The Mallen Girl - Catherine Cookson

"Even as a child Barbara was beautiful, but as her beauty grew, so
did the affliction which shadowed it—she was becoming more and more deaf. Yet living in her silent world, she was protected from the knowledge which might otherwise have destroyed her—the secret of her own origins."

Why is it that I always seem to find and read a Catherine Cookson when my life is in flux? I never seek them out, they just present themselves when I can't find any other books. 

First of all, I didn't realise this was the second book in a series so I didn't quite understand the dramatic backstory or the dynamics between the older characters but it didn't inhibit my enjoyment of the book too much. 

This book was so highly melodramatic...I am just speechless. It was like watching a car crash with a sound track of a Chinese OST, so I kind of enjoyed it from that level. I enjoyed the character of Barbara because of her wildness and passion, but what is it about Cookson always making her female characters so thoroughly unlikable and unrelatable? I didn't care for Barbara one bit. It held my attention because it kept me waiting for her to learn her lesson or get a good damn hiding but not once do you get anything like that. She happily swans through life, everyone excusing her horrific behaviour merely because she is deaf and then when she finally steps over the line everyone feels sorry for HER. She gets to play for the sympathy vote while being read to in bed after dramatically running of into the hills to freeze to death and everyone's worked their butts off find her. I mean ....please, can someone just slap this women. 

The only romance I got invested in was that of the Governess "Bridgie" and uncouth Master of the house. The dynamic between Bridgie's ideas of decorum, breeding and civility being impinged upon by this loud, brash, outspoken man who she has to realise is actually a wonderful, kind person despite it all was excellent and deeply entertaining. That being a "Gentleman" doesn't make some one a gentle man. However this romance had very little page time. The second romance between Barbara and Dan was plain awful. She marries him because she can't have the man she wants and he is just kind of there and procced to mope through the entire wedding....just why?

Age Rating 17+ Quite a few mentions of rape.