MadamLark's Reviews

This review contains spoilers. I do wish the plot "twist" hadn't involved one woman targeting another, I'm getting a bit tired of women being pitted against each other in fiction. But that aside, it's a decent story. I'm glad the lead characters ended up with a happy ending, though I do also wish more actual communication had been engaged in. It isn't some epic work of writing but worth reading.

This review contains spoilers. ~I LOVE this take on our classic fairytale.
~I LOVE our MC, and the older step-sister as well. Two amazing girl-bosses that are a fantastic vibe. I love them!
~I WANT to love our Cinderella. But she gets me real mad that it feels like she didn't really do all that much to disabuse her husband of his prejudice against her sisters.
~I STARTED OUT liking our ML a bundle, even with the flaws. But toward the end I got pretty upset at the way he got pushy and wouldn't take no for an answer and pushed physical intimacy without consent. No, not referencing s** here. Just that I dislike it when characters go kissing people who don't really feel like they're on-board with those actions. I also don't like that it took him so long to come clean about his identity. It also felt like he pressured her a fair bit to accept him.
~My dislikes weren't deal breakers, and I feel like there was some redemption to be had, though not to the level I wanted.
~Overall I would say it was totally worth the read in the end, though.

This review contains spoilers. If I could rate this at zero stars I would. The Duke was a bit annoying to start out with and I was hoping a gradual warming to his wife would kinda redeem him a bit, but in less than a single chapter the entire thing was ruined for me. Chapter 6 turns him suddenly into an ultra-jealous, crazy-clingy, inconsiderate (though he was already inconsiderate before) man who cannot even bother to listen to reason or his wife and forces intimacy when she's literally telling him to stop. It comes out of NOWHERE! One minute he's telling her not to smile at men because she's too beautiful when she smiles and the next minute he's declaring love and forcing himself on her. Thankfully he doesn't fully go through with penetrative intercourse yet but he forces s3%ual contact with her and dirty talks this poor woman during it while she's yelling at him to stop it. His wants and desires are clearly the ONLY thing that matter to him. Not a single ounce of consideration for his wife throughout the entire thing except a single moment of apology for a single interaction of bad behavior somewhere around chapter 3. I know that women historically weren't given a choice about being intimate with their husbands, but in a modern romance story, I'm not going to accept a ML who behaves that badly as a character I can support even a minute amount. So, no. I'm completely disgusted by this dude and will be dropping it right away.