Tam is a mess. She is a young career woman who works for a company that values men. (nothing new) She is engaged to be married to a jerk. (nothing new) She has lost contact with the best friend she has ever had in her life. She is psychologically abused by everyone in her family–except her silent sister-in-law, who is also abused. She is slowly and cluelessly giving up her own identity and happiness to conform to her fiancé’s wishes. At work, she is quietly and relentlessly excellent, but believes the system can’t be changed–even though she knows what should be changed.

Her life is headed off a cliff that she cannot see. We root for her to STOP and respect herself. But she always has some excuse.

Finally, in the end, she is stuck in an elevator with a guy who calls her “exceptional.” Her shining knight on a white horse. But she almost blows it by getting all the way down the aisle at her wedding before she backs away from the fiancé jerk.

Many people, especially many women, allow others to define them, destroy their self-respect, and gaslight them into conforming. It is a real problem. But the presentation of that problem in this novel is problematic. The anecdotes don’t add up to a realistic person. And the happy-ever-after ending is too simplistic–missing a few screws to make sense.