Snow White? Not exactly.

 

Wake Me Most Wickedly by Felicia Grossman

While I really wanted to like this novel, and I *did* enjoy several scenes (especially the one with the older ladies who shared similar characteristics with several particular characters in the Disney version of Snow White), I had a much more difficult time with this book.

For starters, some of the characters that appear in "Marry Me by Midnight" come back to this story, which is fun; however, a few of them seem to have undergone either personality shifts or transplants. Another thing that was distracting were all the scenes of conniving. It got to be too much for me to want to keep up with: who is trying to scan whom, for what purpose, for how much money, etc. Finally, the bedroom scenes are much more steamy than I wanted to read--especially given the stated fact that one character was bad for another character, and their involvement would be awful. Did that stop them? Nope. It got to be a bit repetitive on that score.

I did, however, want to mention that (a) Hannah finally feels supported by the Jewish community in their synagogue, and I loved that so much; and (b) Sol doesn't convert for business, shows his sincerity in his faith, and always wears his yarmulke. Always (ahem, see steamy remark above).

The historical notes in the back of the novel are *chef's kiss* amazing. I'd love it if Felicia Grossman also wrote more on the Jewish experience in this time period with the whole scope of history and society. Fascinating.

I received a eARC copy of this novel on NetGalley, which had not gone through final copy edits and within which I found multiple errors that were distracting to me. I am confident they'll be fixed before final publication.