The premise of the book in the description was so intriguing but the execution fell flat. The book was hard to read. There were a lot of passages that felt like they weren’t necessary to the plot. Also I thought the story was going to be about what happened once she returned to the estate and was throughly confused when the FMC turned out to be a young preteen almost all of the book. 2.5 stars

Thank you to Net Galley and the publisher for the ARC copy in exchange for an honest review.

I enjoyed this book and this is my first time reading from the author. I was locked in right away and I didn’t want to put it down.

I received a copy of this book for my honest opinion from Netgalley

Thanks to Netgalley and Atria Books for the ARC of this book.

For the first eleven years of her life, the precocious daughter of a great European family tracing its roots back more than fifteen generations, never set foot on land that her family didn’t own. Cloistered on a sprawling estate in the Alpine foothills, as the youngest sibling of her generation she has little knowledge of the dark forces gathering in the shadows to strike at her family. But, when her insatiable curiosity leads her to uncover a priceless text hidden hundreds of years before, she shines light into corners meant to be left in the dark and threatens to uncover secrets that could trigger an internecine battle for succession.

Then, with no warning or explanation, she is whisked away on a private jet and exiled to an elite but isolated all-girls boarding school in the United States. More than a decade later, now in her twenties, she finds her bank accounts abruptly frozen by her family. She is recalled from her affluent but empty existence abroad. Little does she know that her family has plans for her, including an arranged marriage. Worse, as she draws closer to discovering the horrific act that sent her into exile a decade before, and shadowy enemies close in on her family, she must face her most dangerous and powerful foe: her own father.

This book was nothing like what I was expecting from the original description. I was not expecting a book involving an insane mother. I found the book z bit disjointed and the ending left a lot to be desired for me.

2.5 out of 5 ⭐️

Excellent book. A dysfunctional family where the mother is a seriously unstable individual given too much power by a weak father. As these problems usually have a genetic component, out of three children only one seems to have bypassed the genetic problem. The other two are the boys who turn out to be mentally unstable in different ways. One is an emotionally weak musician and the other a violence prone sadist. Neither one should inherit the leadership of the family. The grandfather wisely decides to try to save the future of the family by hiding away the one member who can be its future leader. Unfortunately, at the end of the book, she is still too young to save herself from the clutches of her insane mother. Let's hope the next book will offer some solutions to the family drama.

I have no idea what was going on here. This was not a fun read. I felt like the author was all over the place.