Helpful Score: 6
I'll admit....I hated it at first. For the first 140 pages, the characters are flat, one-dimensional, inconsistent and just not believable. Then there was an incredible act of kindness and generosity on the part of the hero and it turned the whole book around for me. And it just got better from there. It does have the typical Gist edgy-ness...the heroine gets drunk at a party when she doesn't know the punch is spiked, child abuse figures heavily in the story line, and there is a detailed description of the newlyweds undressing on their wedding night (but it stops when the sheets are pulled back). A Bride Most Begrudging is still my favorite by this author, but this will now rank a very close second. So if you don't like the beginning, just stick with it. It is sooooooo worth it!
Helpful Score: 2
Enjoyed this story very much. I didn't realize that so much work went into an estate or how a person was trained to be a lady's maid. The story was also interesting from the two points of upbringing.
Helpful Score: 1
The Gilded Age of America led into the Progressive Era; it was a time of great wealth for those who had made fortunes during the Industrial Revolution. The Progressive Era was also a time of social activism that exposed the plight of factory workers, women's suffrage and the treatment of orphans. All of these factors are at work in "Maid to Match" by Deeanne Gist, a novel that takes place on the Biltmore Estate of George Washington Vanderbilt in 1898.
This is a thoroughly researched novel. The author visited Biltmore and has portrayed the hierarchy of the servant class very well. Although slightly different from the servant class of Europe, "Downton Abbey' fans will recognize characters similar to Daisy, Mr. Bates, Mr. Carson and others. There is even a scoundrel that resembles Thomas! The story about how the orphans were treated reminds one of the poor children in "Oliver Twist" and history shows that orphanages of this era were often times little more than work houses. Gist has a way of writing a story that keeps one turning pages to see how it's all going to work out; even when the reader thinks they have it figured out, she throws in a surprise twist that one didn't see coming.
Read more of this review:
http://www.examiner.com/article/review-maid-to-match-by-deeanne-gist
This is a thoroughly researched novel. The author visited Biltmore and has portrayed the hierarchy of the servant class very well. Although slightly different from the servant class of Europe, "Downton Abbey' fans will recognize characters similar to Daisy, Mr. Bates, Mr. Carson and others. There is even a scoundrel that resembles Thomas! The story about how the orphans were treated reminds one of the poor children in "Oliver Twist" and history shows that orphanages of this era were often times little more than work houses. Gist has a way of writing a story that keeps one turning pages to see how it's all going to work out; even when the reader thinks they have it figured out, she throws in a surprise twist that one didn't see coming.
Read more of this review:
http://www.examiner.com/article/review-maid-to-match-by-deeanne-gist
