Good book, good author. It didn't wow me but it was a good train read and nice to read a book set in Baltimore. Tyler did a great job with details of time, I loved the way Pearl's old diary entries described the early years of the 20th century, and Tyler often weaved in the different fashions of the passing decades. She also writes compelling characters. I really disliked Cody, who turned from a mischievous kid into an adult consumed by jealousy and obsessed with certain event in the past to the point where his bad memories became his only memories. The book jacket said that Pearl could sometimes be a terrifying mother but I didn't think she was so bad, she just freaked out sometimes when she became overwhelmed as a single mother. She could be severe, and she isn't someone i would even like if i met her, but she did her best. When Beck came back at the end Cody acts like a child and characteristically takes things too far to the point where Beck leaves. Maybe we are supposed to feel bad for him but I didn't. He left Pearl with nothing but a house and left his kids without so much as a goodbye; he doesn't deserve to come back and say "wow, look at my family, is she named after me, by chance?" I wasn't really interested in the Jenny storyline and I of course liked Ezra a lot (take that, Cody).