With a title like that, with the blurb on the covers, the comments from the author herself, I was expecting a full on exposé of the lives of the wives of the appalling men who have caused so much damage and despair in our world over the past 100 years. Think Imelda Marcos, Elena Ceausescu, Eva Peron and others - how culpable are they in the crimes of their husbands, how much did they know, take part in, facilitate. But no, disappointingly it is not about that at all. The author has been a financial and political journalist for Reuters, and through her work has had the opportunities to observe the wives of the world's powerful leaders, and hence planting the seeds for this story. But this is not really about the wife. Laura's own family hides Yanussian secrets, her loyalties are tested, her own instincts alert to deception. Her findings will impact many, including her own kin. Everybody has a choice.' He laughed. 'Spoken like somebody who's never truly had to make one. Two options are not the same as a choice.'" She isn’t a person, she’s a puppeteer. She discovers what you are, what you can and cannot bear, and uses it.’ A fascinating exploration of absolute power, female agency and the complexities of complicity. Atmospheric, claustrophobic and so elegantly written' ELLERY LLOYD, New York Times bestselling author of The Club

Young lawyer Laura Lăzărescu has been assigned to a high-profile case that could make her career. Having grown up in England as the child of immigrants, she’s completely disconnected from her family’s heritage, but with the trial taking place in her parents’ homeland of Yanussia, Laura hopes she can finally find answers to the questions that have been plaguing her for years. Why did her parents flee Yanussia when she was a child? What was so terrible that it left both of them – particular Laura’s once-vibrant mother – traumatised and unable to show their only daughter love? And why did they erase every connection to their homeland, forcing Laura to feel unmoored in her own home? Did Berry develop sympathy for dictators’ wives in writing Popa’s character? “How do you make your way in a man’s world? If you can’t have power yourself, you have to go adjacent to it . These women are playing for the highest stakes. If they lose power, sometimes they’re executed. It’s this bitter tooth-and-nail fight for survival while also maintaining serene perfection and femininity,” she says. A gripping, intelligent, utterly-of-the-moment thriller' EMMA STONEX, Sunday Times bestselling author of The LamplightersA captivating story of women's power, love and secrets. As timely and profound as it is unforgettable. The ending left me breathless' LARA PRESCOTT, New York Times bestselling author of The Secrets We Kept Eventually, Elena became the head of Romania's Institute for Chemistry. But that was not enough: Elena wanted every chemical institute in the country to come under one central institute in Bucharest, with herself at the helm. She wanted to be called Professor Doctor Engineer, and she found no opposition at the Romanian Academy, since resistance was both futile and dangerous. Clogg, Richard. “Let Us Now Praise a Famous Woman: The Questionable Wisdom of British Institutions in Honouring Elena Ceausescu in the Late 1970s.” New Scientist, Jan. 1990, https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg12517004-500-forum-let-us-now-praise-a-famous-woman-the-questionable-wisdom-of-british-institutions-in-honouring-elena-ceausescu-in-the-late-1970s/.

The book combined real world law terminology (and British law firms) to deliver an accurate and thought-provoking look into who society deems monsters and who we give free passes to. How we define history and how we allow it to shape our present and our future. How money and status enables access to creating an illusion of innocence. Are any of us innocent? How do we truly define innocence? There are many quotable moments within, some memorable characters you can see as they walk into rooms. The author really does captivate in her descriptions: I have always had questions about the wives and children of world leaders and figures throughout history that have held distatorships but none more prominent in my mmind than how much did their wives really know and/or agree with their policies and reigns of terror and for that reason this book was so thought provoking and intrinsincly fascinating. There were moments that were truly heartwrenching and yet there were also moments of love.

RATING: 5/5 STARS

The "trial" that sealed the Ceausecus' fate was perhaps the perfect foil for the decades of falsification and fraud that defined Elena's scientific career. Behr calls the proceedings "farcical" and it is clear that the prosecutors were performing an act of restitution that the entire nation desperately needed. She cites the recent news of Melania Trump launching a non-fungible token (NFT) – a watercolour depicting her eyes. “She called it ‘an amulet to inspire’ and I thought that was actually a perfect representation of Melania’s time in power because it’s a thing, but it’s not a thing. It’s not something you can touch. It’s a representation, an empty emblem, a hollow image, and that felt like a microcosm of her time as first lady,” explains Berry. I think because I knew that this has happened in some form in the real world made it all the more compelling. Laura is enticed into the spiders web of Marija; the little mother, groomed since childhood to believe in her power. I could feel the pressure that Laura felt, the risks she takes, giving me a dry mouth, my heart thumping as I read, it was so well done. The writing is beautiful, there is a grace and elegance to the prose that is stunning, and this alone made the book an absolute a joy to read. However, there is much, much more to this book than just incredible prose, the plot is compelling.