I wasn’t a fan of all the gruesome parts this book had like the teeth but I enjoyed seeing the main character enjoy the pirates presence

Terrifying

Very meditative story about faith and the lengths one will go for it. A lot of conversation on the differing perspective of worldview, and ultimately touches on the tendency to enforce belief rather than see through with compromise.

Excellent memoir of a mother daughter relationship, a coming of age story, and complex cultural identity

I liked it! I have decided to read the next book in the series. I love strong female characters, a mystery and a historical setting. This book was set in Egypt - very cool! I also appreciated how this character did not beat around the bush - she asked some very up front questions and that brought some welcomed action to situations that otherwise would have stalled out.

This book was a great read. Definitely want to read book 2.

Loved this book.

This book is a narrative describing law and punishment. The story is set in an unnamed penal colony and describes the use of elaborate torture, which scrawls out the prisoner’s sentence on the back of the prisoner using their blood. The prisoner slowly dies over the course of twelve hours. I recommend this book for anyone who likes classic stories!

Complicated story set

I loved the premise of the book and the story of the historical character the book was written around! It even prompted me to do more research on Hedy Lemarr. However, I’ve enjoyed other Marie Benedict books better. This one I felt just did not do the main charter, Hedy, justice. I felt it made too much of a big deal around her marriage to Mandl and her acting career centering around her beauty, and not enough time around her time spent as an intelligent inventor! The book ended a little abruptly for me and I would have liked to hear more about how the rest of her life panned out. Overall, it was an easy and interesting read, but read more like a romantic novel than the historic fiction I’ve come to like from this author.