The Featherbed Puzzle

Cute and enjoyable short story, despite a couple niggling issues I had with the characters. The main couple is sweet together and has Noone's lovely emphasis on kindness and care-taking as important, something I am realizing is a common theme of hers after reading three stories of hers.

There's a

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secondary romance between two secondary characters that I liked less. It's a contentious romance, where the characters argue frequently at the start of their courtship. Which is normally fine, but because the novella is not from the perspective of either of them, you don't get to see the sweet and tender moments that the romance is built on. Instead, you only get to see the aftermath of their arguments, with one of them huffy and the other one upset and trying to act unbothered by it all. I do think the romance will work out in the end, but I would have appreciated at least one scene with them being soft with each other before the couple was presented fait accompli at the end, together and happy.

I also wish Arthur had found his spine a bit earlier in the story. There's a scene about halfway through the book where a character insults Arthur's friend and disparages the honor of someone else Arthur cares for. And Arthur just sort of stands there and lets him. Arthur doesn't even mount a rebuttal in his friend's defense in his mind. It was a sour spot in an otherwise very sweetly fluffy book.

Like I said, I did still enjoy the story despite these two issues, just not quite as much as the other things I've read by Noone.

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