I bought this book on a recommendation in The Times on Saturday . I found the story ran out of steam early on . It seemed the author had a good plot , but didn't use it to develop characters fully . They were all stereotypical.

The concept of this book is fantastic. I think a lot of people enjoy “what if...” stories. What if we didn’t go to war with Germany? What if we surrendered to them and were taken over? It’s always fascinating to look at what someone thinks could have happened. While I don’t know if it’s realistic or not (anything is possible), I am intrigued by the idea of women being split into castes. It’s both interesting and heartbreaking to think that some women might be the very bottom of society, while others are at the top (below men). Reflecting on this, there is some reality to the system. Women who are at the bottom of our society, though in a far less formal way. Their children doomed to continue being at the bottom. But this book doesn’t focus on the bottom of the pile, it focuses on a Geli. A woman at the top. I’m not sure if this was the right choice or not. I can’t quite put my finger on it. I enjoyed learning about her world but it felt like some snapshots were there for the sake of being snapshots and not necessarily part of the story. I feel like the actual story was lacking at times and the ending felt disappointing. I’m not really sure what the story was, what the author was wanting to say, or what story they wanted to tell. I think the concept/world building was fantastic but the storyline itself leaves a lot to be desired. I wanted this to be amazing but I wonder if the author had a brilliant concept but struggled to come up with a decent storyline. I don’t think it’s a terrible storyline it just wasn’t very well organised or was a bit lacking. It’s like it ran out of steam or was trying to be too many things at once. It’s technically a very good book, the world is super, I just wanted more from the storyline and character arcs.