I came away learning a lot from this novel. I honestly didn't know that much about Eleanor Roosevelt (I didn't even know she was Teddy Roosevelt's niece and Roosevelt was her maiden name and Franklin was her 5th cousin once removed) and nothing about Mary Bethune before I read this historical fiction novel. While both of these women is interesting independently, their shared history is fascinating as is the marriage between Franklin and Eleanor.

I thought these coauthors merged their parts seamlessly because I couldn't tell any difference in the writing from one chapter to another. 

I found one of the most compelling chapters about how not speaking out against racial injustice only perpetuates the injustice. 

What comes across is that these two didn't spend a lot of time together, so these authors had to zoom in on what was likely an acquaintance that became a light friendship over 15ish years. I understand what they were trying to do, and it does have a great author's note from each of the coauthors. 

The writing, as I said before, is similar throughout, but it's trying to thread a story over thinnish history. Some of the exposition I appreciated, but sometimes it got pretty boring. And then sometimes the authors would do a TON of dialogue that was basically a different version of the same exposition. Often I would forget whose perspective the reader was in during these dialogue-heavy chapters because you couldn't easily tell based on how the dialogue was written.

Again, I learned a lot about these two women (some it is a bit juicy!!), and I always appreciate learning more anti-racism.