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The Marriage Bed
Set on the Williamson Farm in 1897 Wisconsin, we are introduced to Olivia and Spencer on their wedding night. Spencer's life has been beset with tragedy; Olivia is his second wife and a poor consolation prize for a man whose family was torn from him by Scarlet Fever. Olivia has been a friend and neighbor to him throughout his life and she has been in love with Spencer for as long as she can remember. Now she only wants to make him happy again and to help replace some of what he has lost. Fighting his growing love for Olivia, Spencer makes terrible and hurtful mistakes, pushing Olivia away before he is finally able to court his wife and to accept the love she offers-- and to give love in return.
400 pages, Paperback
First published April 1, 1996
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February 21, 2011
That inner snarky troll that I have has been sleeping quite comfortably for about the last 4 books that I have read. All good things must come to an end, and the troll woke up with a vengeance this morning after I finished this ridiculous book.
Where to start, says the snarky troll. How about the cover? Without a doubt the worst I have ever seen. Creepy looking folks on the cover, looks like an art class drawing. Blech. Tonight or Never has nothing on this one, it's terrible.
Now for the story. Olivia (my daughter's name, and if she EVER becomes a doormat like this for a guy I'm going to slap her silly) has been in love with Spencer her entire life. He marries someone else, of course, the perfect Kirsten ("...for theirs had been a perfect union. They had soared like the eagles together, even from the first."). They have 2 perfect children and have a perfect life. Until all three of them die from diptheria and Spencer is left all alone.
For some reason Spencer's best friend (Olivia's brother) convinces him that he needs to remarry and that Olivia would be perfect for him. No one else has asked her, and she loves him and can help him out on the farm. What a perfect beginning. Man of your dreams settles for you, and you sign on for a life of drudgery, farm chores and shitty sex. On their wedding night, this prince of a man says to her, "Peter and Margaret are dead, remember? My children are dead and so is my wife." He decides that he could make sure he never lost another child because he would see to it that he never had another child. And he would never lose another woman he loved, because, quite simply, he would never love another woman. What this noble train of thought means is that he is going to be a complete dick to his long-suffering second wife every day, have sex with her for 3 years and never let either of them enjoy it (or finish it, for that matter), remind her at every turn that his family is dead and he'll never have another one, and for all intents and purposes act like a dog-in-the-manger, self-absorbed douchebag.
Now, about the long-suffering Olivia. I'm not sure whether she is one of those Mary Sue types or just a TSTL type but I had a hard time liking her very much either. Perhaps she is just too much like lots of us are in real life, no backbone involved when it comes to standing up for yourself, afraid that you will lose the person that you love. This jerk is actually no loss at all, but she doesn't realize that until near the end of the book. She does everything that she thinks he wants, but ends up annoying the shit out of him on a daily basis, until he yells things like "Can't you just leave me alone to regret marrying you in peace???" Apparently they didn't say things like "fuck you and the horse you rode in on, buddy" back then . Too bad, because that's what I was thinking as I read this. Nope, she just slinks away and cries.
And if it's not enough that he is a complete douchebag to his wife, he also gets to practice on 3 kids that come to stay with them. Olivia's sister has died and her brother-in-law (a con man, I think, and it's inferred that he has beaten and/or messed with his kids) brings their kids to live with them. A 12yr old girl (the one that was messed with), a 10yr old boy (desperately in need of a father, like we can't see where THAT'S leading) and a 3yr old baby girl (for Olivia, who so much wants a baby). He gets to see how much damage he can inflict on them - they have to sleep in his workshop and the barn. Not the sleeping loft he built for his own dead kids, that's off limits to everybody. And when the boy refers to himself as being a "Williamson" (Spencer's last name) he says magnanimously that they might as well borrow the name for the time being , as they're sleeping in his house, eating his food, using his stuff.
Then a whole bunch of convoluted stuff happens, like the railroad is coming to town and there's some question about who is going to sell whose farm, the general store owner's daughter tries to snag the surveyor for the railroad, Olivia gets drunk on cherry cordial chocolates (WTF?) there is some scheme afoot between the surveyor and the children's con man father, Olivia's sister-in-law (who loves sex but is so Catholic she thinks it's a sin if it isn't to make babies and the doctor told her she's too fat to have any more or she'll have a heart attack) goes to the big city to the doctor and Olivia goes too, to find out why she's barren. The doctor tells her (in the only funny part in the book), "oh, you must be just what your husband dreamed about when he was still taking care of his own business" and that there is nothing wrong with her. No pill, no cure, no operation. She is her own worst enemy. "Your husband knows what to do. Let him do it." And then her sister-in-law is properly scandalized and in tears because the doctor gave her French envelopes to use with her husband so she can still have fun with no more babies. She tells Olivia "it goes on his...that is, it catches the...so that a woman doesn't..." Then she tries again. "It's called that because a man puts...and it holds..." Livvie had no idea what she was talking about. "It catches his...and the Lord says that loving is for the making of babies, and with this there won't be any making of babies because...well, you know. You're a married woman, for goodness sake!"
God save me from these ninnies.
By midway through the book I honestly wasn't sure which main character I disliked more. Him, for being a complete douchebag, or her for allowing him to get away with it. (And for being ridiculously naive, that set my teeth on edge.)
So, as I kept turning pages, waiting for the book to get better, the inevitable big moment happens. Olivia falls off a ladder, bangs her head, and the doctor thinks she'll die. Skull fractures, you know. And then, wait for it, wait for it....the tender bedside epiphany happens. Faced with losing her, Spencer the douchebag realizes that he really does love her, after all! That he can't lose her, because then he'll lose the kids too! Blah, blah, blah. All sorts of tender mushiness ensues, especially when Olivia opens her eyes. Then, of course, Spencer is stuck trying to think of how to get out of the "get away from me and let me regret marrying you in peace" remark that he had made the night before . Conveniently for him, Olivia has no recollection of anything since the previous morning at breakfast. Whew! Crisis narrowly averted. Now he is free to love and boink, boink, boink his pretty wife. So they do, and for such an uptight prude and a jerk who usually can't be bothered to even kiss her first they have a pretty exciting time. Until....she goes to get up and discovers the infamous 'wet spot'. What is this, Spencer? says the farm girl who apparently never paid any attention to farm animals, or breeding, or anything. Busted, Spencer. "I'm sorry," he says.
Oh, the perfidy!! (my favourite new word) Olivia is devastated. Not only has he been a complete jerk to her, now she knows he's been betraying her in bed too! Numerous fights occur, and Olivia goes to live with her brother and sister-in-law and takes the kids.
Spencer, now knowing what a jackass he had been, does lots of things designed to redeem himself to Olivia, including finally saying goodbye to his dead family. Too late, she says, over and over. He even makes new beds for all of them, including the kids. (Maybe, I was thinking, you'll let the poor boy have his own bed instead of the couch where you've put him through the whole damn book.)
Then, more of that convoluted stuff goes on, including the ugly old spinster (general store owner's daughter) committing suicide, Olivia's nephew knocking up his girlfriend so they have to get married right quicklike, Louisa (the 12yr old) takes a gun and tries to kill HERself, the boy and his cousin muck about with telegrams in an attempt to get Spencer the douchebag and Olivia the wide-eyed innocent back together, Spencer sells the farm and buys the general store or something, I couldn't figure it out. And didn't care, by that point.
So, Spencer the jerk, the guy most deserving of any romance novel I have ever read to end up alone, ends up with ingenuous Olivia, and the kids. The book ends with the 2 of them in the new bed Spencer has built (engraved with their initials, awww) talking about how maybe they made a baby.
Blech. Blech, blech, and double blech.
I'm not even going to start on the other stuff in the book. Like that the author drops all these HUGE hints about Louisa being molested by her father. And NOBODY DOES A THING ABOUT IT. Why drop it in if you aren't going to use it?
Same with the suicide of Emma, the spectacularly unattractive daughter of the general store owner. The author subjects that poor character to page after page of insults, slights, mockery and finally has her kill herself. In a wagon outside of a church at a wedding. All covered with blood so the 10yr old can find her. WTF? Her character had been chasing after the railroad surveyor through the whole book, and the surveyor had the hots for Olivia, but really. She even has the poor woman's father in on the insults.
Maybe I just shouldn't read "americana". I love LaVyrle Spencer (and that's what her historicals were) but haven't read anyone else. Maybe I should leave it that way. Done right, regular, turn-of-the-century farm or small-town folk can be written beautifully. Done not so right, and it comes off as homespun and hokey.
I see from the reviews on GR that lots of people LOVED this book. I just don't understand why.
Where to start, says the snarky troll. How about the cover? Without a doubt the worst I have ever seen. Creepy looking folks on the cover, looks like an art class drawing. Blech. Tonight or Never has nothing on this one, it's terrible.
Now for the story. Olivia (my daughter's name, and if she EVER becomes a doormat like this for a guy I'm going to slap her silly) has been in love with Spencer her entire life. He marries someone else, of course, the perfect Kirsten ("...for theirs had been a perfect union. They had soared like the eagles together, even from the first."). They have 2 perfect children and have a perfect life. Until all three of them die from diptheria and Spencer is left all alone.
For some reason Spencer's best friend (Olivia's brother) convinces him that he needs to remarry and that Olivia would be perfect for him. No one else has asked her, and she loves him and can help him out on the farm. What a perfect beginning. Man of your dreams settles for you, and you sign on for a life of drudgery, farm chores and shitty sex. On their wedding night, this prince of a man says to her, "Peter and Margaret are dead, remember? My children are dead and so is my wife." He decides that he could make sure he never lost another child because he would see to it that he never had another child. And he would never lose another woman he loved, because, quite simply, he would never love another woman. What this noble train of thought means is that he is going to be a complete dick to his long-suffering second wife every day, have sex with her for 3 years and never let either of them enjoy it (or finish it, for that matter), remind her at every turn that his family is dead and he'll never have another one, and for all intents and purposes act like a dog-in-the-manger, self-absorbed douchebag.
Now, about the long-suffering Olivia. I'm not sure whether she is one of those Mary Sue types or just a TSTL type but I had a hard time liking her very much either. Perhaps she is just too much like lots of us are in real life, no backbone involved when it comes to standing up for yourself, afraid that you will lose the person that you love. This jerk is actually no loss at all, but she doesn't realize that until near the end of the book. She does everything that she thinks he wants, but ends up annoying the shit out of him on a daily basis, until he yells things like "Can't you just leave me alone to regret marrying you in peace???" Apparently they didn't say things like "fuck you and the horse you rode in on, buddy" back then . Too bad, because that's what I was thinking as I read this. Nope, she just slinks away and cries.
And if it's not enough that he is a complete douchebag to his wife, he also gets to practice on 3 kids that come to stay with them. Olivia's sister has died and her brother-in-law (a con man, I think, and it's inferred that he has beaten and/or messed with his kids) brings their kids to live with them. A 12yr old girl (the one that was messed with), a 10yr old boy (desperately in need of a father, like we can't see where THAT'S leading) and a 3yr old baby girl (for Olivia, who so much wants a baby). He gets to see how much damage he can inflict on them - they have to sleep in his workshop and the barn. Not the sleeping loft he built for his own dead kids, that's off limits to everybody. And when the boy refers to himself as being a "Williamson" (Spencer's last name) he says magnanimously that they might as well borrow the name for the time being , as they're sleeping in his house, eating his food, using his stuff.
Then a whole bunch of convoluted stuff happens, like the railroad is coming to town and there's some question about who is going to sell whose farm, the general store owner's daughter tries to snag the surveyor for the railroad, Olivia gets drunk on cherry cordial chocolates (WTF?) there is some scheme afoot between the surveyor and the children's con man father, Olivia's sister-in-law (who loves sex but is so Catholic she thinks it's a sin if it isn't to make babies and the doctor told her she's too fat to have any more or she'll have a heart attack) goes to the big city to the doctor and Olivia goes too, to find out why she's barren. The doctor tells her (in the only funny part in the book), "oh, you must be just what your husband dreamed about when he was still taking care of his own business" and that there is nothing wrong with her. No pill, no cure, no operation. She is her own worst enemy. "Your husband knows what to do. Let him do it." And then her sister-in-law is properly scandalized and in tears because the doctor gave her French envelopes to use with her husband so she can still have fun with no more babies. She tells Olivia "it goes on his...that is, it catches the...so that a woman doesn't..." Then she tries again. "It's called that because a man puts...and it holds..." Livvie had no idea what she was talking about. "It catches his...and the Lord says that loving is for the making of babies, and with this there won't be any making of babies because...well, you know. You're a married woman, for goodness sake!"
God save me from these ninnies.
By midway through the book I honestly wasn't sure which main character I disliked more. Him, for being a complete douchebag, or her for allowing him to get away with it. (And for being ridiculously naive, that set my teeth on edge.)
So, as I kept turning pages, waiting for the book to get better, the inevitable big moment happens. Olivia falls off a ladder, bangs her head, and the doctor thinks she'll die. Skull fractures, you know. And then, wait for it, wait for it....the tender bedside epiphany happens. Faced with losing her, Spencer the douchebag realizes that he really does love her, after all! That he can't lose her, because then he'll lose the kids too! Blah, blah, blah. All sorts of tender mushiness ensues, especially when Olivia opens her eyes. Then, of course, Spencer is stuck trying to think of how to get out of the "get away from me and let me regret marrying you in peace" remark that he had made the night before . Conveniently for him, Olivia has no recollection of anything since the previous morning at breakfast. Whew! Crisis narrowly averted. Now he is free to love and boink, boink, boink his pretty wife. So they do, and for such an uptight prude and a jerk who usually can't be bothered to even kiss her first they have a pretty exciting time. Until....she goes to get up and discovers the infamous 'wet spot'. What is this, Spencer? says the farm girl who apparently never paid any attention to farm animals, or breeding, or anything. Busted, Spencer. "I'm sorry," he says.
Oh, the perfidy!! (my favourite new word) Olivia is devastated. Not only has he been a complete jerk to her, now she knows he's been betraying her in bed too! Numerous fights occur, and Olivia goes to live with her brother and sister-in-law and takes the kids.
Spencer, now knowing what a jackass he had been, does lots of things designed to redeem himself to Olivia, including finally saying goodbye to his dead family. Too late, she says, over and over. He even makes new beds for all of them, including the kids. (Maybe, I was thinking, you'll let the poor boy have his own bed instead of the couch where you've put him through the whole damn book.)
Then, more of that convoluted stuff goes on, including the ugly old spinster (general store owner's daughter) committing suicide, Olivia's nephew knocking up his girlfriend so they have to get married right quicklike, Louisa (the 12yr old) takes a gun and tries to kill HERself, the boy and his cousin muck about with telegrams in an attempt to get Spencer the douchebag and Olivia the wide-eyed innocent back together, Spencer sells the farm and buys the general store or something, I couldn't figure it out. And didn't care, by that point.
So, Spencer the jerk, the guy most deserving of any romance novel I have ever read to end up alone, ends up with ingenuous Olivia, and the kids. The book ends with the 2 of them in the new bed Spencer has built (engraved with their initials, awww) talking about how maybe they made a baby.
Blech. Blech, blech, and double blech.
I'm not even going to start on the other stuff in the book. Like that the author drops all these HUGE hints about Louisa being molested by her father. And NOBODY DOES A THING ABOUT IT. Why drop it in if you aren't going to use it?
Same with the suicide of Emma, the spectacularly unattractive daughter of the general store owner. The author subjects that poor character to page after page of insults, slights, mockery and finally has her kill herself. In a wagon outside of a church at a wedding. All covered with blood so the 10yr old can find her. WTF? Her character had been chasing after the railroad surveyor through the whole book, and the surveyor had the hots for Olivia, but really. She even has the poor woman's father in on the insults.
Maybe I just shouldn't read "americana". I love LaVyrle Spencer (and that's what her historicals were) but haven't read anyone else. Maybe I should leave it that way. Done right, regular, turn-of-the-century farm or small-town folk can be written beautifully. Done not so right, and it comes off as homespun and hokey.
I see from the reviews on GR that lots of people LOVED this book. I just don't understand why.
November 13, 2024
This was an angst fest - more or less the whole way.
A bittersweet story that tugs at your heart, squeezes out some tears and pulls you in deep even as you despair and fume at the H’s blind callousness.
I loved and admired her for being so loving, so giving, so optimistic- a bit too incredibly so but she got to me.
She deserved a wonderful first-rate romance, not a second hand leftover.
And he too was a … nice guy.
A nice guy who's also a louse!
But yes, he was the quintessential nice guy.
He was always kind. He never lost his temper with her.
A widower who married her (actually he couldn’t manage the farm alone) - but withheld love, sex (the impregnating kind - and she was none the wiser!) and thus motherhood from her.
He silently, incessantly grieved and remembered the ‘love of his life’ and … compared.
The poor h had loved him her whole life (even when he knew of her love, he picked another to marry). Longed for his love and even more for children and was wracked with guilt for being a ‘barren wife’ who couldn’t even replace his dead children. He knew all that and let her suffer and be pitied/looked down by the whole town while she idolized him for never rebuking her for being barren.
Oh yes, he was a very nice guy!
He kept on the grieving martyr act and I wondered how could he not see how easy to love the h was… Maybe because she was too close, too familiar, too taken for granted? I’ve read plenty of books with unrequited love in mocs, but this h tried the hardest to please, to be loved…and this scumbag was just too blind to appreciate her.
And comparing such mocs, one wonders what could be worse and more cruel you think– non-consummation, sex without love - or a charade of sex with the wife being cheated out of knowing any better? The most unnatural too!
The entry of the kids (her motherless nieces and nephew) in the plot slowed and skewed things a bit. But then they settled in the story well and I could see the purpose of their being in the story- to show him the human capacity to love again and to move on -without guilt.
Not that the book was all heavy handed and gloomy. It had its lighter moments.
I especially loved the trip back from Milwaukee when the om feeds her liqueur filled chocolates and she becomes mildly stoned and he does a bit of seducing. Feeling pretty sorry for the poor cheated-outa-sex woman, I thoroughly enjoyed this mild hanky panky.
I so detest the H and wished the om had gone the whole way!
Okay, now for the grovel rant…
I’ve read grovels of shorter duration- in time and words – which are more healing and heartwarming. This one here may have been long but was completely off and dissatisfying.
He had made her beg and be grateful for crumbs all through their marriage but now that he’s happy and sorted, he expects that she should be happy and eager too - already.
Few measly tears, newly discovered possessiveness and tenderness, suddenly finding her beautiful and irresistible didn't do it for me. He went 180 from the moping depressive phase to being a cheerful, whistling maniac!
I also would have liked an all out earth-scorching rant from her where she lets him have it, not just few lines here and there.
They never even hash out the past!
It was not just her hurt and disappointments of these past 3 years, but my heart broke for the girl who had loved and lost all those years ago, the girl who never forgot a stolen kiss behind the barn while the d-bag went on to other things.
So yes, I wanted more shame, more guilt and more suffering but this smug sob was too sure of her love and ultimate capitulation to really suffer. One could tell that he and the circumstances were wearing her down and no satisfactory conflagration was going to happen. And it dint!
He should have on his knees – bare kneed on a hard floor- for 3 years at least to be forgiven.
The length could have shorter especially the last few chapters seemed dragged out.
Louisa’s
But it’s a beautifully written book and I took my time reading it as I went over some lines and portions again and again.
Can’t end it without saying something about young Neil – the h’s nephew.
The only other person, apart from the h/H to have a parallel pov going on in the story. He has to be the sweetest, the most generous and also the most yearning soul in the book.
A bittersweet story that tugs at your heart, squeezes out some tears and pulls you in deep even as you despair and fume at the H’s blind callousness.
I loved and admired her for being so loving, so giving, so optimistic- a bit too incredibly so but she got to me.
She deserved a wonderful first-rate romance, not a second hand leftover.
And he too was a … nice guy.
A nice guy who's also a louse!
But yes, he was the quintessential nice guy.
He was always kind. He never lost his temper with her.
A widower who married her (actually he couldn’t manage the farm alone) - but withheld love, sex (the impregnating kind - and she was none the wiser!) and thus motherhood from her.
He silently, incessantly grieved and remembered the ‘love of his life’ and … compared.
The poor h had loved him her whole life (even when he knew of her love, he picked another to marry). Longed for his love and even more for children and was wracked with guilt for being a ‘barren wife’ who couldn’t even replace his dead children. He knew all that and let her suffer and be pitied/looked down by the whole town while she idolized him for never rebuking her for being barren.
Oh yes, he was a very nice guy!
He kept on the grieving martyr act and I wondered how could he not see how easy to love the h was… Maybe because she was too close, too familiar, too taken for granted? I’ve read plenty of books with unrequited love in mocs, but this h tried the hardest to please, to be loved…and this scumbag was just too blind to appreciate her.
And comparing such mocs, one wonders what could be worse and more cruel you think– non-consummation, sex without love - or a charade of sex with the wife being cheated out of knowing any better? The most unnatural too!
The entry of the kids (her motherless nieces and nephew) in the plot slowed and skewed things a bit. But then they settled in the story well and I could see the purpose of their being in the story- to show him the human capacity to love again and to move on -without guilt.
Not that the book was all heavy handed and gloomy. It had its lighter moments.
I especially loved the trip back from Milwaukee when the om feeds her liqueur filled chocolates and she becomes mildly stoned and he does a bit of seducing. Feeling pretty sorry for the poor cheated-outa-sex woman, I thoroughly enjoyed this mild hanky panky.
I so detest the H and wished the om had gone the whole way!
Okay, now for the grovel rant…
I’ve read grovels of shorter duration- in time and words – which are more healing and heartwarming. This one here may have been long but was completely off and dissatisfying.
He had made her beg and be grateful for crumbs all through their marriage but now that he’s happy and sorted, he expects that she should be happy and eager too - already.
Few measly tears, newly discovered possessiveness and tenderness, suddenly finding her beautiful and irresistible didn't do it for me. He went 180 from the moping depressive phase to being a cheerful, whistling maniac!
I also would have liked an all out earth-scorching rant from her where she lets him have it, not just few lines here and there.
They never even hash out the past!
It was not just her hurt and disappointments of these past 3 years, but my heart broke for the girl who had loved and lost all those years ago, the girl who never forgot a stolen kiss behind the barn while the d-bag went on to other things.
So yes, I wanted more shame, more guilt and more suffering but this smug sob was too sure of her love and ultimate capitulation to really suffer. One could tell that he and the circumstances were wearing her down and no satisfactory conflagration was going to happen. And it dint!
He should have on his knees – bare kneed on a hard floor- for 3 years at least to be forgiven.
The length could have shorter especially the last few chapters seemed dragged out.
Louisa’s
But it’s a beautifully written book and I took my time reading it as I went over some lines and portions again and again.
Can’t end it without saying something about young Neil – the h’s nephew.
The only other person, apart from the h/H to have a parallel pov going on in the story. He has to be the sweetest, the most generous and also the most yearning soul in the book.
October 25, 2021
OK, I read this over a week ago and enjoyed a lot of it but wasn't happy with the piss poor grovel.
Basically he's an idiot. And the reader is supposed to be OK with him just saying he's sorry.
When the h and H were young, he decided to marry the OW. It was love and as far as I can tell, that was the true romance of the story.
By the end of the book, I still felt like the h was a second best consolation prize after the first wife and their 2 kids died tragically.
She is frickin' 30 by the end of the story when the cowardly dip sh*t actually professes his love and offers to finally give her a child of her own!!!.
She was set on being an old maid until the first wife died because she loved him so much. Then 3 years after they marry, she finally finds out that he's been using her all along. He was such a waste of space.
The only thing she got out of the marriage was her nieces and nephew who came to stay with them. He used her for sex but only so he could get off. He never took her clothes off or gave her an orgasm. Not because he didn't know how, but because HE didn't want to.
He used her to take care of the house and let him dip his wick but pull out so he would never get her pregnant. He lets everyone including her, think that after 3 years of childless marriage, she is barren. This, in a time when women were expected to have kids or they were considered useless.
Then she almost dies after planning to finally leave him and he has some kinda epiphany that he actually loves her so there's no need to keep holding her at bay.
And I did like the h. She's sweet natured and always kind and full of love.
She tells him off but it just wasn't enough. I just couldn't forgive him for not only choosing another in the first place, but for taking all her choices away from her in the second place.
I really didn't get that he understood the magnitude of how poorly he had treated her. She was already second best. But he made her a slave.
I think he needed to be humiliated in front of the whole town, for me to feel like they were even.
Safety is technically good.
Basically he's an idiot. And the reader is supposed to be OK with him just saying he's sorry.
When the h and H were young, he decided to marry the OW. It was love and as far as I can tell, that was the true romance of the story.
By the end of the book, I still felt like the h was a second best consolation prize after the first wife and their 2 kids died tragically.
She is frickin' 30 by the end of the story when the cowardly dip sh*t actually professes his love and offers to finally give her a child of her own!!!.
She was set on being an old maid until the first wife died because she loved him so much. Then 3 years after they marry, she finally finds out that he's been using her all along. He was such a waste of space.
The only thing she got out of the marriage was her nieces and nephew who came to stay with them. He used her for sex but only so he could get off. He never took her clothes off or gave her an orgasm. Not because he didn't know how, but because HE didn't want to.
He used her to take care of the house and let him dip his wick but pull out so he would never get her pregnant. He lets everyone including her, think that after 3 years of childless marriage, she is barren. This, in a time when women were expected to have kids or they were considered useless.
Then she almost dies after planning to finally leave him and he has some kinda epiphany that he actually loves her so there's no need to keep holding her at bay.
And I did like the h. She's sweet natured and always kind and full of love.
She tells him off but it just wasn't enough. I just couldn't forgive him for not only choosing another in the first place, but for taking all her choices away from her in the second place.
I really didn't get that he understood the magnitude of how poorly he had treated her. She was already second best. But he made her a slave.
I think he needed to be humiliated in front of the whole town, for me to feel like they were even.
Safety is technically good.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 21, 2017
Between the poor pathetic Prologue and page 19, I already hate the hero.
Did.Not.Like.This.
The hero is a pity partying schmuck; the heroine is soooo much in love and is duped by the jackass. The hero is still in love with his dead wife and in such mourning over the loss of his whole family (wife, three kids and his mother to diphtheria which, okay, is a lot) he doesn't want anything to do with his new wife who has ALWAYS loved him. He's been withholding completion of the sex act for the past three years because he doesn't want any more kids. She's too naive to know the difference, and bears the shame of the town not only knowing of her unrequited love but her supposed infertility.
She adopts her dead sister's kids against his will. A miraculous accident wakes the hero up, but when she figures out how he's been duping her, she is DONE.
Toss in a smarmy OM and
Did.Not.Like.This.
The hero is a pity partying schmuck; the heroine is soooo much in love and is duped by the jackass. The hero is still in love with his dead wife and in such mourning over the loss of his whole family (wife, three kids and his mother to diphtheria which, okay, is a lot) he doesn't want anything to do with his new wife who has ALWAYS loved him. He's been withholding completion of the sex act for the past three years because he doesn't want any more kids. She's too naive to know the difference, and bears the shame of the town not only knowing of her unrequited love but her supposed infertility.
She adopts her dead sister's kids against his will. A miraculous accident wakes the hero up, but when she figures out how he's been duping her, she is DONE.
Toss in a smarmy OM and
January 8, 2016
Read this on open library in my browser - my least favorite way to read a novel. I've DNF'd many books because I didn't have the patience to sit at my laptop. This book held my interest. Hero is a widower who marries a woman he's known his whole life. He knows she loves him, but he refuses to feel love again for anyone after losing his whole family to diphtheria. The first half of the story he is terrible to the heroine, but once he wakes up, the last 40% of the story is one extended dance play grovel.
What sets this story apart: The setting is 1890's Wisconsin. The three children the heroine brings into the home act like children who have been through trauma act: the toddler bites and hits, the middle boy tries to please and the 12 year-old girl is lippy and defiant. The three points of view - hero, heroine, the middle boy - round out the story.
Trigger warnings: there is a suicide of a minor character and hints that a child has been molested.
What sets this story apart: The setting is 1890's Wisconsin. The three children the heroine brings into the home act like children who have been through trauma act: the toddler bites and hits, the middle boy tries to please and the 12 year-old girl is lippy and defiant. The three points of view - hero, heroine, the middle boy - round out the story.
Trigger warnings: there is a suicide of a minor character and hints that a child has been molested.
avoid
April 10, 2017The fact that he considers heroine "poor consolation prize" kills off any notion of romance for me.
Whatever he did after to retain her was for his benefit, his heart may or may not have been involved but I'll bet my life, it was dog in manger attitude rather than an epiphany that heroine deserves love in her life rather than a secondhand husband!
Whatever he did after to retain her was for his benefit, his heart may or may not have been involved but I'll bet my life, it was dog in manger attitude rather than an epiphany that heroine deserves love in her life rather than a secondhand husband!
January 20, 2020
O poveste de dragoste captivantă și plină de emoții, care-ți dă o stare de bine la final! Superbă!
November 22, 2023
Jezuz. One of the worst book ever. The hero is a widower who loved his wife to distraction and he marries the heroine for convenience. He doesn’t want children with her because you know, he only wanted children with his love, so he ahem, uses not to finish inside the heroine. She is a doormat pushover who’s always been in love with him but he never saw her, and of course is soooo happy to be married with him. This until she finds out what his strange bed behavior means. And she is angry. The hero realizes he wants his wife now, since he can’t have his true love anymore being her dead and buried. So in the end all is well and I can only hope that, s his first wife died of a virus, the same virus but stronger will at some time in the future take him too, after a lot of suffering. And the heroine can go to hell to. Both disagreeable and stupid characters and a story that could have been not written at all. And we would not miss it.
October 26, 2021
The 3 ⭐️ are only for the heroine!
The hero made me so mad. There is grief and then there is grief. But deceiving a sweet person is a no no!
Also, I want one issue addressed, why didn’t he marry Livvy first? Why did he marry Kirsten when Livvy was right there and she loved him since they were kids ?
Why choose Livvy as second best? I know we wouldn’t have a story if his first wife and kids hadn’t tragically passed away but I want to know his inner thoughts on why he didn’t marry Livvy first because I have a feeling he always loved his best friend’s sister but he didn’t think of her as marriage material? I don’t know, this issue was never addressed in the novel.
The hero made me so mad. There is grief and then there is grief. But deceiving a sweet person is a no no!
Also, I want one issue addressed, why didn’t he marry Livvy first? Why did he marry Kirsten when Livvy was right there and she loved him since they were kids ?
Why choose Livvy as second best? I know we wouldn’t have a story if his first wife and kids hadn’t tragically passed away but I want to know his inner thoughts on why he didn’t marry Livvy first because I have a feeling he always loved his best friend’s sister but he didn’t think of her as marriage material? I don’t know, this issue was never addressed in the novel.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 16, 2024
I love marriage in trouble and the angst was high 😮💨 with this one, I appreciated the long grovel and felt the hero redeemed himself and I did really like it but I can see why so many people couldn’t look past what he did.
I thought this was actually a pretty clever storyline, the author set up something grovel-worthy that didn’t directly harm the heroine. like he didn’t ruin her life or physically hurt her, but it was still super messed up and the author could use the excuse of grief over his dead wife and kids for the stunted emotional growth he showed. It helped that he was great guy in every sense apart from being a loving husband and when that switch flipped, it was a 180. I also loved the heroine and felt her reaction perfectly suited her character.
I thought this was actually a pretty clever storyline, the author set up something grovel-worthy that didn’t directly harm the heroine. like he didn’t ruin her life or physically hurt her, but it was still super messed up and the author could use the excuse of grief over his dead wife and kids for the stunted emotional growth he showed. It helped that he was great guy in every sense apart from being a loving husband and when that switch flipped, it was a 180. I also loved the heroine and felt her reaction perfectly suited her character.
April 18, 2017
Esta autora escreve muito bem e a história me prendeu do início ao fim.
Se eu fosse a nossa heroína eu explodiria a casa toda e apagado todas lembranças da primeira esposa, porque afinal ela vivia numa casa feita para a outra mulher e com móveis e utensílios todos da outra mulher e ele mantinha um santuário nos quartos dos filhos.
Eu teria castrado o herói porque além dele fingir transar ele nunca fez ela ter um orgasmo sendo que a heroína era virgem e ela não sabia nada sobre sexo. Ele negou a possibilidade dela engravidar porque ele jamais ejaculou e a enganou durante todo o tempo porque ele não queria mais ter filhos.
Ele sempre comparava a esposa morta com a heroína e sempre achava primeira esposa melhor. Ela não passava de uma mera servidora que ele despejava toda raiva e frustração em cima dela e ela só aceitava tudo passivamente.
Fiquei com ódio mortal do herói e a heroína mais parecia um capacho e uma empregada para ele.
Mas fui lendo para ver o que aconteceria e o final foi satisfatória para o tempo histórico.
---------
This author writes very well and the story kept me from start to finish.
If I were our heroine I would blow up the whole House and erased all memories of his first wife, because she lived in a house made for another woman and with all furniture and fixtures of another woman and he kept a shrine in the kids ' rooms.
I would have castrated the hero because besides him pretending to have sex he never did she have an orgasm and the heroine was a Virgin and she didn't know anything about sex. He denied the possibility of her becoming pregnant because he never ejaculated and fooled the whole time because he didn't want to have any more children.
He always compared the dead wife with heroin and always thought first wife better. She was a mere servant he vented anger and frustration all over her and she just accepted everything passively.
I was with intense hatred of the hero and the heroine looked more like a doormat and a servant for him.
But I was reading it to see what would happen and the ending was satisfactory to the historical time.
Highlights:
Se eu fosse a nossa heroína eu explodiria a casa toda e apagado todas lembranças da primeira esposa, porque afinal ela vivia numa casa feita para a outra mulher e com móveis e utensílios todos da outra mulher e ele mantinha um santuário nos quartos dos filhos.
Eu teria castrado o herói porque além dele fingir transar ele nunca fez ela ter um orgasmo sendo que a heroína era virgem e ela não sabia nada sobre sexo. Ele negou a possibilidade dela engravidar porque ele jamais ejaculou e a enganou durante todo o tempo porque ele não queria mais ter filhos.
Ele sempre comparava a esposa morta com a heroína e sempre achava primeira esposa melhor. Ela não passava de uma mera servidora que ele despejava toda raiva e frustração em cima dela e ela só aceitava tudo passivamente.
Fiquei com ódio mortal do herói e a heroína mais parecia um capacho e uma empregada para ele.
Mas fui lendo para ver o que aconteceria e o final foi satisfatória para o tempo histórico.
---------
This author writes very well and the story kept me from start to finish.
If I were our heroine I would blow up the whole House and erased all memories of his first wife, because she lived in a house made for another woman and with all furniture and fixtures of another woman and he kept a shrine in the kids ' rooms.
I would have castrated the hero because besides him pretending to have sex he never did she have an orgasm and the heroine was a Virgin and she didn't know anything about sex. He denied the possibility of her becoming pregnant because he never ejaculated and fooled the whole time because he didn't want to have any more children.
He always compared the dead wife with heroin and always thought first wife better. She was a mere servant he vented anger and frustration all over her and she just accepted everything passively.
I was with intense hatred of the hero and the heroine looked more like a doormat and a servant for him.
But I was reading it to see what would happen and the ending was satisfactory to the historical time.
Highlights:
"I waited a long time for this," she said, admitting quietly what he and everyone else in Maple Stand already knew. "To be your wife and have you love me. Do you suppose we might have made a baby?"
"Peter and Margaret are dead, remember? My children are dead and so is my wife." "But I'm..."
"He could withhold his essence just as he was withholding his affection. And Olivia need never know."
"Not at all like the fineness of Kirsten's tiny face,"
"It wasn't her fault she wasn't Kirsten, didn't have Kirsten's long blond curls, her sweet high voice, fine bones, girlish smile."
"Oh, she knew he didn't love her the way she had always loved him. She knew Remy had pushed him into it and she was a poor second choice, not much more than a housekeeper with whom he could... well... be a husband."
"He forced himself to think of Peter and Margaret and tried to be proud that he had managed to contain himself. He made himself imagine Kirsten standing beside the bed, watching him kiss another woman's breasts, sweat between another woman's legs, and tried to be ashamed that he had nearly enjoyed himself."
"Not that he found her pretty, but surely there were those that would."
"Go inside, dammit," he swore at her. "And let me regret marrying you in peace. Why can't you just go away and leave me alone?"
"He'd have thought that three years of restraint would have prepared him well for just one more night. Lord, they didn't come any dumber than him."
"When was the last time he'd satisfied a woman?"
"she figured out what he had done, what he'd let her believe, let the whole of Maple Stand believe?"
"Lord, he felt like an idiot, married to the woman for three years and he didn't even know what she liked. He felt worse than stupid, for he hadn't even cared."
"But not before tonight," she said, just trying to be absolutely sure that she understood what a sham the past three years had been. "Is that right?"
"This from the man who lived with her for three years pretending to love her or, if not that, pretending to... just the thought shamed and embarrassed her. A grown, married woman and she didn't know what was happening in her own bed. She bet that doctor in Milwaukee had enjoyed a good laugh after she and Bess left."
"Do you think I enjoyed one minute of keeping my distance from you? Tonight wasn't the first time I ever enjoyed myself, Olivia. I knew what I was missing."
"And reminding me about the grand time you and Kirsten had in my bed is not likely to make me take pity on you, Mr. Williamson."
"he owed her three years and as many children. She didn't see any way he'd be able to repay that debt. No way at all."
"I thought I wasn't a woman, Spencer," she said, embarrassed by the admission. "Do you know what it feels like to think you can't bear a child? That you have no purpose on earth? That you're being punished?"
"I'm so tired of your pain, Spencer. Your loss. Your choice. Did you ask me? Did you tell me? Did you care that they all believed I was barren? That I believed I was barren?" What was the point?
"Her life with Spencer had been a sham, and it was over. Every time she had let him use her, had lain beneath him while he raised her gown, had been a lie."
"I wish I could kill him," he admitted quietly. "Or that he'd died along with the rest of his precious family."
"And I suppose that the problem with wishes is that our own are often in the way of someone else's."
"I know you're sorry," she said, lifting his head so that his gaze locked with hers. "It doesn't matter. Sorry doesn't erase the pain. It doesn't give me back the love you stole, the loyalty you tricked me into giving you, the affection you withheld. You made a fool of me, Spencer, and every time I look at you I see that fool reflected in your eyes."
"I would. I do. I was never a wife to you, Spencer. And now you want something I don't even know how to give."
May 19, 2020
An Open Library reread. Initially read this when it was new, 25+/- years ago. Back in the day, I would have given it 4⭐️. Now not so much.
I understand grief, but still striking out at your 2nd wife after 3 years of marriage, not so understanding. She suffers with a smile on her face and joy in her heart. You, sir, are pond scum and I’m being kind. She deserved better. And we, as readers deserved an epilogue. 🤦♀️🤷♀️🤦♀️
2⭐️ for the story, 1⭐️ for past fondness.
I understand grief, but still striking out at your 2nd wife after 3 years of marriage, not so understanding. She suffers with a smile on her face and joy in her heart. You, sir, are pond scum and I’m being kind. She deserved better. And we, as readers deserved an epilogue. 🤦♀️🤷♀️🤦♀️
2⭐️ for the story, 1⭐️ for past fondness.
May 1, 2022
I really, really love this one. I used read it about 6-7 times a year. Is it perfect? No! But, as they say: "Timing is everything". When I first read this about 6 years ago, I really related to Olivia. Her and I both wanted babies, and couldn't have them. The reasons of course weren't the same but the feelings of anxiety and disappointment were. I admired her for taking charge of her own happiness by adopting her deceased sisters children, when it wasn't easy for her to do so. Regardless of how Spencer would react. And Boy did he! I hated him for everything he put her through. He was cruel, selfish and unworthy of her. I wished she left him alone to wallow in his torment and self pity! It's been years since his family died, surely Olivia deserved a little effort on this part to make their marriage work? right? RIGHT?
Then.... years later, after countless re reads: I read it again. But, this time my newborn lay sleeping next to me. Suddenly Spencer didn't seem SO unreasonable, I couldn't imagine his grief, and pain. I found myself even once (GASP!!) agreeing with what he said! (never his actions!!)
His dawning realization of love was a little sudden but believable. The author treats us to tiny glimpses of Spencers resolutions cracking under the strain to remain aloof, but it makes for a nice change all the same. I also enjoyed the grovel - it took up about 1/3 of the story. Add in another man who wants Olivia- a handsome stranger who's always around her flames Spencers jealousy and he comes to the realize Olivia can do much better then him. A middle aged miser with his love that doesn't have much in the way of prospects and fading good looks. I don't read this one quite as often anymore, but it remains a comfort read for me.
As a side note: - ***Trigger Warning*** It's always alluded too, but never discussed in the open.
Then.... years later, after countless re reads: I read it again. But, this time my newborn lay sleeping next to me. Suddenly Spencer didn't seem SO unreasonable, I couldn't imagine his grief, and pain. I found myself even once (GASP!!) agreeing with what he said! (never his actions!!)
His dawning realization of love was a little sudden but believable. The author treats us to tiny glimpses of Spencers resolutions cracking under the strain to remain aloof, but it makes for a nice change all the same. I also enjoyed the grovel - it took up about 1/3 of the story. Add in another man who wants Olivia- a handsome stranger who's always around her flames Spencers jealousy and he comes to the realize Olivia can do much better then him. A middle aged miser with his love that doesn't have much in the way of prospects and fading good looks. I don't read this one quite as often anymore, but it remains a comfort read for me.
As a side note: - ***Trigger Warning*** It's always alluded too, but never discussed in the open.
July 23, 2010
I really loved this book and I wish that I could give it 4 1/2* but we don't have that choice. The only reason I didn't give it 5* was because,imo,the author left a major thread to the story hanging.The 11 year old girl,Louisa, had abviously been molested by her father. There was many hints to this through out the whole book but it was never brought to light.The issue was never delt with so we never got the feeling that Louisa could heal from her ordeal. Other wise this was a great book. The scene where Neil was tending to the weeds of Simons family and talking to them,telling then how lucky they were and he wished he could be so lucky was a real tear-jerker. I loved how Olivia didn't forgive Simon right away and that he had to do a lot of groveling to get their HEA.
April 7, 2014
i usually enjoy this kinda story where hero has never gotten over his ex's death but in this one, der were too many secondary characters. i felt the children spoiled the book 4 me. moreover, i hated spencer 4 what he did 2 olivia 4 3 years! he shud have been honest wid her before the marriage. he shud have told her his expectations, dat he was only taking on a free menial worker/housekeeper n he did not expect sex nor heirs from her. what he did was unforgivable. he tortured her 4 3 years. poor girl did not even get a hint dat she was not barren. even dat 1st night, he did not stay aroused enough time 2 complete the job/2 achieve orgasm. it's disgusting cheating someone like dat!like he did! i find no excuse 4 him.
October 8, 2016
This book has been on my TBR list for quite a while. I finally tracked down a copy. I enjoyed it and I think it lived up to its reputation. It started out pretty angsty but moved on from that element fairly early. The hero definitely done her wrong and then had to earn her trust again. I expected to have more description of the first marriage, more rolling around in his angst if you will but the book never really went there. We learned very little about the first marriage. The story was really very much about the fallout of bringing the heroine's nieces and nephew to live with them. Anyway I enjoyed it.
November 17, 2022
2.25
This book had a lot of my favorite tropes, but I couldn’t get over a few things. This is one of very few romance books I’ve read where I seriously despise the H. I liked Olivia as a heroine, but I could not stand Spencer at all. While I enjoy a beta Hero once in a while, this guy was despicable.
Also wasn’t a fan of the side events that took place. The ugly town spinster being the butt of every joke and committing suicide was so unnecessary.
This book had a lot of my favorite tropes, but I couldn’t get over a few things. This is one of very few romance books I’ve read where I seriously despise the H. I liked Olivia as a heroine, but I could not stand Spencer at all. While I enjoy a beta Hero once in a while, this guy was despicable.
Also wasn’t a fan of the side events that took place. The ugly town spinster being the butt of every joke and committing suicide was so unnecessary.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 20, 2020
This book was just okay for me and it needed an epilogue.
March 14, 2020
Emotional second chance romance set in 1897 Wisconsin, released in 1996. This isn’t available as an ebook; I read this as a pdf on scribd. Spencer and Olivia grew up together, and Olivia has loved him always, but he fell in love, and married someone else. Spencer’s beloved wife, mother, and two small children died two years earlier from diphtheria. Olivia’s brother (Spencer’s BF) talks him into marrying Olivia to help around the house, farm, etc.
The book starts with the couple on their wedding night literally straight after the "consummation" so we don't get a lot of background of things leading up to the marriage. Spencer is freaking out, he just was unable to "finish" because of feeling guilty about his first wife. Meanwhile, Olivia tells him she’s waited so long to be his wife, and have him love her. Then ask if he thinks they made a baby. Spencer decides he can never risk having another child, and that he will never "find release" during the act (because O didn't know the difference) All this occurs in the first chapter.
The next chapter fast forwards three years and Olivia thinks she's barren because she hasn't been able to get pregnant. With the skip we again miss out on all the background of the relationship during the first years of the marriage. It appears that Spencer isn’t actual cruel (other than allowing her to believe the fertility issue is hers) he definitely cares for Olivia, and has remorse when he hurts her, but he keeps her at a distance. He doesn’t lash out, or tell her he doesn’t love her; he just gives the bare minimum of affection.
Olivia decides to take in her dead sisters kids; Spencer is against it, but doesn't say anything because Olivia really wants them to come...and he feels guilty for denying her becoming a mother. The kids have not had it easy, and come with their own emotional baggage.
The book juggles a lot of issues throughout many characters. We have death, suicide, religion, birth control, sexual education, abuse, betrayal there is a lot going on in addition to Spencer and Olivia. Overall, I enjoyed the book. I found the parts with the kids the most emotional...I loved Neil, he was such a great kid. There were a few things that I wish would have been resolved a bit better. At one point it states how she cried when he told her he was marrying someone else, but never really explored or explained. I think we could have connected more to the characters with more information. It also is hinted possibly that the older daughter might have been molested by her father, but that is never explored either.
The book starts with the couple on their wedding night literally straight after the "consummation" so we don't get a lot of background of things leading up to the marriage. Spencer is freaking out, he just was unable to "finish" because of feeling guilty about his first wife. Meanwhile, Olivia tells him she’s waited so long to be his wife, and have him love her. Then ask if he thinks they made a baby. Spencer decides he can never risk having another child, and that he will never "find release" during the act (because O didn't know the difference) All this occurs in the first chapter.
The next chapter fast forwards three years and Olivia thinks she's barren because she hasn't been able to get pregnant. With the skip we again miss out on all the background of the relationship during the first years of the marriage. It appears that Spencer isn’t actual cruel (other than allowing her to believe the fertility issue is hers) he definitely cares for Olivia, and has remorse when he hurts her, but he keeps her at a distance. He doesn’t lash out, or tell her he doesn’t love her; he just gives the bare minimum of affection.
Olivia decides to take in her dead sisters kids; Spencer is against it, but doesn't say anything because Olivia really wants them to come...and he feels guilty for denying her becoming a mother. The kids have not had it easy, and come with their own emotional baggage.
The book juggles a lot of issues throughout many characters. We have death, suicide, religion, birth control, sexual education, abuse, betrayal there is a lot going on in addition to Spencer and Olivia. Overall, I enjoyed the book. I found the parts with the kids the most emotional...I loved Neil, he was such a great kid. There were a few things that I wish would have been resolved a bit better. At one point it states how she cried when he told her he was marrying someone else, but never really explored or explained. I think we could have connected more to the characters with more information. It also is hinted possibly that the older daughter might have been molested by her father, but that is never explored either.
April 11, 2017
the hero was cruel,selfish and and unfeeling jerk!he was such a crybaby always wallowing in self pity about his loss that he was totally ignorant to the feelings of others!he kept the memory of his first wife and children so sacred that he treats the heroine cruelly.he does'nt make love to her fully coz he thinks he is betraying his wife's memory and let's the heroine thinks she is barren for three years!he has no consideration for her feelings and always compares her to his beautiful first wife and finds her wanting .the pain he inflicted on the heroine even after knowing how much she loves him was unforgivable !upon that his treatment of the children was obnoxious !he makes the poor boy sleep in the barn coz he thinks the loft and toys he made for his precious children are not for them !his words are that he can't let those children with dirty hands touch the toys his kids adored !I hated him!the grovel he did somehow didn't make me forgive him coz his past actions were unforgivable!felt bad for the poor heroine she should have left him after their wedding night only!I regret reading this one and wasting time!
July 29, 2024
This blew my head off... like?? So good. I really love that genre of romance that's historical Westerns... but without cowboys. Or the literal Wild West. This takes place in rural Wisconsin and has that 1800's settler feel. It also takes place on a farm, hence the "bucolic" tag. I really need to add more books to that shelf.
The one star reviews did worry me. I can be cynical. I typically like books even less than then negative reviewers do. But this one? Listen. I do get where they're coming from. I could see someone DNFing, based on the early treatment of Olivia. She's been married to Spencer for three unhappy years, following the death of his first wife and children. He's very distant (and occasionally cruel). Now, admittedly- this sucks! HE sucks! It is uncomfortable to read. Part of his cruelness is letting Olivia believe she's barren because he isn't being honest about the reproduction process. If that. Makes any sense. So anyways, Olivia is depressed because here she is, married to her childhood best friend, and all he can do is compare to his first wife. What a jerk!
But the book really picks up when her nieces and nephew arrive. Motherhood really suits Olivia. Having children in her life is a big part of her growing a backbone. She wakes up to how crappy her marriage has been around the 50% mark. From there, it feels like a completely different story, specifically Spencer begging for forgiveness and trying to win Olivia back. The grovel does did a great job of convincing me, as a reader. I would attribute a lot of this to the amount of time dedicated to it. And man. The story is just really emotional, in general.
I really liked that the two older kids because have different reactions to their abusive upbringing, by way of their absent birth father.. Neil is a people pleaser who worships his new parental figures. Louisa, the oldest, is implied to have suffered sexual abuse and behaves completely differently. She's prickly and it takes her the entire book to come around to Olivia. I was really heartbroken by the ending, . I could see how that seems melodramatic, out of context, but Louisa's arc is built up from the moment she's introduced. I also appreciated how protective she is over their youngest sister. Man. This book really hit hard, on the kids' front.
Quick confession. I used Z-L*brary for this one. I am sorry. I am so sorry. None of the libraries in my consortium had the book and neither did Libby. The p*racy was worth it, though. Strongly recommend!
The one star reviews did worry me. I can be cynical. I typically like books even less than then negative reviewers do. But this one? Listen. I do get where they're coming from. I could see someone DNFing, based on the early treatment of Olivia. She's been married to Spencer for three unhappy years, following the death of his first wife and children. He's very distant (and occasionally cruel). Now, admittedly- this sucks! HE sucks! It is uncomfortable to read. Part of his cruelness is letting Olivia believe she's barren because he isn't being honest about the reproduction process. If that. Makes any sense. So anyways, Olivia is depressed because here she is, married to her childhood best friend, and all he can do is compare to his first wife. What a jerk!
But the book really picks up when her nieces and nephew arrive. Motherhood really suits Olivia. Having children in her life is a big part of her growing a backbone. She wakes up to how crappy her marriage has been around the 50% mark. From there, it feels like a completely different story, specifically Spencer begging for forgiveness and trying to win Olivia back. The grovel does did a great job of convincing me, as a reader. I would attribute a lot of this to the amount of time dedicated to it. And man. The story is just really emotional, in general.
I really liked that the two older kids because have different reactions to their abusive upbringing, by way of their absent birth father.. Neil is a people pleaser who worships his new parental figures. Louisa, the oldest, is implied to have suffered sexual abuse and behaves completely differently. She's prickly and it takes her the entire book to come around to Olivia. I was really heartbroken by the ending, . I could see how that seems melodramatic, out of context, but Louisa's arc is built up from the moment she's introduced. I also appreciated how protective she is over their youngest sister. Man. This book really hit hard, on the kids' front.
Quick confession. I used Z-L*brary for this one. I am sorry. I am so sorry. None of the libraries in my consortium had the book and neither did Libby. The p*racy was worth it, though. Strongly recommend!
August 1, 2011
For readers who liked The Coming Home Place by Mary Spencer, though this book does not have as much heartbreak, it is still a story about a hero having to move forward and picking himself up after the loss of his wife and children.
I liked the writing style a lot, though it is third person point of view, it does not present the perspective of the hero and heroine, but also of other secondary/ supporting characters and their thoughts are adapted to their age and knowledge, so I may say it's a great technique which kept the book entertaining.
Aside the heartbreak and the annoying "I can't love you, 'cause I love a ghost" phase at the beginning of the book, there's a shift in the behavior of the hero triggered by a shock at the half of the book, and he starts his "repenting" period, trying to re-gain the affection of a reluctant heroine.
What I liked about this book was the fact that the author did not concentrate exclusively on the main couple, but it also drew a picture of the small town society at that time in Wisconsin, with the railroad and its impact on people and the impact of doctors and books. I also liked the supporting characters which made the book heartwarming, and which were attentively created to have their own personalities, sorrows and reasons of joy.
I liked the writing style a lot, though it is third person point of view, it does not present the perspective of the hero and heroine, but also of other secondary/ supporting characters and their thoughts are adapted to their age and knowledge, so I may say it's a great technique which kept the book entertaining.
Aside the heartbreak and the annoying "I can't love you, 'cause I love a ghost" phase at the beginning of the book, there's a shift in the behavior of the hero triggered by a shock at the half of the book, and he starts his "repenting" period, trying to re-gain the affection of a reluctant heroine.
What I liked about this book was the fact that the author did not concentrate exclusively on the main couple, but it also drew a picture of the small town society at that time in Wisconsin, with the railroad and its impact on people and the impact of doctors and books. I also liked the supporting characters which made the book heartwarming, and which were attentively created to have their own personalities, sorrows and reasons of joy.
October 11, 2010
If you like a book were the H has major groveling to do, this is the book for you. Spencer lost his first wife and children and still was morning their loss when he remarries long time friend, Olivia. So many times I wanted to jump into the story and tell Olivia to leave her cold and lying husband but she stuck with him until she figured out the lies. To get Olivia back he has to work hard and what I loved about the book is that Olivia didn't take him back quickly like most books- there is close to a hundred pages of groveling here which is not excessive considering Spencer's treatment of Olivia.
This is a wonderful and beautifully written book. I highly recommend it.
This is a wonderful and beautifully written book. I highly recommend it.
September 19, 2015
o la la..... if i ever.. EVER! find a magic spell that can get me entering this book, i will strangled olivia's neck and then i provide her a rope and said "just hang your self please. there's no hope for girl like you, maybe if you died, you'll find your pride, but first, lemme slaped you back and forth" or so... and was shocked seeing few even give this book 4-5 stars. did reading olivia's and spencer's character was that good?. me? i wanna pulled off my hair!
Olivia... olivia... olivia.... OLIVIA!!, tsk.. where can i start w/you? im soo speechless that i dont even know where i need to begin and how i ended this. Olivia is the perfect type of the -too-good girl w/weak heart, innocence that beyond boundaries, mind as simple as a newborn baby, overly too shy and stupidity that has no limit, she also has pleasure in taking mental tortured and matching it with a dramatic crying by bitting her own fist-hand like she was in some cheap opera soap drama. and she cried evry fucking time. she is the type of girl that i hate soo much in real life, personaly. not that i hate good girl as in girl w/good heart. no. but sometimes i think they should hv limit of how good they should be and should've be able to differentiate it with stupidity when they realize that someone is stomping her good heart by being mean when all she can do was offering her heart in hope it can triumph all the bad bad mean things that's being throwing at her. THAT the kind of girl that i hate the most.
Olivia was a hopeless girl, with big crush on spencer since she was a teenager. spencer was her brother's friend. she grown up seeing spencer and her brother throuhout her life. see him in his bad, good, sad and his happiness. she got her first kiss from spencer too, but it doesnt mean that spencer has his heart for her. no. it was just a kiss from a boy that overly lusted and curious, and olivia is the only and nearest outlet for him to do that. nothing nasty happened. only a kiss. i guess a simple kind of kiss. not the tounge tied kiss. since then, olivia see spencer and no one else. but spencer never made her confused or leading her to bcome sure that spencer indeed has a special romantic feeling for her, no. spencer never lead her to that conclusion,nor do he ever courting her and throwing her an overly affection, No! he was just friendly to her. thus, i cant blame spencer for olivia's own madnees to him, coz spencer never "played" her feeling towards him, although he knows that olivia like/love him, which is good coz he never took advantage from her sexually. but i dont blame Olivia either, after all the author makes the town that she lives in only has like... no more than 10 citizen. and that include spencer, olivia, olivia's brother and wife and their 3kids, the ugly shopkeeper daughter and his dad. that's all. Olivia doesnt has any friend, no girl-friend or guy-friend. none! but weirdly, the author make oliva has a good heart and does somekind like medical charity to the town people that only exist in imagination, since no other this "extra" ever get into a real contact conversation in her life througout the story. simply said, olivia is alone and misserable. her heart then got broke when spencer married kirsten, the girl that took his heart. he lives a happy life, has 2 kids and pampered kirsten, his wife to the full. while olivia? still standing in the corner w/eyes only for spencer, in some chapter, when spencer said to her he was going to marry kirsten, olivia cried. ON THE SPOT!ofc with her fist on her mouth-cheap dramatic soap opera show. like.. what the eff?? and then she vow, VOW!!! that she will never love other guy! alongside with her firmly believed, that she will never be marry to someone else. how creepy is that?? if i were spencer, i would moved to the next town as fast as i can. run spencer!! run!!.
i hate this kind of thought, truthfully. coz unconsiously, Olivia giving a burden to spencer not silently, but BLUNTLY! as if like saying in his face "damn, i love you, but you marry other girl, not like we were in some kind of romantic relationship, but i love no one but you for my whole life, and here i vow i will only love you and not other guy and i dont think i can ever be marrying any guy". Maybe olivia should've grinned instead of cried when she said those words to spencer. psycho creepy delusional girl is a good definition for her. and then spencer's wife died, his kids too, he heartbroken and cant function well as a human. 2 years latter he married Olivia. *yeayy!! finally this creepy pathetic misserable girl can get spencer and leaving his human-sized doll that she made and held on when she sleep due to her crazyness to spencer and she can finally stoped to sniffed the air to smell his body odor averytime he was standing near to her (this was in my mind only, not in the book and it's a sarcasm ).
and how well their marriage life was going? ANNOYING!! yes, spencer is a jerk, bad husband and heartless. but Olivia... is on the another level of annoyance, she has no personality, other than being good and obedience, all she did was trying sooo fucking heart to REPLACE KIRSTEN!!! i repeat, TO REPLACE KIRSTEN. instead of being herself that maybe she also confused what's her personality is, she did everything that kirsten did when she was married to spencer, in ten times back. once, spencer was saying, kirsten used to made him pie or cake or some sweets once in a while, and what olivia do? she took this as a chance to gain spencer affection by....MAKING IT ALMOST EVRYDAY!!! ofc spencer was annoyed too. and she cried everytime spencer never praised her overly-evryday-is a cake's day-taste. also, she soo desperate to have a child, and i thought it was what she wants, to build a family and have her own kids. but noooopeee! she wants to have a kid because..... SHE WANTS TO REPLACE THE KIDS THAT SPENCER HAD!! in some conversation when olivia hope for a child, spencer said dont push your luck soo high girl, but then olivia said, "why? dont you want kids? you will be a good father and you were happy when you still had your -now dead-kids. you were happy when you become a father"
you see how her wrecked brain work?? she sincerely want to make spencer happy, but her way to reach that goal is .... not with her own signature, but by what she thinks to replaced the lost that spencer had!forcefully. ughhh... and she also kinda "push" her way to spencer, instead of being "carefully", she demand the things that spencer gave to kirsten, all while she knows that she has been treated not even in an affection that a husband give to his wife. but she brushed it off. why? again, she is delusional. in her mind, she think that IF she overdose spencer w/her kindness, her pies which she made almost evryday and pushing him to make a child w/her, eventually he will love her back as much as she loves him (which beyond creepy and hopeless and delulu)without recognizing his rejection to her's. and dont even tempt me to tell how often olivia was crying in this book, coz SHE ALWAYS CRYING!!! fucking hate her!! ughhh... but again, she has no friend, that's why i gladly give a rope for her to hang herself...
Spencer.... hmm.. he was complex, he has a good solid background to acted like a jerk and annoying heartless husband like he was in the 3/4 of the stories. plus he got Olivia that useless-cry baby-no personality-love me back and hard!pleasee...- girl as his wife. i bet his life was like in hell. but it doesnt mean im sided w/him. no! what he did to olivia, was cruel. he fake the baby making procedure and manipulated olivia to believed what they did in bed was a baby making activities when it's not. he did the the sex, but he throw his sperm somewhere else and pulled out bfore he finished. Olivia, being the girl that as innocence as an heavenly angel, ofc didnt knw this. how can she? when she has no one to explained about the bed activities? her mom was died long time ago, she has no married women as her closed friend. she has a brother though, but ofc he cant explained her that thing. oh wait... there's bess!! her brother's wife, but ofc, ploting that she was not knowing things about what a women need in baby making is more thrill for this silly story. and what makes spencer come to this plot? it was happened at their wedding night, when spencer was in the "act", he suddently get traumatized hearing olivia's moan, it remind him of kirsten and her death and his kids death, so... he lost his erection *im laughing hard in this scenes*, and he tried to apologized to olivia for his dick to lost it's erection, but olivia didnt understand anything about biology nor do she ever watch porn, so it gave him an idea, since spencer didnt want any kids, he can fake this baby making, since hell olivia didnt even knw wht erection is and how that thing operate. but olivia was soo desperate to have a child bcoz it will make spencer happy, after all, when he was a father, he was good w/child. so she wants to give a child to him! even when througout their marriage, she knows that spencer still traumatized by his wife and kids death and made his kids room n bed as a shrine, but olivia ignored this and confidence that if she pregnant, spencer will be happy (again, first degree delusional stage). but when 3years passed, and she still didnt have kids, so she asked for her death sister's kids to live w/her WITHOUT DISCUSSING IT WITH SPENCER!! coz, again, she think that having 3 kids whose in their 13, 11 and 3 years of age, can bring her and spencer into happiness... oh.. how she desperate to give child for spencer. here i though she will be a good mother who knows how to handled kid, esp the one that's just being left by their death mother and having a father that cant be the good rolemodel, but SHE'S NOT!!! for god sake! she doesnt even knw how to handled the 2 oldest kids! and she cant even persuade nor do has the courage to dicipline them! esp the bitchy louisa w/tons of trouble and trauma. HOW MESSY HER BRAIN IS?? even adopting a puppy need a firm responsibilities to being able to raise them! instead of just seeing how cute those pupies are. geezz..she always did the things that she think she can handled but ignoring the fact that she might not be able to do it. it was spencer that can handled those kids, except the 3 y.o one ofc, coz the 13 and the 11 was problematic enough for the useless olivia to handled, and dont knw how!!!! just hang yourself..olivia!!
oh, and finally spencer love olivia, after she was fell to the floor and faint for only a couple of hours, but ofc she got amnesia and forgeting that at that day before she was fell, she and spencer was fight and spencer asked her to leave.
btw, i dont knw about true crazy love, BUT if it was my life that it took for someone that i love sincerely to realize that he can love me back, i fucking dont want his love!! if i was not closed to death, will it takes me died in my old age for him to finally love me back, then? yucks..
oh, and olivia knows about the fake baby making, since spencer was now inlove w/her, so he did the real baby making sex, and olivia was confused by the end result, since... you knw, he flooded her. she asked him, he said sorry. she got mad and leave him. he asked why you got mad??, she said bcoz you lied to me and it hurt me when i desperate to have a baby. he said, it was bcoz he didnt want a baby, but now he want. she said, no. he asked, why?? it was me that's in hell, loosing everything, my wife and kids, what did you loose by my doing, olivia??. she said, bcoz oh his babymaking lied, she was stamp as a barren which is soo embarassing and he did nothing to protect her being labeled by the barren wife when he knw it was not her fault. he said, but we can get baby now!
and here his legendary words that olivia deserved to be thrown at after for 3 years of marriage, spencer was lying to her, treat her cold, bluntly rejecting her affection, manipulating her mind when she though all they did in bed was making baby and not stopping the town's gossip about her wife infertility that brought her to shamed:
"BUT YOUR DREAM CAN COME TRUE NOW! YOU GOT ME, THE ONE THAT YOU LOVES YOUR WHOLE LIFE, AND YOU WILL GOT THE BABY THAT YOU WANT. SO, WHAT'S WRONG W/NOW??" ooohhh..... if this words was thrown to other heroine w/her own personality, her own way to made the hero happy, her own rule and her own strong mind, i will got sooo mad. but since this was Olivia, the girl that even vow not to love anyguy when he said he was marrying kirsten, i said, fucking yesss!!!! that's how lowly olivia is.
yes, spencer has the power and every right for saying those mean cruel bastard words to her, since it was olivia herself that gave him that power. after all, if she was ready to be a spinster her whole life when spencer was married to kirsten, why not accepting him now?doesnt she wants him in every breath she takes?, even when he loves kirsten, have kids and lived a happy marriage and olivia wont moved on and just starring at him like puss in the boots-style-freaking annoying-overly obssesed. so, as spencer said, why not now? didnt all she did was the things that she think can make spencer happy? and wht makes spencer happy, is the only thing that she live for in this world? so?? if spencer lied to her and it did makes him happy at that time, then why not? hey you stupid fool olivia???
im sorry, i should hv hate spencer, but i cant help it, i hate olivia more. some might have think that oliva's innocence and kindness is cute. me? Bloody hell!
and dear author, what's the point of droping hint about louisa being sexualy harrased by her dad when no one try to talk about it through the end? and what about who the one that stole the book of sex that remy lend to spencer? was it neil? or louisa? coz neil also read that book too, and what's the point of making this scenes? was it to show that the teenage one is ovely lust and curious w/sex? and where does it lead to? i mean, what trigger it? it was just like a random throwing scenes. other random and pointless scenes? what's the used of emma zephlin role? all she is in the book was being treated like a disgusting pig bcoz of her ugly faced. a faced that apparantly sooo ugly that she was being the most fave girl to be include in every insult that related to ugly. even the damnable olivia w/her empty personality also acknowledge unshamfully and even at one point made herself better by comparing herself w/the ugly emma. what's the point of emma;s existent??? to be chew on?? how kind and pointless from the author to make emma's character. and when in the end emma shot her self, again, your point? dear author?? just for a red thread to make louisa's attempt to suicide more reasonable?? since she become obssesed by emma's way to end her missreable life, coz dont you forget, louisa's life also miiserable. remember her sexual harrased hint by the author? but no where being talk to or help her to solved??
what a freaking mess!!!
no good!! i was going to give 1 star, but i realized that i waste my 5-6hours time to try my hardest to finish this book, so the other star is for myself!! this book was worth 1 star only! im done
Olivia... olivia... olivia.... OLIVIA!!, tsk.. where can i start w/you? im soo speechless that i dont even know where i need to begin and how i ended this. Olivia is the perfect type of the -too-good girl w/weak heart, innocence that beyond boundaries, mind as simple as a newborn baby, overly too shy and stupidity that has no limit, she also has pleasure in taking mental tortured and matching it with a dramatic crying by bitting her own fist-hand like she was in some cheap opera soap drama. and she cried evry fucking time. she is the type of girl that i hate soo much in real life, personaly. not that i hate good girl as in girl w/good heart. no. but sometimes i think they should hv limit of how good they should be and should've be able to differentiate it with stupidity when they realize that someone is stomping her good heart by being mean when all she can do was offering her heart in hope it can triumph all the bad bad mean things that's being throwing at her. THAT the kind of girl that i hate the most.
Olivia was a hopeless girl, with big crush on spencer since she was a teenager. spencer was her brother's friend. she grown up seeing spencer and her brother throuhout her life. see him in his bad, good, sad and his happiness. she got her first kiss from spencer too, but it doesnt mean that spencer has his heart for her. no. it was just a kiss from a boy that overly lusted and curious, and olivia is the only and nearest outlet for him to do that. nothing nasty happened. only a kiss. i guess a simple kind of kiss. not the tounge tied kiss. since then, olivia see spencer and no one else. but spencer never made her confused or leading her to bcome sure that spencer indeed has a special romantic feeling for her, no. spencer never lead her to that conclusion,nor do he ever courting her and throwing her an overly affection, No! he was just friendly to her. thus, i cant blame spencer for olivia's own madnees to him, coz spencer never "played" her feeling towards him, although he knows that olivia like/love him, which is good coz he never took advantage from her sexually. but i dont blame Olivia either, after all the author makes the town that she lives in only has like... no more than 10 citizen. and that include spencer, olivia, olivia's brother and wife and their 3kids, the ugly shopkeeper daughter and his dad. that's all. Olivia doesnt has any friend, no girl-friend or guy-friend. none! but weirdly, the author make oliva has a good heart and does somekind like medical charity to the town people that only exist in imagination, since no other this "extra" ever get into a real contact conversation in her life througout the story. simply said, olivia is alone and misserable. her heart then got broke when spencer married kirsten, the girl that took his heart. he lives a happy life, has 2 kids and pampered kirsten, his wife to the full. while olivia? still standing in the corner w/eyes only for spencer, in some chapter, when spencer said to her he was going to marry kirsten, olivia cried. ON THE SPOT!ofc with her fist on her mouth-cheap dramatic soap opera show. like.. what the eff?? and then she vow, VOW!!! that she will never love other guy! alongside with her firmly believed, that she will never be marry to someone else. how creepy is that?? if i were spencer, i would moved to the next town as fast as i can. run spencer!! run!!.
i hate this kind of thought, truthfully. coz unconsiously, Olivia giving a burden to spencer not silently, but BLUNTLY! as if like saying in his face "damn, i love you, but you marry other girl, not like we were in some kind of romantic relationship, but i love no one but you for my whole life, and here i vow i will only love you and not other guy and i dont think i can ever be marrying any guy". Maybe olivia should've grinned instead of cried when she said those words to spencer. psycho creepy delusional girl is a good definition for her. and then spencer's wife died, his kids too, he heartbroken and cant function well as a human. 2 years latter he married Olivia. *yeayy!! finally this creepy pathetic misserable girl can get spencer and leaving his human-sized doll that she made and held on when she sleep due to her crazyness to spencer and she can finally stoped to sniffed the air to smell his body odor averytime he was standing near to her (this was in my mind only, not in the book and it's a sarcasm ).
and how well their marriage life was going? ANNOYING!! yes, spencer is a jerk, bad husband and heartless. but Olivia... is on the another level of annoyance, she has no personality, other than being good and obedience, all she did was trying sooo fucking heart to REPLACE KIRSTEN!!! i repeat, TO REPLACE KIRSTEN. instead of being herself that maybe she also confused what's her personality is, she did everything that kirsten did when she was married to spencer, in ten times back. once, spencer was saying, kirsten used to made him pie or cake or some sweets once in a while, and what olivia do? she took this as a chance to gain spencer affection by....MAKING IT ALMOST EVRYDAY!!! ofc spencer was annoyed too. and she cried everytime spencer never praised her overly-evryday-is a cake's day-taste. also, she soo desperate to have a child, and i thought it was what she wants, to build a family and have her own kids. but noooopeee! she wants to have a kid because..... SHE WANTS TO REPLACE THE KIDS THAT SPENCER HAD!! in some conversation when olivia hope for a child, spencer said dont push your luck soo high girl, but then olivia said, "why? dont you want kids? you will be a good father and you were happy when you still had your -now dead-kids. you were happy when you become a father"
you see how her wrecked brain work?? she sincerely want to make spencer happy, but her way to reach that goal is .... not with her own signature, but by what she thinks to replaced the lost that spencer had!forcefully. ughhh... and she also kinda "push" her way to spencer, instead of being "carefully", she demand the things that spencer gave to kirsten, all while she knows that she has been treated not even in an affection that a husband give to his wife. but she brushed it off. why? again, she is delusional. in her mind, she think that IF she overdose spencer w/her kindness, her pies which she made almost evryday and pushing him to make a child w/her, eventually he will love her back as much as she loves him (which beyond creepy and hopeless and delulu)without recognizing his rejection to her's. and dont even tempt me to tell how often olivia was crying in this book, coz SHE ALWAYS CRYING!!! fucking hate her!! ughhh... but again, she has no friend, that's why i gladly give a rope for her to hang herself...
Spencer.... hmm.. he was complex, he has a good solid background to acted like a jerk and annoying heartless husband like he was in the 3/4 of the stories. plus he got Olivia that useless-cry baby-no personality-love me back and hard!pleasee...- girl as his wife. i bet his life was like in hell. but it doesnt mean im sided w/him. no! what he did to olivia, was cruel. he fake the baby making procedure and manipulated olivia to believed what they did in bed was a baby making activities when it's not. he did the the sex, but he throw his sperm somewhere else and pulled out bfore he finished. Olivia, being the girl that as innocence as an heavenly angel, ofc didnt knw this. how can she? when she has no one to explained about the bed activities? her mom was died long time ago, she has no married women as her closed friend. she has a brother though, but ofc he cant explained her that thing. oh wait... there's bess!! her brother's wife, but ofc, ploting that she was not knowing things about what a women need in baby making is more thrill for this silly story. and what makes spencer come to this plot? it was happened at their wedding night, when spencer was in the "act", he suddently get traumatized hearing olivia's moan, it remind him of kirsten and her death and his kids death, so... he lost his erection *im laughing hard in this scenes*, and he tried to apologized to olivia for his dick to lost it's erection, but olivia didnt understand anything about biology nor do she ever watch porn, so it gave him an idea, since spencer didnt want any kids, he can fake this baby making, since hell olivia didnt even knw wht erection is and how that thing operate. but olivia was soo desperate to have a child bcoz it will make spencer happy, after all, when he was a father, he was good w/child. so she wants to give a child to him! even when througout their marriage, she knows that spencer still traumatized by his wife and kids death and made his kids room n bed as a shrine, but olivia ignored this and confidence that if she pregnant, spencer will be happy (again, first degree delusional stage). but when 3years passed, and she still didnt have kids, so she asked for her death sister's kids to live w/her WITHOUT DISCUSSING IT WITH SPENCER!! coz, again, she think that having 3 kids whose in their 13, 11 and 3 years of age, can bring her and spencer into happiness... oh.. how she desperate to give child for spencer. here i though she will be a good mother who knows how to handled kid, esp the one that's just being left by their death mother and having a father that cant be the good rolemodel, but SHE'S NOT!!! for god sake! she doesnt even knw how to handled the 2 oldest kids! and she cant even persuade nor do has the courage to dicipline them! esp the bitchy louisa w/tons of trouble and trauma. HOW MESSY HER BRAIN IS?? even adopting a puppy need a firm responsibilities to being able to raise them! instead of just seeing how cute those pupies are. geezz..she always did the things that she think she can handled but ignoring the fact that she might not be able to do it. it was spencer that can handled those kids, except the 3 y.o one ofc, coz the 13 and the 11 was problematic enough for the useless olivia to handled, and dont knw how!!!! just hang yourself..olivia!!
oh, and finally spencer love olivia, after she was fell to the floor and faint for only a couple of hours, but ofc she got amnesia and forgeting that at that day before she was fell, she and spencer was fight and spencer asked her to leave.
btw, i dont knw about true crazy love, BUT if it was my life that it took for someone that i love sincerely to realize that he can love me back, i fucking dont want his love!! if i was not closed to death, will it takes me died in my old age for him to finally love me back, then? yucks..
oh, and olivia knows about the fake baby making, since spencer was now inlove w/her, so he did the real baby making sex, and olivia was confused by the end result, since... you knw, he flooded her. she asked him, he said sorry. she got mad and leave him. he asked why you got mad??, she said bcoz you lied to me and it hurt me when i desperate to have a baby. he said, it was bcoz he didnt want a baby, but now he want. she said, no. he asked, why?? it was me that's in hell, loosing everything, my wife and kids, what did you loose by my doing, olivia??. she said, bcoz oh his babymaking lied, she was stamp as a barren which is soo embarassing and he did nothing to protect her being labeled by the barren wife when he knw it was not her fault. he said, but we can get baby now!
and here his legendary words that olivia deserved to be thrown at after for 3 years of marriage, spencer was lying to her, treat her cold, bluntly rejecting her affection, manipulating her mind when she though all they did in bed was making baby and not stopping the town's gossip about her wife infertility that brought her to shamed:
"BUT YOUR DREAM CAN COME TRUE NOW! YOU GOT ME, THE ONE THAT YOU LOVES YOUR WHOLE LIFE, AND YOU WILL GOT THE BABY THAT YOU WANT. SO, WHAT'S WRONG W/NOW??" ooohhh..... if this words was thrown to other heroine w/her own personality, her own way to made the hero happy, her own rule and her own strong mind, i will got sooo mad. but since this was Olivia, the girl that even vow not to love anyguy when he said he was marrying kirsten, i said, fucking yesss!!!! that's how lowly olivia is.
yes, spencer has the power and every right for saying those mean cruel bastard words to her, since it was olivia herself that gave him that power. after all, if she was ready to be a spinster her whole life when spencer was married to kirsten, why not accepting him now?doesnt she wants him in every breath she takes?, even when he loves kirsten, have kids and lived a happy marriage and olivia wont moved on and just starring at him like puss in the boots-style-freaking annoying-overly obssesed. so, as spencer said, why not now? didnt all she did was the things that she think can make spencer happy? and wht makes spencer happy, is the only thing that she live for in this world? so?? if spencer lied to her and it did makes him happy at that time, then why not? hey you stupid fool olivia???
im sorry, i should hv hate spencer, but i cant help it, i hate olivia more. some might have think that oliva's innocence and kindness is cute. me? Bloody hell!
and dear author, what's the point of droping hint about louisa being sexualy harrased by her dad when no one try to talk about it through the end? and what about who the one that stole the book of sex that remy lend to spencer? was it neil? or louisa? coz neil also read that book too, and what's the point of making this scenes? was it to show that the teenage one is ovely lust and curious w/sex? and where does it lead to? i mean, what trigger it? it was just like a random throwing scenes. other random and pointless scenes? what's the used of emma zephlin role? all she is in the book was being treated like a disgusting pig bcoz of her ugly faced. a faced that apparantly sooo ugly that she was being the most fave girl to be include in every insult that related to ugly. even the damnable olivia w/her empty personality also acknowledge unshamfully and even at one point made herself better by comparing herself w/the ugly emma. what's the point of emma;s existent??? to be chew on?? how kind and pointless from the author to make emma's character. and when in the end emma shot her self, again, your point? dear author?? just for a red thread to make louisa's attempt to suicide more reasonable?? since she become obssesed by emma's way to end her missreable life, coz dont you forget, louisa's life also miiserable. remember her sexual harrased hint by the author? but no where being talk to or help her to solved??
what a freaking mess!!!
no good!! i was going to give 1 star, but i realized that i waste my 5-6hours time to try my hardest to finish this book, so the other star is for myself!! this book was worth 1 star only! im done
March 7, 2022
I was in the mood for angsty unrequited love and here we are, this is as close to a western as I'll read.
Story: h in love with H her whole life marries him to try and 'heal' him from death of his wife (be careful what you wish for). But his heart died with them. She desperately wants a baby, but nothing she does works... and then she finds out why (you find out chapter 1 so that's not a spoiler)
Hero: went into this knowing he was going to be a selfish asshole too busy grieving to care about anything else. But my heart hurt reading how much that was true. He's running from her, from life, from feeling or caring for anyone again. Though I hated how often he compared his first wife to his second, you as the reader realize his self delusion that he feels nothing for the h way earlier than he does.
But this doesn't help when he treats her horribly - he wasn't evil cruel, (he was honest about why he wanted to wife and never made any promises), he was careless cruel. Which is almost worse. It was basically emotional abuse, small things like forgetting her birthday and never complimenting her. Only reason I didn't hate him completely was because he hated himself more. You read on desperate for his comeuppance. And I'm happy to say that he gets it.
Heroine: I've read about naive heroines in the past, but this one Takes the Cake. You can't even hate her she's a product of her time. When even her best friend won't talk about intimate things with her. There's a scene where she was at the doctor to find out what's 'wrong' with her, the vicarious mortification that I felt for her it's heartbreaking.
You realize she's also not a completely the victim since she chose with both eyes open to enter this marriage. With only her hopes to sustain her, she thought she could be the perfect wife he would love her. But she also had no clue how much he was withholding from her (including passion!). I blame him for her reputation as baron in town, and I don't blame her for not wanting her own naivety to be bandied about. Overall I liked how firm she was at the end and how much she made him grovel and didn't give in.
The POV of little boy broke my heart every time. I liked how well developed side characters were. I even mourned for the shopkeepers daughter- poor girl, but she truly sounded like she was hideous.
Overall the story made me frustrated, sad, gave me a lump in my throat and made me smile.
Story: h in love with H her whole life marries him to try and 'heal' him from death of his wife (be careful what you wish for). But his heart died with them. She desperately wants a baby, but nothing she does works... and then she finds out why (you find out chapter 1 so that's not a spoiler)
Hero: went into this knowing he was going to be a selfish asshole too busy grieving to care about anything else. But my heart hurt reading how much that was true. He's running from her, from life, from feeling or caring for anyone again. Though I hated how often he compared his first wife to his second, you as the reader realize his self delusion that he feels nothing for the h way earlier than he does.
But this doesn't help when he treats her horribly - he wasn't evil cruel, (he was honest about why he wanted to wife and never made any promises), he was careless cruel. Which is almost worse. It was basically emotional abuse, small things like forgetting her birthday and never complimenting her. Only reason I didn't hate him completely was because he hated himself more. You read on desperate for his comeuppance. And I'm happy to say that he gets it.
Heroine: I've read about naive heroines in the past, but this one Takes the Cake. You can't even hate her she's a product of her time. When even her best friend won't talk about intimate things with her. There's a scene where she was at the doctor to find out what's 'wrong' with her, the vicarious mortification that I felt for her it's heartbreaking.
You realize she's also not a completely the victim since she chose with both eyes open to enter this marriage. With only her hopes to sustain her, she thought she could be the perfect wife he would love her. But she also had no clue how much he was withholding from her (including passion!). I blame him for her reputation as baron in town, and I don't blame her for not wanting her own naivety to be bandied about. Overall I liked how firm she was at the end and how much she made him grovel and didn't give in.
The POV of little boy broke my heart every time. I liked how well developed side characters were. I even mourned for the shopkeepers daughter- poor girl, but she truly sounded like she was hideous.
Overall the story made me frustrated, sad, gave me a lump in my throat and made me smile.
August 13, 2024
I'm utterly baffled by the low ratings this book has garnered. It's a literary gem, exquisitely crafted with a depth and complexity that is often overlooked. While the hero's character is undoubtedly challenging, his pain and longing are portrayed with such raw honesty that it's impossible not to be drawn into his world.
The author's masterful storytelling transforms what could have been a one-dimensional character into a complex and compelling figure. His obsession with the past, while undoubtedly frustrating, is integral to the story's emotional core. The resulting tension and angst are palpable, making for a truly immersive reading experience.
If you appreciate beautifully written, emotionally charged narratives, I implore you to give this book a chance. It's a story that lingers long after the final page.
The author's masterful storytelling transforms what could have been a one-dimensional character into a complex and compelling figure. His obsession with the past, while undoubtedly frustrating, is integral to the story's emotional core. The resulting tension and angst are palpable, making for a truly immersive reading experience.
If you appreciate beautifully written, emotionally charged narratives, I implore you to give this book a chance. It's a story that lingers long after the final page.
May 4, 2020
Well, let me just say Spencer was some character. If he had not been in mourning at the time of his stupid deed, I would have hated his guts. This way he gets a semi-free pass. And I enjoyed him paying for his stupid mistakes later on, when Olivia finally understands why she did not conceive in 3 years of marriage.
May 10, 2022
3 I still don't think the hero realizes what a complete piece of shit he was stars. Plus I did like the heroine
January 25, 2024
Im not so satisfy with the grovel but better than some books
April 21, 2017
H/h were childhood friends - H friends with h's older brother. h always in love with H since she was young. She was not considered beautiful (plain, sturdy, sweet and kind.) H fell in love with someone else (descriptions beautiful and almost doll-like) and had 2 children. The wife and 2 children (along with H's mother) die of diphtheria. H is grief-stricken and becomes gruff, withdrawn, and bitter. After 2 years as a widower, h's brother convinces H to marry h to help with the house and farm chores. h marries H convinced she can make him happy again by making his life better and providing children as H was a good and loving father.
H is a huge jerk throughout the book. H is not cruel and mean deep down (IMHO) but can't move on and stuck in grief from the sudden death of a beloved wife and children (and his own mother.) H is mired in grief and believes if he falls in love with h and has children, then it negates the love and memory of his first wife and children. As a result, his remarks (some unintended but not said with thoughtful consideration) and actions are cruel and hurt the h. He does not see anything but his own grief. H also thinks he is broken and therefore can never give the h what she needs to be happy because he just does not have it to give. H feels guilty quite a bit for this and it continues through the first 3 years of the H/h's marriage.
H also takes advantage of the h's innocence (her mother died while she was young) and doesn't understand how much he hurts her by allowing her to think she is barren. This book does highlight the ignorance around women's health and reproductive issues. It also does a good job in depicting how men, including doctors at the time, didn't help shed much light or educate wives, daughters, etc. Whether intentional or the "science" of the times - especially when diagnosing women as nervous, hysterically shy, etc. and not helping to educate women on their bodies or sexuality - allowed the ignorance to continue. ("Your husband knows what to do, let him." This is a paraphrase but fairly accurate.) I did notice that some of the men were just as ignorant. Did this make me upset and angry? Of course, but I had to remind myself of that the attitudes/knowlede during the historical time-frame was real. IMHO some of this attitude, superstition, and ignorance seems perpetuated today.
Grief over the loss of loved ones is personal - what is the timeline for moving on? In the historical context, the H had a farm, he had no family, and his friend (h's bro) suggested marriage as a convenience (the whole town knew of h's crush, infatuation, feelings for H - she never hid it - just did not advertise while H married - but declared to herself that it was H or no one.) Personally, I don't think the H was ready - he had not accepted or finished the grieving process for the loss of his entire family. What I saw in this book is the gradual healing of the H with the h's help and time. H saw h's kindness and caring, and through the process of healing and returning to the land of the living, saw the beauty of the h. Readers do get insight into this with some POV from H and interactions with townsfolk.
Is this a grovel? - I'm not sure. Some nice gestures and persistence to prove he does love h. What I read is a realization that life goes on and opening up of one's self to love again. The H comes to love h and even says goodbye to his previous wife and family. I would think less of him if he didn't hold a place in his heart for them. As H opens his eyes to the "treasure" of h and what she has brought and brings to his life, it is shown and demonstrated that H loves h and the possibility of family and a future with her. I can live with that and why I rate this one 4 stars.
H is a huge jerk throughout the book. H is not cruel and mean deep down (IMHO) but can't move on and stuck in grief from the sudden death of a beloved wife and children (and his own mother.) H is mired in grief and believes if he falls in love with h and has children, then it negates the love and memory of his first wife and children. As a result, his remarks (some unintended but not said with thoughtful consideration) and actions are cruel and hurt the h. He does not see anything but his own grief. H also thinks he is broken and therefore can never give the h what she needs to be happy because he just does not have it to give. H feels guilty quite a bit for this and it continues through the first 3 years of the H/h's marriage.
H also takes advantage of the h's innocence (her mother died while she was young) and doesn't understand how much he hurts her by allowing her to think she is barren. This book does highlight the ignorance around women's health and reproductive issues. It also does a good job in depicting how men, including doctors at the time, didn't help shed much light or educate wives, daughters, etc. Whether intentional or the "science" of the times - especially when diagnosing women as nervous, hysterically shy, etc. and not helping to educate women on their bodies or sexuality - allowed the ignorance to continue. ("Your husband knows what to do, let him." This is a paraphrase but fairly accurate.) I did notice that some of the men were just as ignorant. Did this make me upset and angry? Of course, but I had to remind myself of that the attitudes/knowlede during the historical time-frame was real. IMHO some of this attitude, superstition, and ignorance seems perpetuated today.
Grief over the loss of loved ones is personal - what is the timeline for moving on? In the historical context, the H had a farm, he had no family, and his friend (h's bro) suggested marriage as a convenience (the whole town knew of h's crush, infatuation, feelings for H - she never hid it - just did not advertise while H married - but declared to herself that it was H or no one.) Personally, I don't think the H was ready - he had not accepted or finished the grieving process for the loss of his entire family. What I saw in this book is the gradual healing of the H with the h's help and time. H saw h's kindness and caring, and through the process of healing and returning to the land of the living, saw the beauty of the h. Readers do get insight into this with some POV from H and interactions with townsfolk.
Is this a grovel? - I'm not sure. Some nice gestures and persistence to prove he does love h. What I read is a realization that life goes on and opening up of one's self to love again. The H comes to love h and even says goodbye to his previous wife and family. I would think less of him if he didn't hold a place in his heart for them. As H opens his eyes to the "treasure" of h and what she has brought and brings to his life, it is shown and demonstrated that H loves h and the possibility of family and a future with her. I can live with that and why I rate this one 4 stars.
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