3.25
adventurous hopeful informative medium-paced

Well-researched, and the women the author profiles are definitely interesting. That said, it took me nearly twice as long to get through as a book of this length typically does. The writing isn’t bad per se, but it wasn’t gripping me like other books have.

I also want to call out that all four women were white. And in particular, Elizabeth Van Lew’s servant (Mary Jane, who I believe was either still enslaved or had been freed but was still Van Lew’s servant) seemed much more interesting than she was, but was only spoken about as a sort of off-screen sidekick. I think this book would have benefitted from at LEAST one of the featured women being a woman of color.