Kristen reviewed on
I waited a really long time on the FIFO list for this book and was very much looking forward to reading it. Deeanne Gist knocked it out of the park with her book Courting Trouble and I've since sought out the rest of her novels in hopes of finding another one just as good. Unfortunately, none have made it onto my keeper shelf to sit alongside Courting Trouble (except for its sequel, I have this thing about keeping series together.)
I had really high hopes for Maid to Match. It's a story based on the POV of a maid in the Biltmore home in Asheville, NC. (If you aren't familiar with Biltmore, Google it, just to see the pictures. It's the most incredible 250 room mansion ever built. Or better yet, spend the $50 entrance fee and take the grand tour to experience it for yourself, it's a once-in-a-lifetime thing!)
I didn't feel like the author got into Tillie's, the heroine's, head the way she did in Courting Trouble. I liked her but didn't really care about her, which I guess is the difference. I also was looking forward to some real insights about life as a servant in this time period and what their jobs entailed. The author did cover this lightly, but not in enough detail to really satisfy. I think the book outline was terrific: what life was like "downstairs", life in a stratospherically wealthy home, stepping into a poorly run orphanage and true love. I also thought she was more of a Christian author but she glossed over that so lightly that I wouldn't classify this book as such. With the premise of this book, it had great ideas but it just plain under-delivered. It was a decent book, glad I read it once, disappointed it's not worth reading twice. I listed it back up for swap the night I finished it.
I had really high hopes for Maid to Match. It's a story based on the POV of a maid in the Biltmore home in Asheville, NC. (If you aren't familiar with Biltmore, Google it, just to see the pictures. It's the most incredible 250 room mansion ever built. Or better yet, spend the $50 entrance fee and take the grand tour to experience it for yourself, it's a once-in-a-lifetime thing!)
I didn't feel like the author got into Tillie's, the heroine's, head the way she did in Courting Trouble. I liked her but didn't really care about her, which I guess is the difference. I also was looking forward to some real insights about life as a servant in this time period and what their jobs entailed. The author did cover this lightly, but not in enough detail to really satisfy. I think the book outline was terrific: what life was like "downstairs", life in a stratospherically wealthy home, stepping into a poorly run orphanage and true love. I also thought she was more of a Christian author but she glossed over that so lightly that I wouldn't classify this book as such. With the premise of this book, it had great ideas but it just plain under-delivered. It was a decent book, glad I read it once, disappointed it's not worth reading twice. I listed it back up for swap the night I finished it.
