Just as in Alcott's Little Women, Rossner's book establishes the second daughter as the solid center of the action. Nell is presented as the most balanced character, avoiding the excesses of feminism, low self-esteem, or loss of self-control that plague the other characters. From the beginning she acknowledges her father as the "sole light of my life." Her attraction to Hugo, Saul, and Jack Campbell are only momentary diversions, and even Shimmy satisfies her mainly because through him she can preserve a bit of her father and rediscover herself. She loved Tony, her mother's second husband, who was a true father to her, who taught her a love of opera, and who even eclipsed her real father for a time. On the whole, so long as she has a secure base in a father's love, she is a happy, self-reliant woman.

Louisa, her older half-sister, is less secure...