I’ve heard a lot about this story and was really looking forward to getting into it. There were a lot of good things, but also a lot of things that made it just… meh. I’ll mention everything below starting with the writing, characters, and then plot. 

With the writing, I enjoyed the immersive language and pretty prose. However, I really didn’t like the dual timelines and THREE different point of views. I’m fine usually with two, but three? It’s a bit excessive for me and I often found that Henry really didn’t have that much to offer when it came to his POV. Martha’s was a little more interesting, but the only one I was fully invested in was Opaline’s just because her story had a lot more going on. So with these writing choices in mind, despite the beautiful writing, this was one of the points that made this book so lackluster for me. 

When you get to the characters, there’s a little more going for this story than in its initial set up with alternating timelines and three different POVs. Martha’s character was pretty well developed and emotionally deep, but again, Henry fell flat in his endeavors and personality. I often felt he was pushed to the side and wondered a lot what his chapters had to offer. With Martha, though, her family tree got really confusing at times (especially towards the end). Opaline was the only character who felt like she had a solid foundation, background, and personality. She had aspirations and dreams and hopes and so much emotion. I honestly wish the story would have been just about her. Her family tree, though, also got super confusing as well towards the end. 

With the plot, the story lost a lot of its points here as well. Everything felt really jumbled and sometimes I just couldn’t make sense of what was happening. The chapters alternated from timelines too many times, POVs, and just shifts in what was happening that I felt like I got whiplash. The story itself wasn’t bad, but it really wasn’t woven together in a way that made it easy to consume. 

Overall, while I do think the story can be enjoyable at times, it was just kind of average for me. Not entirely good. Not entirely bad. Too much became confusing for me to really enjoy the story as a whole and only one of our main characters felt fully developed. 3/5 stars. 

Source: Audiobook from Libby Public Library

(P.S. You can read tons of books—including ones written by me—by trying a free trial of Kindle Unlimited!)