I received an ARC as a LibraryThing Member GiveAway. There are two sections - historical fiction (approximately 70% of the book) and non-fiction. The fiction attempted to make the characters come alive and succeeded to some extent but I was left untouched by them - they were a bit flat for me although I could see the writing included aspects that should have developed the characters properly. Part of the trouble, I think, was the dissonance between the period of the story and current turns of phrase and thought used by the characters. This made the characters fake in my reading but the use of current language and ways of being might make the characters accessible to you. I appreciated the non-fiction information. I would have preferred to start with that. The combination of historical fiction and non-fiction parts makes an interesting read. ( )