Marie is in a relationship with the love of her life Benjamin, and before he is shipped of to war he asks Marie to marry him, she accepts but her mother refuses the union. Heartbroken the couple goes their separate ways. She ends up marrying another man.

This book is about Marie, set in New York, just before World War 2 started. I really wanted to get into this book but I couldn"t. The action is summarised and told, mostly from the perspective of the protagonist but at one point also from her love interest at the beginning of the story. We actually don't get to experience much as the reader because it is told in this way and so I found it hard to connect with the main character and what she is going through.
The writing is often clunky and over explained which I also found distracting.

It's a shame because the voice of the character is strong and her perspective is interesting, it touches on themes of colourism and the difficulties of life as a woman in those times so I was really interested to read it, but for me it just didn't land. The details from the period are there, which is interesting, but I didn't get a feel for the atmosphere, especially it being just as WW2 kicked off, but possibly this is because this was not a big deal to Marie, the main character.