I adored Trouble. It’s like everything I wish Jane Eyre had been. This historical fiction has character, growth, and plenty of laughs. Keep reading this book review of Trouble for my full thoughts.
Summary
There’s a new governess at Fairmont House, and she’s going to be nothing but trouble.
Emily Laurence is a liar. She is not polite, she’s not polished, and she has never taught a child in her life. This position was meant to be her sister’s––brilliant, kind Amy, who isn’t perpetually angry, dangerously reckless, and who does (inexplicably) like children.
But Amy is unwell and needs a doctor, their father is gone and their mother is useless, so here Emily is, pretending to be something she’s not.
If she can get away with her deception for long enough to earn a few month’s wages and slip some expensive trinkets into her pockets along the way, perhaps they’ll be all right.
That is, as long as she doesn’t get involved with the Edwards family’s dramas. Emily refuses to care about her charges – Grace, who talks too much and loves too hard, and Aster, who is frankly terrifying but might just be the wittiest sixteen-year-old Emily has ever met – or the servants, who insist on acting as if they’re each other’s family. And she certainly hasn’t noticed her employer, the brooding, taciturn Captain Edwards, no matter how good he might look without a shirt on . . .
As Fairmont House draws her in, Emily’s lies start to come undone. Can she fix her mistakes before it’s too late?
Review
(Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher. This has not impacted my review which is unbiased and honest.)
I fell in love with Trouble almost immediately after starting it. The premise is fantastic. It gives Jane Eyre and The Sound of Music vibes. So think of a governess who comes to try to help out a family with children who kind of think they’re over a governess. She meets the man of the house who seems stern, but he’s actually a cinnamon roll underneath but kind of needs a new wife – with money – for the future of his family. I listened to Trouble on audio book and everyday I wanted to listen more. I’d make up excuses to listen!
Trouble starts off a story about sisters. It begins with what we would do for our family and everything we would sacrifice. And then it becomes a story about trying to convince ourselves that we don’t deserve kindness or love. That the people who we have come to love don’t matter to us and that they couldn’t possibly love us. And I think that’s where Trouble shines. This theme that we cannot believe in our own goodness is such a universal one. It’s certainly revealed later on, but it’s built upon the foundations and breadcrumbs until I was weeping. The side characters are true gems.
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I’d dive in front of a stampeding horse for them. Trouble reminds us that we can always find our place and that sometimes we just have to accept that people want us, that they love us for who we are. Find Trouble on Goodreads, Storygraph, Amazon, Bookshop. org, Blackwells, & Libro. fm.