This book had the perfect balance of storytelling while using information from primary and secondary sources. The story of Hicks life from childhood through adulthood was so interesting. She lived through a period that not many people would remember or know about. She was also a pioneer in women in the workforce - especially in journalism.
Her relationship with Eleanor Roosevelt was also interesting. The things she was privy to and was a part of in history was really amazing.
This book is also written in a way that engages the reader without getting bogged down in details. It reads more of a fiction than non-fiction.
It would be interesting to go to the Roosevelt Presidential Library and see the letters that this book is based on.
Enjoy!

This is an accessible biography for young adults. Hick's unconventional life and the glimpses of life beyond the expected will appeal to teens who are wondering where their talents and desires fit.

Initially I wasn't sure I would continue reading this book, as the author takes us through a deep dive into Lorena Hickock "Hick's" childhood, and I myself was unaware of her story or an overall historical significance. Sticking with the story pays off, as we learn about Hick's enormous talent and ultimately her romance with Eleanor Roosevelt, which I had never known about. I thought this was a very carefully researched novel, that might be challenging or less interesting for the casual reader. But fans of history and Eleanor Roosevelt won't want to miss this.

Just as Hick's skill as a reporter was making herself invisible so the story comes alive, the author shines a spotlight on Hick and Eleanor Roosevelt in a way that makes me see history in a new light. I think readers who need to know that LGBTQIA+ people have always been around will want to read this. The writing and research were wonderful, and I came away with more appreciation of Eleanor Roosevelt.

This biography of Lorena Hickok was incredibly interesting from start to finish. What a life she had! Born in Wisconsin, she was the oldest--and in her opinion, least pretty--of three girls who had an incredibly abusive, volatile father. After her mother died, Lorena moved out and supported herself as a young teenager. She found work as a domestic worker in others' homes, finished high school in Michigan, and eventually attended Lawrence University in Wisconsin. Before finishing her degree, she left to devote her time to her job at the Milwaukee Sentinel and then Minneapolis Tribune.

Lorena, who began going by "Hick," had an engaging writing style and began to excel in her field despite being a woman. She later moved to New York and worked for the Associated Press. She met Eleanor Roosevelt in the 1930s, as FDR was running for President, and the two women hit it off. They developed a close friendship that clearly, based on the thousands of surviving letters they sent one another, became love. When Hick's reporting of Eleanor became ethically questionable due to their relationship, she quit the newspaper business and began traveling the country to interview people affected by the Great Depression. Though they couldn't spend as much time together as they'd have liked, she and Eleanor remained close friends for the rest of Eleanor's life.

This is a well-researched and engaging account of a very impressive and unusual woman. In the author's note, Sarah Miller notes that she read all of the surviving correspondence between Eleanor and Hick (among other things, of course) as part of her research. Her respect for her subject really shows in her writing.

Clearly meticulously researched and detailed. This was very much about Hick instead of Eleanor Roosevelt, and bits and pieces were missing because of the nature of the primary sources--a fact I think I would have liked to see addressed more in the book too.

This nonfiction book tells the story of Lorena A. Hickok, who rose to prominence as a reporter in the early 20th century when few women worked in journalism. The account of her pathway through the newsrooms of the time from “girl reporter” to correspondent for the Associated Press, is inspiring, especially given her humble beginnings in the Midwest. She had been on her own from the age of fourteen, when, after her mother’s death, her father married his housekeeper and sent Lorena out to be a hired girl to another family.

Brilliant, prickly, adventurous, Lorena managed to obtain a high school education and some college and to discover that she had a knack for writing. Over the years, she made a name for herself, working at the Milwaukee Sentinel and the Minneapolis Tribune, eventually serving as Sunday editor. Uninterested in the ways of ladies, she’d never married and had long ago shed her first name, Lorena. Instead she was simply “Hick.”

At age 39, while she was working for the AP, Hick experienced one of those unexpected life-changing moments that turned her world upside down. She was assigned by the AP to cover Eleanor Roosevelt whose husband Franklin was the Democratic nominee for president in 1932. While Eleanor was very much a Roosevelt of Hyde Park, her childhood had been as chaotic as Hick’s, as her beautiful mother referred to her as “the ugly duckling” and her alcoholic father was generally absent or ill. Not until she was sent off to boarding school as a teenager after her parents died, did Eleanor Roosevelt begin to come into her own. Hick was touched at Eleanor’s honesty about her difficulties and grateful that Eleanor trusted her with the truth.

The two women grew close over the course of the campaign, and by the time FDR was inaugurated on March 4, 1933, Hick was falling for Eleanor.

Much has been written about the marriage of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt, two distant cousins whose marriage had once seemed like a fairy tale, a love match between the dashing Franklin and his quiet, brilliant cousin. By the time of the election, Eleanor knew that Franklin was unfaithful to her, something that wounded her deeply. While the two of them were close and continued to work as a team, (Franklin charged Eleanor to be his “eyes and ears,” because polio limited his mobility and travel), she was under no illusions about their relationship.

The night before FDR’s inauguration, Hick had dinner with Eleanor Roosevelt at the Mayflower Hotel, the two of them nervous and distracted. Hick read Franklin’s speech with no thought of leaking its contents. She realized that she was no longer operating within the boundaries of journalism when it came to Eleanor. Their relationship was an intensely personal one, and she had no doubt that Eleanor, despite her marriage and her duties as First Lady, loved her too.

Hick gave up her career as a reporter, taking on a job with the Federal Emergency Relief Administration which involved considerable travel. She and Eleanor wrote frequently - flowery, affectionate missives that made it clear they cherished one another. While none are overtly sexual, many refer to physical affection beyond that enjoyed by close friends. Author Sarah Miller points out that Eleanor had friends who were lesbians, even if the word was never used. She describes Eleanor as a woman who understood that there are many types of love. Eventually Hick would quietly move into the White House, with Franklin’s blessing.

Miller paints a thoughtful portrait of Hick, a bright, complicated character whose adoration of the First Lady upended her career. The book is intended for a young adult audience, but at 200 pages may exceed the attention span of teens. The first part of the book about Hick’s own young adult years is a little long and consists mainly of her getting and losing one job after another. The story picks up once Eleanor in introduced. Hick is not too juvenile for adults to appreciate this unexpected love story.

Hick will be published by Random House Children’s on May 27, 2025. Thanks to NetGalley for providing a digital pre-publication copy in exchange for my honest review.

This was really interesting, especially since my grandmother was also born in 1893. Young readers would be flabbergasted to see how Ms. Hickok had to fend for herself from a young age, and I was amazed at how she was able to become educated and get work as a journalist at a time when this was a very hard thing for women to do. I know the point of this book was to highlight her relationship with Eleanor Roosevelt, but to me, the most interesting part was learning about her career.

I love Miller's work, and this is very well researched, but I'm probably not going to buy it for my middle school library. I did buy Miller's titles about the Romanovs and about the Dionne Quintuplets because they were fascinating, but my students now rarely pick up nonfiction if it is over 200 pages. Fans of women's history will want to take a look at this great title.