A review by ipanzica
The Moorland Cottage by Elizabeth Gaskell

5.0

This book is a great story about a young woman learning to stand up for herself and falling in love. Maggie, the main character grows up with her widowed mother, her spoiled brat of a brother (Edward), and Nancy who works for the family. Her mother shows obvious favoritism for her brother and requests constant self-sacrifice from Maggie. Fortunately, Maggie gets closer to a neighboring family and when she is with them she starts to open up and find happiness. As Maggie gets older she is eventually forced to choose between her family that is constantly demanding self-sacrifice without any thanks or love. Also, this book has
Spoilerforbidden love, crime, running from the law, and life-or-death
situations that make things interesting.

Honestly, I really liked this book. The main characters were likable but not perfect, with the exception of Maggie's family who was horrible to her but not in an unbelievable way.
SpoilerEdward was a remorseless narcissist that was obsessed with gaining wealth and the mom was so blinded by favoritism for her son that she did not care about her daughter. At one point Maggie said no to a ridiculous demand from her brother in order to help him avoid punishment for his crimes and both Edward and their mom started verbally attacking Maggie for being heartless and selfish.