Still trying to decrease my TBR pile. My paperbacks were in a good place, but then I was at the used book store, and I ended up with five more. In my defense, I got all five for $11!
In this BC, Lalitha is basically Cinderella. She has the evil "stepmother" and stepsister. She has to cook and clean up after them. When Lalitha's vain stepsister, Sophie, decides her relationship future, she sends Lalitha to give a waiting suitor the bad news. His reaction? Shout and force Lalitha to marry him. Perfectly rational behavior, right?
There are some interesting things I got from this book. I learned about William Thomas Stead and the abduction of virgins for sale in other countries. While this did have some impact on the story, I became more interested researching Mr. Stead and his unorthodox ways of getting stories. I will say this story was reminiscent of other things. Not only Cinderella, but I picked up a few similarities with Hazard of Hearts as well. I'm talking about the movie, since I haven't read the book. The main difference is the female in the movie has spirit and a backbone. Lalitha has been beaten into submission too often to do anything of the sort.
This was a pretty good example of what BC made her living on. It was entertaining. You just have to pretend the woman doesn't pause every other word. I just skip the pauses and pretend she can speak like a normal human being. Good Book!
