This is the third Megan Chance book I've read, and I'm starting to think that she's reworking the same book over and over again. The setting in this one was more detailed and made for a richer historical novel, but overall it had the same elements as The Spritualist and An Inconvenient Wife: the same abusive husband, the wife's need for esacape, laudanum, accusations of insanity, the lover, and a good dose of suspense in the end. All good things, if you read each book individually.