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A review by bookish_kristina
When Araminta Greaves Traded Her Dignity for Bliss: Wainwright Sisters Book One by Andrea Jenelle, Andrea Jenelle
2.0
Meh. This author did not see the same version of the Sound of Music as I did, obviously
First off let me rant a bit: So this poor, put-upon FMC has slaved away raising her sisters and running her father’s house since her mother’s death when she was 12 AND THEN she’s married off to slave away for her husband who is 90 for ten years until he keels over AND THEN she becomes an unpaid housekeeper and governess for her adult stepson, his four children and nasty wife AND THEN the author decides to pair her off with a single farmer, dad of four, so she can *checks notes* raise his kids, manage his house and darn his socks??? Is this romance? This woman is raising every motherless child in the parish, slaving away and giving everything of herself and we are supposed to root for her to have more of this?? Is the moral of this story life sucks for women but at least this guy is a good lay so be thankful? This is some serious historical trad wife kink here. At least make him rich with a houseful of servant ffs (he isn’t, he has one helper lady from the village). No thanks.
Further notes on what was wrong with this one:
>This is a holiday book but you wouldn’t know it from the cover or the title.
>It’s a sound of music retelling too and yet, other than the chapter headings you would not know it. Nothing in this book felt like my beloved movie.
>Needs another pass by the editor, typos abound.
>The writing is clunky and the dialogue hurt my brain.
>The premise wasn’t well thought out and the plot holes were huge: he finds her asleep in the barn and cuddles her so she won’t get dirty? He barely knows her! And they were snowed in together for days and yet his servants etc are coming and going, that’s not really snowed in. Lots of contrivances in this book aren’t explained well and just exist for author convenience and often at the expense of story continuity.
> other than carriages, female servitude and cravats, this wasn’t really historical or set in any particular time. That’s fine, it’s a fantastical fairy tale type historical but I had to add this to my list of grievances because I didn’t like this so why not throw it on the pile?
> the blurb says he’s the father of twin girls, not sure why they’d leave out his other two daughters, he has four of them, and he had seven kids total, but his sons died with his wife while he was at war. So if loss of children to illness is a trigger, avoid this.
>Also the dead wife trope wasn’t done to my liking because his first wife was his childhood sweetheart and yet we are frequently told that he had a hard on for the FMC in his youth (either when he was married to the wife he loved or when he was courting her as they’d been intended from childhood) yuk. This might be part of the story continuity issues because sometimes he loved his wife but sometimes she was just someone he settled for which made it feel like emotional cheating and made me think less of him. Dead wife trope is a hard one, for me he either has to have hated his wife and merely had a marriage of convenience or truly loved his wife and has finally moved on. Any wishy washy loved her but wanted someone else stuff doesn’t work. Commit to one version only!
So this wasn’t the worst, but it needs way more work. The hero was sweet and earnest (not captain Von trap at all) and both characters are older which is a nice change for historical, but the execution of this was abysmal and I mostly hated it. My happy ending for Arie would be that she gets a nice quiet cottage alone in which to raise and train her dogs after 38 years of unpaid female servitude and mistreatment by every single man she’s ever met. Thad can visit her and service her sexual needs but raise his own damned kids or pay someone to do it. Her free labour is done.
First off let me rant a bit: So this poor, put-upon FMC has slaved away raising her sisters and running her father’s house since her mother’s death when she was 12 AND THEN she’s married off to slave away for her husband who is 90 for ten years until he keels over AND THEN she becomes an unpaid housekeeper and governess for her adult stepson, his four children and nasty wife AND THEN the author decides to pair her off with a single farmer, dad of four, so she can *checks notes* raise his kids, manage his house and darn his socks??? Is this romance? This woman is raising every motherless child in the parish, slaving away and giving everything of herself and we are supposed to root for her to have more of this?? Is the moral of this story life sucks for women but at least this guy is a good lay so be thankful? This is some serious historical trad wife kink here. At least make him rich with a houseful of servant ffs (he isn’t, he has one helper lady from the village). No thanks.
Further notes on what was wrong with this one:
>This is a holiday book but you wouldn’t know it from the cover or the title.
>It’s a sound of music retelling too and yet, other than the chapter headings you would not know it. Nothing in this book felt like my beloved movie.
>Needs another pass by the editor, typos abound.
>The writing is clunky and the dialogue hurt my brain.
>The premise wasn’t well thought out and the plot holes were huge: he finds her asleep in the barn and cuddles her so she won’t get dirty? He barely knows her! And they were snowed in together for days and yet his servants etc are coming and going, that’s not really snowed in. Lots of contrivances in this book aren’t explained well and just exist for author convenience and often at the expense of story continuity.
> other than carriages, female servitude and cravats, this wasn’t really historical or set in any particular time. That’s fine, it’s a fantastical fairy tale type historical but I had to add this to my list of grievances because I didn’t like this so why not throw it on the pile?
> the blurb says he’s the father of twin girls, not sure why they’d leave out his other two daughters, he has four of them, and he had seven kids total, but his sons died with his wife while he was at war. So if loss of children to illness is a trigger, avoid this.
>Also the dead wife trope wasn’t done to my liking because his first wife was his childhood sweetheart and yet we are frequently told that he had a hard on for the FMC in his youth (either when he was married to the wife he loved or when he was courting her as they’d been intended from childhood) yuk. This might be part of the story continuity issues because sometimes he loved his wife but sometimes she was just someone he settled for which made it feel like emotional cheating and made me think less of him. Dead wife trope is a hard one, for me he either has to have hated his wife and merely had a marriage of convenience or truly loved his wife and has finally moved on. Any wishy washy loved her but wanted someone else stuff doesn’t work. Commit to one version only!
So this wasn’t the worst, but it needs way more work. The hero was sweet and earnest (not captain Von trap at all) and both characters are older which is a nice change for historical, but the execution of this was abysmal and I mostly hated it. My happy ending for Arie would be that she gets a nice quiet cottage alone in which to raise and train her dogs after 38 years of unpaid female servitude and mistreatment by every single man she’s ever met. Thad can visit her and service her sexual needs but raise his own damned kids or pay someone to do it. Her free labour is done.