I was so excited when I came across this book because not only is it a Jane Eyre retelling, but also an LGBTQ+ version of the story. It’s very different from the start because we follow Jane and Bertha through their rotating perspectives. While Jane is starting over after the love of her life passed away, Bertha has spent the first year of her marriage as a prisoner the second she arrived at Thornfield Hall.
I really enjoyed this story. It never felt right that Jane still ended up with Edward at the end of the original story, so I love that Jane, Bertha, and Adèle slowly team up against Edward. It was so exciting to see these characters get to be fully developed and really shine as the story progresses. The fact that Jane doesn’t know who she can trust outside of Adèle really adds to the story as she works to break Bertha free.
We also only see Edward through rose tinted shades through Bertha’s memories. We get to see how they met, how he duped her and her family, and then how things quickly changed the second their honeymoon was over. Edward is truly a terrible character and I really liked how much the story leaned into letting us see how bad he was in this version of the story. He was not an innocent man in the original, but this retelling takes it to the next level as we hope for Bertha to finally get her freedom.
The only part of the story that didn’t work out for me is the romance. Jane and Bertha have no chemistry and their romantic interest in each other seemed to come out of nowhere. There wasn’t much romance to begin with as the story, at its core, is about beating Edward at his own game and freeing Bertha. However, I wish Jane and Bertha had chemistry if they were supposed to have some romantic energy as the story went on. Otherwise, it’s a great book and I’m looking forward to seeing what McKinney publishes next.
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