Dowry's Punishment

by C.C. González

*** Editing and format issues fixed***The secret is out. Alexander Dowry III is a woman. Now, Eleanor must come to terms with her feelings for the person she had married by putting some space between them. Absence makes the heart grow fonder. Right? As the news of Alexandra’s real identity is filtered out to the public, both women must find common ground, accept their feelings for each other, and move forward into the unknown.

Genres: Romance, LGBT

131 pages, Kindle Edition

Published February 1, 2021

Reviews

[MaxDisaster · Rating 2 out of 5]

2 stars
All the same downsides as the first book, but somehow lacking in the redeeming qualities, even though the characters remained the same. I still finished reading it, so I won't give it just one star, but won't recommend it.

[M · Rating 2 out of 5]

Picking up where book one left off. I didn’t really like book one, but already bought book two so I decided to give it a chance because I usually like the second book in the series more anyway. This was better in some ways but the same, or worse in others. I liked the plot more in this one, I felt it was more engaging then the first and it started to feel like the author was getting into the swing of things, but not enough unfortunately. The dialogue was still weird like it couldn’t decide if it wanted to be old time, or modern and that affected the flow of the book. The interactions were juvenile, or immature making it a little difficult to take any of the characters seriously. Overall I didn’t really enjoy this one any more or less than the first.

[Cinnia Literary Raccoon]

DNF, as I regrettably expected. I would prefer not to leave a full review, as most who are reading the sequel are readers who enjoyed the first book and I, alas, am not one of them. If you are hoping this book improves upon the problems of the first Dowry book, then imo I must say the quality is about the same. Make of that what you will.

[Rey Hawke · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.25

[Jasmine Thorne · Rating 4 out of 5]

The second book picks up directly after the first one ends. I have to say this book had a lot more engaging content where I had an easier time following along and sticking to the still unnecessarily long chapters.

Alexandra's secret is out and her world begins to fall apart and unravel very quickly. We see who is truly a friend to her during this and it is heartwarming to see how Eleanor processes finding out she had been married to a woman all this time.

Eleanor goes through her own struggles as she tries to make sense of everything, all the lies she had been told by not only Alexandra but Larkin and Nana as well. She is able to eventually overcome this and stand by her wife when she needs her the most. Which only speaks volumes of how pure and true their love really is.

The further we go in this book there is more and more trouble piled on Alexandra and we see her struggling to rely on her family and still be independent. Still trying to shoulder it all while protecting her loved ones. 

This is a beautiful story and conclusion to Alexandra's and Eleanor's tale and I would definitely recommend this book duo to anyone looking for a sweet romance.

[PN · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very satisfactory ending. I will admit I was worried that there would be a turn to make it not an HEA but that didn't happen. Yes, the ending is a bit unbelievable but, honestly, the premise was more than a bit of that as well. And I still loved it. Sometimes you just have to completely suspend your belief when reading a book and this was one. Again there were a few phrases that were not historically accurate and character personalities were a bit inconsistent. But I still enjoyed it and can see myself re-reading these in the future even as a quick flip through.

[M L · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 star. Editing is a bit better than the first book. Still hard to read / understand at time.
But what an indulgent read for me. An MC tortured body and soul, finding love through it all; and sweet redemption with HEA at the end. I recommend reading it like a fantasy novel. Prose and plot not exactly correct nor believable if read as historical fiction.

[Huh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Too short

I considered it too short because I didn’t want it to end. I’m glad It completed the first story in a satisfactory way and I feel it could have been all said in the first book.

[Trippentigger · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice conclusion

This was a nice HEA conclusion to this storyline. Enjoyable character interaction, well place drama/angst, ends tied up nicely. I’ve been enjoying this author’s writings so far.

[Maerwynn B · Rating 1 out of 5]

The problem with this book is it’s written in third person omnipresent… I think? Which makes details muddy and it’s really hard to connect with the characters from that distance. However, sword lesbians being married to trick the patriarchy is an indulgent plot.

Want something quick and fun? Great! But prepare to be a bit confused.