I really wanted to like this but the over-the-top flowery prose, uneven pacing and style of the book-within-the-book didn't agree with me. I'm also a little tired of woke white women trying to write about issues of race that they've clearly never experienced. And yeah - TECHNICALLY the character isn't REALLY a PoC, but that's a pretty lame loophole. That said, the middle part of the novel was a nice bit of escapism and verged on being a real page-turner. I feel like the author might have some real chops if she can mature past the too-in-love-with-itself prose style.