By Evie Dunmore
fiction, romance, literature, historical fiction
Narrator – Elizabeth Jasicki
Audiobook 16 hours (approx.)
Series – League of Extraordinary Women
First impression – I was skeptical of choosing this one since it was considered literature and had awards. The awards are from Marie Claire and Cosmopolitan so it’s still possible that it’s still a light reading romance. The cover looked whimsical, it’s part of a series and an author I’m not familiar with so if I liked it I would have more options for reading.
I feel like the author tried to do too much with this novel. The book starts pretty standard for a romance but a little drawn out. The first four hours can be skipped without much difference to the story.
The middle of the book where the characters developed their relationship was actually pretty good. Initially the woman’s suffrage and workers’ rights were mentioned in an interesting way.
The author did not stop there. In my opinion the story goes off the rails when the male lead mentions giving the coal mine to the people. Before this point he seemed reasonable.
When you get to this point of the story do yourself a favor and skip to the epilogue (approximately the last 3 hours). It gets weird and even more unbelievable than a typical romance story.
Back to the beginning of the story, the reason for the forced marriage was because the female leaned into the male for a kiss. I think the author was trying to use the phrase “leaned in” In some sort of fancy literature way. It totally missed me though and it was the stupidest reason I’ve run into for forcing a marriage in these type stories.
Do not recommend this book.