" This is a fairly absorbing novel, but it has a couple of glaring issues that prevent it from being a great one. First, as historical fiction it is too heavy on the history, and too light on the fiction: as other reviewers have pointed out, although it is very well researched, the author introduces a few plot developments that are allowed to fizzle, resulting in a story that feels rather thin. Also the protagonist is annoyingly self-absorbed, with a tobacco habit that had me wondering - based on Clark's descriptions of smoking - if the cigarette industry paid her for product placement. I realize she is using her heroine to portray the tension between modernity and tradition in 1880s England as embodied by a "New Woman", but using the glorification of smoking to do so seems a strange choice. "
— Kate, 2/13/2014