Anniken Haga's Reviews > Ballgowns & Butterflies

While I liked this novella, I have to admit I lost a little bit of respect for Armstrong through it. She used the word ''invalid'' at 3 different occasions. For one of them, I could understand it: If you said ''my disabled relative'' in Victorian England, they wouldn't understand what you meant, but outside of that? Even just saying it outside of it to make sure she wouldn't mess it up when needed would have been OK, as long as she made a point out of mentioning that the proper word for it these days is ''disabled''. Armstrong has, after all, included disabled characters in her stories before without issue, and seeing her use this word, which is so belittling and demeaning... it didn't sit right at all.

Other than that, it was an OK short story set during the first Yule after the original book. It answered some of the more open questions, and even gave a small hint toward book 2! (now that I know what it's going to be about) I'm looking forward to continuing exploring this world and its characters.