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I really love how they’ve made Alicia’s character she’s obviously not a good person but I feel like they’ve took care to make her not be completely defined by her being a bad person? If that makes sense like you can understand what’s made her the way she is and she feels really realistic in other stories I feel like they’d go to length of either making her completely unsympathetic and cruel for no reason or make her have a shoehorned backstory moment where you’re forced to pity her (i haven’t read the novel so i don’t know if they do this later but i hope not) but instead you can just read it all in her character she’s someone who clings onto her looks because it’s the only thing that let her somewhat live above her poverty and she’s desperate still to use that so she doesn’t end up like her sisters. I liked (story wise) how they show her using their sisters deaths against Paula to make her feel bad in the scene before Ethan and Lucas fight you can see how it affected her but still see how her upbringing left her warped in the way she interpreted their deaths, a genuine accusation because she truly blames Paula as you can see her echo the sentiment later, but also so cruel and terrible to their memory to use their sisters in a mocking way. I also especially like how they’ve depicted their relationship, it’s a lot more than strained between them but the way they still stick to eachother and even the way in the recent chapter where Alicia hits her with the pillow there’s genuine hatred from Alicia towards Paula and Paula I wouldn’t say hates her too given she still does all she can to protect her but definitely resents her, but still all that culminates into just Alicia beating her with a pillow and Paula just taking it and I really feel like that’s just such a good depiction of what being a sister is like. They have such a complicated relationship and it’s unsalvageable because Alicia will never act in Paula’s interest she’s too selfish for that, but despite that they still are stuck to eachother simply because they’re sisters and all the hatred and resentment in the world can’t change that for them ESPECIALLY for them because they’re each others last sisters. Anyways, there’s so much more I could say about them but I’ll leave it at that I just wanted to talk about this because the romance in this is wonderful but I think a highlight for me is Paula’s story with her sisters, we know so little about the ones that died but they still haunt the narrative and define her surviving relationships, it’s wonderfully well written and I’m excited to see more of that.
wishing on MLs downfall probably not best thing to do but i kinda hope his scheme does not go the way he wants it to. feigning sickness so “she’ll see that I’m a solitary man in need of a wife” is kind of gross. making her his governess with the ulterior motive of trying to “charm her” into becoming his wife just feels weird on the backdrop of a woman who is feeling genuine happiness and contentment for gaining newfound independence after living a life of being constrained and resented for not meeting the societal expectation of being married. having gained that independence because the ML “saved her” just for him to be treating it as though it’s just a phase and a means for him to get her married to him is really weird from him, and i hope Miss Pendleton does not take any of that.
I agree, but I also think ur reading his actions too emotionally. Though he did have an ulterior motive in bringing him to his sisters household, he genuinely didn’t want to see her, a noble women, living in the town — summarizing what he said “a noble women living with the people is like a death sentence” (in a dumb-out / dramatic way cus I ain’t typing allat haha) — knowing she dreamed of becoming a tutor (also acknowledging that majority of the nobles know she’s half-blood and disowned) it was the overall best decision for her to tutor within the sisters estate to gain reputation from a noble household + gains the opportunity to get *closer* to her. Win-win scenario.
I see your point with him pretending to fall ill to gain her presence and likability, but really-really he’s just daydreaming. I hate to be that person, but if Dalton was a female rarely anyone would bat an eye and say “she was just daydreaming”—that’s what he’s doing, nothing more than a crush. From what I got through the difficult English is that he genuinely wants to be sick so he can be bedridden lol, I don’t think he actually wants to pretend
Yeahhh this was just my gut reaction after reading the chapter so I was being harsh on him, but I do still hope the story addresses that he is in the wrong in the way he’s brought her in with an ulterior motive after she’s already rejected him and made her ideals on love clear, not to say he was not genuine in wanting to help her out or keep her from being in a bad situation I don’t think he’s a bad person, he’s genuine in his care for her but in wanting her to be by his side he’s disregarding Miss Pendleton’s own feelings, her plans for the future and her autonomy. I think the daydream just peeved me in the context of everything else he’s doing. Dalton believes that as long as he loves her enough he can power through any backlash they’ll have to face in society, and Miss Pendleton obviously returns his feelings to an extent but her ideal on love is realistic, she doesn’t think it’s worth the suffering that she’s already had to endure for her background and status as a spinster and she also values the freedom and contentment she was able to gain from leaving the Pendleton house and being a governess. Finding out that Dalton had her hired as a governess with the ulterior motive of trying to marry her, I think would really crush her and the contentment she’s achieved because it would immediately return to her the burden of everything she felt like she’s freed herself from, and I don’t think Dalton is taking that reality seriously — something he’s able to be flippant about as he wouldn’t be the one taking the brunt of societies contempt it would be Laura and their future children. Basically what I mean to say is, that Dalton is forcing his ideal of love on Miss Pendleton, while disregarding her ideals, feelings and real anxieties for a fantasist romance, but on the flip side Miss Pendleton is also the same, she disregards her own feelings and doesn’t allow herself a love she and Dalton deserve to be able to pursue because of her past and her fear of her and her children being on the receiving end of societies vitriol, what I hope is that the story ends with them finding a bridge between their two ideals rather than one of them overpowering the other like the way ML believes things are going to go — which is why i’m praying on his downfall on this one thing in particular. Plus if she rejects him again we just get even more yearning and thats always a super plus
Yess! I understood what you meant, I wasn’t trying to put dirt on your words—if it seems as though, I apologize. Dalton is a selfless man, but he’s also stubborn and persistent; this makes him likeable and unlikable at the same time. I don’t like that he keeps pressuring Pendleton with his fondness when she’s clearly uncomfortable with the relationship, but unfortunately this was considered courtship back in the day. Sometimes when I get second hand embarrassment I say “well, at least he’s attractive and not ugly” lol. Dalton will *probably not get better (***assuming from heard spoilers), and Pendleton will likely go from “timid” to a self-confident women—so I suppose that’s also something to look forward to , hehe