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.