3 stars. Well written and researched retelling of Edith Wilson as the shadow President when Woodrow Wilson was ill. It was a good book and Roberts is a fantastic writer. The failing for me was the shallowness. We never really got anything new about Edith or a better understanding of the events. Where is the deeper story of WHY she did it and more detail of HOW she did it? I would have liked a closer look at the day to day and what she actually DID-letters, conversations, there has to be more on how she influenced history while Wilson was unable to his job. The book fails there and instead gives us a biography of Edith’s early life, which is interesting, but then it isn’t tied to her later actions, or how her life before First Lady played into her decision to isolate Woodrow and take over. The big missed opportunity for me in the book was the lack of connection or expansion of Edith and the Suffrage movement. She was apparently quite against women getting the vote but why, and how did she justify basically taking the reins of the Oval Office as a woman? How did she get the men to go along with a woman calling the shots and acting for the President? Rebecca Boggs Roberts is a SUFFRAGE HISTORIAN, I wish she had brought more of that into the book to really give us a deeper understanding of Edith. I received a copy of the book-this is my opinion.