** spoiler alert ** 
 **I acquired this book to give my honest review via LibraryThing Early Reviewers.** This book was a wonderful experience for me as the genre and setting were outside of my usual reading. Even so it, there are books that surprise you and encourage you to try reading more novels outside of your "usual" reading forte. I loved seeing through Vera's eyes as she internally struggles with her desperation of being trapped within her privileged life and the expectations of her family and peers. Granted, I hated that she actually had an affair with Emil. If she was so unsatisfied with her married life she should have divorced her husband and then married Emil, but that is just me and my personal morals. Her life has been difficult as she strives to please everyone's expectations of her, but she reaches the point where she realizes her life is on a downward spiral of eternal unhappiness. I'm so glad I was given the chance to read this book. Truly a masterfully written story of the great expectations for those of highly privileged social status in the 1920's.