** spoiler alert ** 
 I got my hands on an advanced reader's edition the day before it was released. I still feel special. 
 This historical novel chronicles the emotional love affair between famous architect Frank Lloyd Wright and little-known translator/feminist scholar Mamah Borthwick. The story, which follows Mamah's (pronounced "May-muh") perspective, took the author more than seven years to carefully research. Horan's writing is crisp and beautiful--I felt as though everything I read was what really happened, even though I knew that the author took some liberties with the facts. She certainly did justice to the memory of her "characters." 
 For days I've been consumed by this delicate and heart wrenching tale. There I was, almost finished and already planning to give it four stars. And then, I read the ending. Jeeee-sus! I realize that this story is based in history, and that the author didn't just pull the idea out of nowhere, but, crap. The whole now-I'm-having-nightmares factor knocked my rating down to three stars. I suppose you could argue that an author's power to shake me up so badly is a plus--Horan is indeed a fantastic writer. And besides the ending, I loved this story.