The Village Maid: A Fairy Tale with Benefits: Sylvania, #2
By Jane Buehler
3/5
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About this ebook
She's gone from riches to rags…
Once a castle courtier, Avianna now toils as a laundry maid. She owes the landlady two moons' rent, and she's destroying her one asset—her looks. Her best and only plan to escape poverty is to lure hapless Jeb Doolihan into marriage.
Jeb's handsome and rich… and boring. And Avianna can't stop thinking about her new friend in the village, the humble fairy Thorn. Thorn actually talks to her, unlike most men. He's teaching her to read. And now he's starting to look far too attractive.
But Thorn's a fairy. And fairies can cast love spells.
Avianna is determined to resist his charms and pursue her goal. Thorn doesn't fit the picture of the secure life she's always wanted. But when they escape together from a pirate invasion, that picture starts to change.
The Village Maid is a relatable story in a lighthearted setting with fun magic—the perfect escape. If you like Sophie Kinsella novels, but wish they had fairies and magic, The Village Maid is for you. The Village Maid contains love scenes. The Village Maid can be read on its own but may contain spoilers for the previous book in the series.
Read more from Jane Buehler
The Forest Bride PG: A Fairy Tale with Benefits Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
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Titles in the series (4)
The Forest Bride: A Fairy Tale with Benefits: Sylvania, #1 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Village Maid: A Fairy Tale with Benefits: Sylvania, #2 Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Ocean Girl: A Fairy Tale with Benefits: Sylvania, #3 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Woodland Stranger: A Fairy Tale with Benefits: Sylvania, #4 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
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Reviews for The Village Maid
20 ratings10 reviews
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Ok, I'm not sure what I was expecting with this book, but it read like a YA novel but with decidedly more mature themes than YA.Avianna used to be a castle courtier but is now a laundry maid. She dreams of escaping poverty by luring a wealthy man into marriage. Meanwhile, her fairy friend Thorn always has her back and is a true friend. I'm not spoiling the plot by saying that in the end Avianna and Thorn end up together because she finally realizes that her ideal mate was in front of her all this time. This is a traditional storyline -- and there's nothing wrong with that. The problem was that Avianna was so incredibly shallow and prejudiced (all she wants in a man is muscles and good looks, and he has to be human, etc.). Even when she starts to acknowledge her own feelings for Thorn, she tries to tamp them down by telling herself that a fairy could never make a good lifelong mate. Nevermind that Thorn is pretty much perfect.I guess I just found Avianna so irritating that I had trouble enjoying the story. The plotline itself was entertaining, especially after throwing in a pirate attack, and Avianna sort-of redeems herself in the end, but I still didn't like her and wanted Thorn to end up with a nicer girl. LOL
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Some romances are for me others are not. This was sadly a not. I wanted it to be but I will be taking a break from romances again
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5So this one was both a hit and a miss for me. The premise is a really great "mean girl/gold digger goes good" and "love was in front of you all along" story. I'm really into that type of thing and I think that is where this book really shines. Its a slow burn and I like that. However the part that missed with me was Avianna, she was extraordinarily shallow. As someone who was valued and valued herself by her looks you'd think she'd know what its like to get written off for your looks. You'd think she's have learned to look deeper, but nope. I also was a little confused by the world. Its got a semi-medieval feel, and marriage bonds seem to be a must, but at the same time you can also work for a living instead. Idk maybe it was just viewing it through Avianna's eyes that was kind of throwing it off for me. The overall takeaway is that the book is good, but not great. Avianna kinda brings her own story down.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Avianna once lived in the castle, surrounded by handsome landowners, princes, and wealth. Her only goal was to marry well and be taken care of for the rest of her life, but she was having too much tumbling all the eligible men to settle down. When the castle fell, Avianna was left penniless. She found work as laundress but is still looking for her prince charming to lift her out of poverty. She will bed every man in town if that is what it takes to find him. Thorn is just about the only man she won't tumble, and he's not quite a man, he's a fairy. He's just a good friend who looks out for her, he's even teaching her to read and keeping her safe from scorned ex lovers. But what if being a friend is just the beginning of what he wants. He wouldn't stoop so low as to place a love spell on her, would he? A well imagined fantasy world with flawed and fun characters. Lots of steamy moments and adventure. I need to read the first book in this series!
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The second in a fantasy-romance series from Jane Buehler, The Village Maid focuses on Avianna, a woman who knows what she wants and is not afraid to use her looks and sex appeal to get it. She isn't used to hard work, having been expelled from the castle after a revolution overthrowing the king. Who wouldn't want to find someone to take care of them?While I appreciated the sex-positive viewpoint, Avianna comes across as sort of a "mean girl" -- self-centered, unappreciative of her friends and colleagues. Made it harder to connect with her and root for her to find her HEA with her to-be-lovemate Thorn (a fairy with minor magical aspects). Some plot points could have been resolved earlier if she'd just asked the right questions, or talked to people a little better. The pirate invasion came a little bit out of left field. I did appreciate how Avianna grew and changed over her journey, and the political revolution aspect in a fantasy setting was surprising to me. Could be fleshed out a little better, but an intriguing setting.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5I received this book as part of the LT early reviewers program and was quite excited when I received it. This story seemed like it would be right up my alley and in some ways it was. Unfortunately, I had a hard time really engaging with it as I found I didn't like the female protagonist, Avi. I did enjoy Thorn's character, but again struggled to find the chemistry I was hoping for. I am sure a lot of readers of this genre will absolutely adore this book and I hope many folks give it a try. Books are so subjective and If you liked Nesta from ACOTAR, this one might be for you.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5
2.5 stars
I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Everything she'd had was gone, thanks to the sodding revolution.
Second in the Sylvania series, The Village Maid stars Avianna, the castle mean girl from book one. I haven't read the first in the series and clearly I missed a revolution started by a Princess, some peasants, and fairies. It seems to be a democratic revolution that hit the land where the royal ruling class is now more on equal footing with the working class. While it's obvious that I missed a lot, I thought the author did a great job working in little summaries throughout the story, instead of beginning info dumping, to give new readers a pretty good idea of past events and why Avianna is now working as a laundry maid as she bemoans how fabulous her life was in the caste.
What would it be like to be with someone like Thorn---quiet and polite, and always thinking about her?
In the beginning, Avianna can come off as a pill, she is constantly complaining about having to work and how she just wants to meet me a man to life bond with and have him take care of her while she sits in the lap of luxury. This surface Avianna slowly gets scraped away as the story, told throughout from her perspective, reveals more about her background and hidden hurts and truths. When we first meet Avianna she has just tumbled a man in a room above a pub and is thinking about the men she has been tumbling in search of someone to life bond her. She comes off very mercenary, when we learn more about her past and how she lied about her family background to get into the castle and closer to the opportunities she wanted in life, I found myself liking how she was a hustler, something heroines don't always get to be.
A Fairy love spell, Avianna thought in shock.
The author describes this book as cozy fantasy romance and after years of being burned by misleading categories, I was pleasantly surprised at how much those descriptors fit this. If you're a frequent reader of cozies, it will probably take a little bit of adjusting to how much “tumbling” is discussed here, think of this as cozy sex positive with a lot of talking about it but only a few foreplay and bedroom scenes. The cozy, constantly talking of tumbling, and how Avianna wants a big, muscly, rich boy, swirled together to give this kind of a immature tone to me, I don't know, maybe a New Adult feel. Avianna is twenty but she talked more like a high-schooler. While Avianna is looking for love in all the wrong places, she frequently gets help from her friend Thorn. Thorn is the quietly good guy friend in glasses and suspenders and oh, a fairy. You'll want to shake Avianna every time she dismisses Thorn because he doesn't have muscles.
With all the men she'd tumbled, no one had ever touched her like that---like it was all about her.
There's a lot of Avianna thinking about finding men to tumble so she can get life bonded, which will hopefully pull her from her current destitute position. This takes place in a medieval-ish time period (modern vernacular), so combined with lack of opportunities for women and Avianna's past of con artist parents that gave her a stressful and tense past, if you don't appreciate her hustler mentality, you can at least understand it. As Thorn helps and sticks up for Avianna more and more, she does start to see him in a different light but then childishly ascribes her feelings to him putting a fairy love spell on her. Avianna is a bit of a frustrating character.
What if she started over? What if she had a blank page---what would she write on it?
Mostly Avianna is trying to find love and then dealing with her burgeoning feelings for Thorn while all set against a backdrop of people feeling a bit lost after the revolution, pirates coming to town to enact some skullduggery, Avianna's parents making a surprise appearance, and some secondary characters to fill out the world and town. Everything here is more along the lines of soft, we don't get too in depth anywhere, the world-building or characterizations, besides Avianna. Thorn was really more sketched, you'll think he's sweet but he'll flicker out of your memory pretty quickly. I spent more time wanting Avianna to open her eyes to Thorn than enjoying them together but they did have some foreplay scenes, which sometimes I think romance can bypass in favor of right away penetrative sex (Thorn is a virgin but a reader!). I loved the map at the beginning of the story, every fantasy should have one and I enjoyed how the author tried something fresh with cozy and fantasy in the romance genre. If you're ok with not going into depth, some immaturity vibes, but looking to land somewhere soft with your reading choice, this would be good new pick-up.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Avianna wants to bond with a man and The Village Maid opens with her on that exact mission.The Village Maid is a fairytale, slow-burn, friends-to-lovers romance about a woman looking in all the wrong places for a love. Avianna was a bit unlikeable for me at times, her character really took a while to grow on me and even at the end of the book, I wasn't completely sure I liked her. Thorn, on the other hand, was the most loveable character. He was the perfect counter-part to Avianna and her shenanigans.Being the second in a series, I imagine it would've been a bit easier for me to get into the story if I'd read the first book, BUT each book can be read standalone. There were a few references I think to the first book, but nothing that was completely confusing, thankfully. Once I got into the flow of the writing and the created world, I definitely enjoyed The Village Maid and plan to read the first book, The Forest Bride.Thank you to Jane Buehler via LibraryThing for the ARC to read and honestly review!
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5I'm sorry, I could not read this. I slogged my way through to the first dance and couldn't take it any more - skimmed to the end and that's nice but not worth the rest. If I had read The Forest Bride and knew these people and place (I learned from the afterword) I might have had an easier time; as it was, the book was populated almost entirely by idiots and a-holes (mean girls included in both) as far as I read. Our protagonist not only explicitly says she misses being "the mean girl" - by which she apparently means, able to torment others with impunity, rather than being tormented herself as well - but has determined that what she's doing doesn't work, tells herself she needs to change...and goes right on doing the same thing, over and over and... Thorn is the only decent person as far as I read...and the path of the story is really obvious. OK, I wasn't exactly expecting pirates (I was thinking the tea would cause the trigger that would force her out of her rut) but who she ends up with is obvious almost from the start. The writing is excellent, the characters have considerable depth - it's just not depths I can tolerate. Not for me; others may enjoy it quite a lot.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I received the Village Maid through LibraryThing's Early Reviewers so thank you to them and Jane Buehler for sending me a copy.Overall I found the story to be delightful and fun. If you're looking for a feel-good, fantasy story with a little bit of spice then I think you'll really enjoy this book. While Avianna starts off as mean and unlikable you really grow to love her and emphasis with her struggles to trust in a world that has not treated her kindly. And Thorn is just perfect, where can I get myself a kind, book loving fairy boyfriend like him?The completionist in me also had to pick up the first book in this series, The Forest Bride, and I would highly recommend doing it as well. This can be read as a standalone but reading the first gives you a more rounded picture of why our characters are in the situations they are and give you a background on how the world is set up.The story is face paced and an easy escape into a cute fantasy world. I'm looking forward to the next installment from Buehler.