4.75* 
 This book was so close to a 5* for me, but didn't quite make it. After finishing this book and reading a little about the author, I was really surprised that this was her first book. Her writing is beautiful and it was quite obvious that she spent quite a bit of time researching the historical evidence behind this story. Her descriptions and the places and the characters is so rich that I felt like I was there with them. 
 I felt so connected to a number of the characters as well which ended up being what helped me to push through the first pages or so. Even though I knew how the book is going to end (more or less), I was still rooting for Agnes and hoping certain things would change. 
 With all these joys in mind, there were a few things that made this book fall just short of the 5*. I'm not sure why, but something about the beginning felt slow for me. Somewhere right around the page mark was where I started to find myself truly invested and drawn into the story. It may perhaps be that there were so many new and different names of people and places that I struggled through those parts. It could also be that some parts felt very dense with information - useful and necessary information, but dense nonetheless. Secondly, there were a few times that I found the POV changes to be slightly confusing. We would start hearing Agnes' first hand account to Toti of events, then suddenly we would switch to Agnes remembering events, but not sharing all of them. This switching had me confused at a few different places and I was left wondering whether she was sharing information aloud or if she was just remembering the events. 
 These few things had me slightly distracted or annoyed at times, but overall I flew through this book and loved the way in which Hannah Kent wove this story together.