Vanessa Riley

Dorothy Kirwan Thomas, the real-life inspiration for this novel, is a woman of color who escaped from slavery and became one of the wealthiest entrepreneurs in the Caribbean during the colonial era. Riley brings Dorothy’s story to life, covering childhood to long after she’s established herself as a powerful landowner, in a way that doesn’t feel rushed or bogged by details.

Vanessa Riley normally writes romance novels and she’s brought that same level of readability to this book. The chapters were short and quick to get through which set a quick pace through a very long novel. I did start to lose steam towards the end so I could have done with 100 less pages, but Dorothy's life is full of events. I would have liked to see a little more of the day-to-day running of her business and how she trained the girls she employed, but (as I mentioned) it's already a long book and Riley chose to focus on Dorothy's family and relationships.

I had two small critiques that have to do with the historical setting. The first I noticed because a review of another historical novel mentioned it. The phrase “my truth” is a term that’s been popping up during the last few years and it does not have a place earlier than the 21st century. Every time that phrase comes up it pulls me out of the setting. There’s a lot of modern feminist ideas being explored, but given that Dorothy’s character is ahead of her time it never feels out of place, but I could do without the specifically modern feminist language. The second thing is nitpicky, but the term corset is used often and they didn't have corsets in the 18th century, they had stays. Some points I think the author means stays and others I think she means bodice since the character plays with her “corset strings” when she’s fully dressed. Yes, I have been watching historical costumers on youtube, how did you know?

Aside from those things I was delighted to finally get a historical novel set someplace other than Western Europe during the World Wars. There are so many places in history that would be interesting to explore and I’m glad Riley is introducing the world to Dorothy, whose story is so radical that if it was only a story one would call in unbelievable. But life is stranger than fiction and Dorothy’s life shows how true that is.

*Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me a copy in exchange for an honest review.… (mere)

Fine. Dolly is resourceful and smart as a whip. The majority of this is her being a businesswoman and the various white mens infatuated with her (varying in power imbalances from much to little to none). Wealth becomes a security blanket for Dolly, helping keep the nightmares, the past, the racism, and the feelings of inadequacy at bay.

Don’t be put off by the length. Each chapter is bite-sized.

I was very impressed by what the author was able to infer from historical documents. The narrative voice for Dolly was also good. I had never heard of Dorothy Kirwan Thomas before this. But I wanted more about how Dolly started training her workers than all the dalliances with mens.

Cells was just raggedy to me, and he never really stopped. i think he liked the push and pull.… (mere)

From page 7:

"On the count of three, I'd grab the fat tree trunk.
One.
Two.
Two and a half.
Two and a third.
Three. I started and clung to the vine..."

HOLD UP. DOES THIS AUTHOR THINK 2 AND 1/3 COMES *AFTER* 2 AND 1/2?! I THOUGHT THIS AUTHOR HAD A PHD IN ENGINEERING FROM STANFORD.

I apologize for the all-caps, but I can't even.

Am I so petty that I couldn't get over this one small mistake? Yes. Yes, I am. It makes me think no one who worked on this book understands simple fractions.… (mere)