those teen girl competition fantasies that were so popular a few years ago. Some of that messiness ended up serving the story. For example, it was implied that the First Ladies Society literally controlled the country, that they had chosen every powerful man, secretly written every law and policy, since the very beginning - and yet, other than some presidents with different names, nothing about the world seemed to be any different. But that ended up being part of the point.
But in other ways it really felt like the concept of the society wasn’t completely thought out. This was especially clear when it came to the handling of race, sexuality and body diversity. The society is presented as embracing all races, sexualities and body types; though there are only a few token characters of color, we are assured that women of color play a significant role in the society, and Elsie’s circle of friends includes one woman who is trans and another who is asexual, both of whom find acceptance in the society. Elsie herself is fat and proud of it. For me, this easy acceptance of all types of women felt uncomfortably idealistic, especially when compared to how nuanced the book was in handling sexism. I just couldn’t buy that an organization founded by the wives of the Founding Fathers would inadvertently continue to enforce patriarchal norms - but not, say, racism or transphobia. That’s just not historically how feminism has worked and it had the probably unintended effect of diminishing those other types of oppression. The book has characters arguing passionately over issues that were very important to people in the 1920’s, but are, if not resolved today, at least areas where we’ve made a lot of progress: things like the way women in power are viewed, or how to support working women while still valuing work like motherhood. Meanwhile, it completely glosses over areas like racism and transphobia, significant issues in the lives of real women today, with an attitude of “we got over that by just learning to value everyone!”
Elsie’s character arc felt similarly messy to me. Elsie and several of her friends are selected to charm a “priority one,” a man the society intends to set up as president. The girls are therefore competing for his attention, a process that mostly involves setting up fake “meet cutes” and twisting their personalities to fit his expectations. For Elsie this creates two conflicts - one between her desire to win the competition and the power that comes with it and her desire to support her friends, including one who has genuine feelings for their target, and another between the potential future a relationship with Andrew represents and the one she secretly dreams of as a woman with power and ambition in her own name. The conflicts are nicely set up, but once Elsie’s character arc begins, it is very erratically written. Elsie changes her mind about her goals often multiple times within a single scene, learns the same lessons over and over. It isn’t until a shocking series of events at the end of the book that the point of Elsie’s story became clear. Some of this erratic writing in her character arc may have been intended to highlight an anxiety disorder - aka “nerves” - that she is implied to have, but the depiction of anxiety felt more like a plot device than a real attempt to portray a character with a mental illness.
The last twenty percent or so of the book is really good - clear themes, strong emotion, some exciting action. The resolution of the plot and Elsie’s relationships is really strong and well written. I just wish the rest of the book had lived up to the ending.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Child death
A major plotline revolves around the death of a childizzys_internet_bookshelf's review against another edition
3.0
3.5/5
I have a love hate relationship with this book. Loved the characters and the plot but when made it sometimes hard to read was the pacing
I have a love hate relationship with this book. Loved the characters and the plot but when made it sometimes hard to read was the pacing
se_wigget's review against another edition
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
The word is suffragists. Suffragists, suffragists, suffragists. I’ve pointed this out in other book reviews and in various conversations and in a developmental edit. In the U. S., the term “suffragette” was derogatory—ridicule from misogynists. In the U. K., the only suffragists who embraced the term were radical militant 20th century suffragists. This book takes place in the U. S. (I placed this up front because… while it's great that this book acknowledges suffragists, people need to stop calling them by a term that was a condescending and misogynistic insult for most suffragists.)
Anyway....
The cover art is beautiful! It quickly becomes obvious why the protagonist on the cover holds a piece of paper: the Secret Society has spies and passes messages. Jeepers!
A protagonist who's not neurotypical and is stout, a diverse cast—I love it!
I really like that Abigail Adams founded the Society.
Page 4: People who say, “Don't be so sensitive,” or “You're too sensitive!” aren’t worth my time. It strangely doesn’t occur to them that they’re too insensitive, a red flag.
I initially thought it not a good sign that a character says that only 4 pages in. I’m not saying it's triggering exactly, but... maybe it’s mildly triggering.
As if the first time isn’t enough, this narcissist says, “You three can’t always be so sensitive about everything.” Red flag #2. I wouldn’t give her any more chances.
Page 32: And the narcissist is fatphobic. Typical.
On the bright side, the author has a grasp of psychology (a serious concern of mine on page 4), and this mean girl isn't meant to be liked and admired by the reader. The protagonist, Elsie, doesn’t mistake her for a friend. Whew. (I probably shouldn’t have worried, since this is a book published in 2021 and written by a successful author. It’s not… a conversation at one of those ordeals called family reunions.)
Page 57: Fortunately, this isn't a compulsory heterosexuality world, after all. I’m so glad.
Shortly after I began reading the book, I felt critical of the Society because it doesn’t truly empower women. It keeps women... behind powerful men. These young women aren’t trained to become president or a lawyer, for instance; they’re trained to be the spouse of said president or lawyer. It’s kind of cringey. The Spinsters are awesome, but then the role “Wife” is especially cringey and conjures the wives in The Handmaid’s Tale.
Fortunately, we soon learn that the protagonist does question this society and its collaboration with patriarchy. As a child, Elsie had dreams of becoming president of the U. S. She wants to be grateful to the society... but wishes she could be more important, not just the spouse of a great man but instead... a great woman. This is the biggest theme in the book. I’m not adding any more, because I don’t want to give away the ending.
The stylists—or Beauty Makers—remind me of the Hunger Games. Not in style, of course, since this is the 1920s.
"Hurt men are some of the most dangerous (p. 267)."
charlottexx1234123's review against another edition
2.0
The equivalent to Hatsune Miku binder Thomas Jefferson.
delaney572e4's review against another edition
2.0
Read my full review on my blog now!
I did honestly debate a bit whether or not I wanted to post this review. In some sense, I feel a bit bad taking the time to so thoroughly single out a book and say "I did not like this, and here's why!" However, I haven't seen that many thorough reviews of this book, and I genuinely think that if you are considering reading it, seeing my opinions might be helpful in making that decision. Also, like, I already wrote most of this for my NetGalley feedback form, so I might as well. (Okay, that's a bit of a lie, I wrote the first version of this for my feedback form, then revised it twice to actually make it comprehensible.)
The thing about A Sisterhood of Secret Ambitions is that I really wanted to like it! I first saw it on bookstagram at the beginning of the year, and I thought it looked like a promising YA historical fiction, something I'm always looking for more of. I was interested in the fact that it had a fat protagonist, and I was intrigued by a set-up that presented both sisterhood and a competition between four girls. I wanted to see how it played with the tension between those two things and how what appeared to be a progressive voice would challenge the trope of women competing to win a man. Unfortunately, I don't think A Sisterhood of Secret Ambitions lived up to its potential, and I found it to be thoroughly mediocre, if not annoying and boring at times. I even found myself skimming at the end, which I never do.
I believe this book is a classic case of an author biting off more than they can chew. Or perhaps a book that would have been great if it had gone through a couple more revisions. The ideas were all there, it just wasn’t put together very well. There were a lot of weaknesses to it, but overall it stemmed from the fact that the writing just wasn't strong enough. I talk in more details in my blog post, but the characterization was lacking, the plot was static, and the political discussions were not nearly nuanced enough (too much #girlboss energy instead of Elsie actually wanting to help others).
What A Sisterhood of Secret Ambitions really came down to was: it was boring. It should have been interesting, but the writing wasn’t good enough to make it so. The plot needed a major reworking, the prose needed help, and the characterization was sorely lacking. Although some might be able to enjoy it, I can’t say I recommend this book.
-----
Pre-review: well. That was a thing that I read.
The acknowledgements were quite nice, but unfortunately they might have been the best part of the book.
1.5-2 stars
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an advanced reader copy.
I did honestly debate a bit whether or not I wanted to post this review. In some sense, I feel a bit bad taking the time to so thoroughly single out a book and say "I did not like this, and here's why!" However, I haven't seen that many thorough reviews of this book, and I genuinely think that if you are considering reading it, seeing my opinions might be helpful in making that decision. Also, like, I already wrote most of this for my NetGalley feedback form, so I might as well. (Okay, that's a bit of a lie, I wrote the first version of this for my feedback form, then revised it twice to actually make it comprehensible.)
The thing about A Sisterhood of Secret Ambitions is that I really wanted to like it! I first saw it on bookstagram at the beginning of the year, and I thought it looked like a promising YA historical fiction, something I'm always looking for more of. I was interested in the fact that it had a fat protagonist, and I was intrigued by a set-up that presented both sisterhood and a competition between four girls. I wanted to see how it played with the tension between those two things and how what appeared to be a progressive voice would challenge the trope of women competing to win a man. Unfortunately, I don't think A Sisterhood of Secret Ambitions lived up to its potential, and I found it to be thoroughly mediocre, if not annoying and boring at times. I even found myself skimming at the end, which I never do.
I believe this book is a classic case of an author biting off more than they can chew. Or perhaps a book that would have been great if it had gone through a couple more revisions. The ideas were all there, it just wasn’t put together very well. There were a lot of weaknesses to it, but overall it stemmed from the fact that the writing just wasn't strong enough. I talk in more details in my blog post, but the characterization was lacking, the plot was static, and the political discussions were not nearly nuanced enough (too much #girlboss energy instead of Elsie actually wanting to help others).
What A Sisterhood of Secret Ambitions really came down to was: it was boring. It should have been interesting, but the writing wasn’t good enough to make it so. The plot needed a major reworking, the prose needed help, and the characterization was sorely lacking. Although some might be able to enjoy it, I can’t say I recommend this book.
-----
Pre-review: well. That was a thing that I read.
The acknowledgements were quite nice, but unfortunately they might have been the best part of the book.
1.5-2 stars
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an advanced reader copy.
caylieratzlaff's review against another edition
4.0
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC of this book!
3.5/5. I really, really, REALLY like the concept of this book. The 1920s combined with social justice issues including race, LGBTQ+, feminism, voting, body shapes and sizes, etc. was interesting to read -- albeit a bit strange considering the historical context. BUT that's what makes this book beautiful.
The prose is absolutely amazing and has many quotable lines. Additionally, our protagonist Eloise is an amazing writer herself, and the chapters occasionally end with poetry about the events in the novel. The novel itself is about dreams and ambition (e.g. the title of the book) and the ending was immensely satisfying.
I do this the prose was semi-chaotic though because it ran as a stream of consciousness almost from Eloise. At times, I just couldn't keep up because it was almost annoying trying to keep up with what was going on with the writing style.
3.5/5. I really, really, REALLY like the concept of this book. The 1920s combined with social justice issues including race, LGBTQ+, feminism, voting, body shapes and sizes, etc. was interesting to read -- albeit a bit strange considering the historical context. BUT that's what makes this book beautiful.
The prose is absolutely amazing and has many quotable lines. Additionally, our protagonist Eloise is an amazing writer herself, and the chapters occasionally end with poetry about the events in the novel. The novel itself is about dreams and ambition (e.g. the title of the book) and the ending was immensely satisfying.
I do this the prose was semi-chaotic though because it ran as a stream of consciousness almost from Eloise. At times, I just couldn't keep up because it was almost annoying trying to keep up with what was going on with the writing style.
thindbooks's review against another edition
1.0
*this e-arc was sent to me by the publisher to give an honest review in return*
This book was not it for me. It’s about four girls who are a part of a society and have been trained to get proposed by the next 18 year old president. When I first read the summary, I thought it was very unique and gave me a little of The Selection vibe. When I started reading the book, I was into the book but then it went down hill for me. The story went a little boring and also a little childish. I felt that the world building didn’t make sense and was a little confusing. The plot structure wasn’t well structured as I felt the story was messy with not good pacing.
I didn’t really enjoy the characters in this book and didn’t feel attached to them. The main character is Elsie who I felt acted as a child but also mature at the same time. She didn’t have a great character development in this book and I didn’t care much for her character. The side characters were a little enjoyable but in some points they were described as 12 year olds so I was a little confused. The romance in this book is practically the girls flirting with the next “president”.
For the ending, I didn’t pay attention to it as much as the story got boring. Sadly the book was just disappointing for me and I didn’t enjoy it the way I was hoping to. I think some people will enjoy this book and if it does seem that you want to read it, you should! Don’t let this review get to you!
This book was not it for me. It’s about four girls who are a part of a society and have been trained to get proposed by the next 18 year old president. When I first read the summary, I thought it was very unique and gave me a little of The Selection vibe. When I started reading the book, I was into the book but then it went down hill for me. The story went a little boring and also a little childish. I felt that the world building didn’t make sense and was a little confusing. The plot structure wasn’t well structured as I felt the story was messy with not good pacing.
I didn’t really enjoy the characters in this book and didn’t feel attached to them. The main character is Elsie who I felt acted as a child but also mature at the same time. She didn’t have a great character development in this book and I didn’t care much for her character. The side characters were a little enjoyable but in some points they were described as 12 year olds so I was a little confused. The romance in this book is practically the girls flirting with the next “president”.
For the ending, I didn’t pay attention to it as much as the story got boring. Sadly the book was just disappointing for me and I didn’t enjoy it the way I was hoping to. I think some people will enjoy this book and if it does seem that you want to read it, you should! Don’t let this review get to you!
lindasdarby's review against another edition
2.0
I'm not the audience for this book so I don't want to be harsh BUT I didn't love it. Such a fantastic idea but the author wasn't great at explaining the society which was problematic. The protagonist was unlikable. She kept making choices that hurt her friends and was selfish - the idea was great but once again the execution was lacking. I love the idea that women can do anything - of course they can, this book talked about it but it just fell flat for me. maybe a 12 you would love this book - a 49 yo didn't.
disabledbookdragon's review against another edition
adventurous
lighthearted
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5