The Women Jefferson Loved is a fascinating take on the lives of the women who were closest to Jefferson both physically and emotionally and what that love might look like. Each of these women he 'loved' in their own right and the stories show that there is a fine love between passionate love and hurtful love. Scharff makes incredibly good points about the roles of women at the time and just how much was placed on their shoulders and to drive the point home, she used the words of Jefferson to show it. She paints a beautifully tragic picture of life at Monticello the happy nostalgic moments that Jefferson longed for and the devastating realities of his daughters and granddaughters both free and enslaved.

I felt at times she took liberties in the discussion of Jefferson's mother Jane, his wife Martha, and Sally and Harriett Hemings. This is something often seen in historical writings, especially about these women that we do not know much about, mainly as there are limited and at times no words directly from them, and not much written about who they were and what they liked. I wouldn't call them guesses but more of 'researched estimated hypotheses'. Please also keep in mind, that the book was written a few years ago and some of the verbiage used is not some that are widely accepted today, but also incredibly important to see regarding the use of language over time.