I never thought you could romanticize being a handmaid this much. Or at all. I mean, I thought Jane Eyre's ambition to be a governess was a tad bit glamorized but this ... heh.
If I was to make the blurb for The House At Riverton I'd say: This story is basically about the scandal within a prominent family told through the eyes of a maid who eavesdropped on her employers the whole time. It dragged a bit (when they were describing how they were polishing silver) but I expected that.
It took me three tries before I got into it and in the end I'm glad I persisted (or someone else persisted because this book was highly recommended *coughshovedcough* to me). Ok seriously, if you're a Jane Austen fan you might enjoy this. I'm more into Charlotte Brontë and Mark Twain (if I ever read classics) but I still enjoyed reading this. I liked the twist, I sort of predicted it five paragraphs before it happened but it was ... pretty well thought of. I guess I should've predicted it from the beginning because they kept repeating it over and over and Grace kept repeating the word "secret" over and over but ... yeah.
What I enjoyed the most is not the story, though, but the characters. I loved some of them, hated some of them, was amused by some of them. I guess the characters were ... well built and they fit. Each and everyone of them. Florence's name making a short appearance was a bit cheesy but, hey, it worked. [Even Hannah being super selfish worked. I mean she was spoiled since she was a kid and she gets away with pretty much everything she did so her decisions weren't so surprising. I thought her character was super consistent.
