This book was a fantastic read. Susan has a gift with Historical Fiction. The twists and turns were amazing. I was captivated the entire book.

So desperate to escape the poverty and squalor of the tenement she’s living in in New York City, Sophie Whalen, a recent immigrant from Ireland, agrees to marry a man she’s never met in far away San Francisco. Her new husband, widower Martin Hocking is handsome but cold. Sophie is drawn instead, to his young daughter, who appears to be locked in her own world. As Sophie tries to solve the mystery surrounding her new family, she gets caught up in the lives of two other women, all on the eve of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. Meissner brings one of the greatest disasters in American history to life in this immersive read

Susan Meissner's latest novel is a page turner. I was strongly drawn to the story of a woman whose life intersects with two other women and their children through the secret life of the man she marries the day they met in person. The details of San Francisco earthquake of 1906 and subsequent fires provide the backdrop. There are a few passages that use mild four letter words which I thought were unnecessary, and the plot had a couple improbable twists and timelines, but overall, I thought a good read.