What I liked: I loved to see women in higher and respected positions, especially at that point in the ‘20s when it was pretty uncommon. The portrayal of Elizebeth with how she loved her work but also her family and had to battle her priorities and mindset between the two resonates with those of us who are working mothers/wives. 

It was a great comparison between the two women in how they lived in either love or hate, justice or vengeance. And their thought process I felt, was well conveyed and immersive. 

Also liked the unique story focus of rum running in the 20s. I haven’t read anything about it before. 

What I did not care for: I wasn’t a huge fan of the writing style. It’s mostly a narrative, sort of removed or hovering above the characters, it felt like to me, rather than feeling like I was *in* the story. In the women’s heads, yes, but not in the story itself. 

The codebreaking part I thought fell short. I was so looking forward to this because I love codebreaking books. But this felt like it was portrayed more as a sort of spidey-sense - it kept talking about her intuition, hackles raised, hair on the back of the neck, clearing the mind, etc. Very little was written about the details or a description of codebreaking so that you understood what actually went into it or what Elizebeth actually did, which I think is a miss for how involved, intelligent and complicated it was. 

The book was interesting but just sort of disappointing based on what it was proposed to be for me and I lost interest in it a bit. 

Thanks to Netgalley for the advanced copy of this book. All opinions are mine.