History Literature / Overenskommelser

* BadassBookworm: Beatrice is an intelligent book lover, but she also competes with men in ice-skating and horse-riding, assists in a surgery and calls the villains out on their atrocities.

* BreakTheCutie / TraumaCongaLine: Beatrice might be smart, competent and tough, but life has been really hard on her. Not only did she lose her mother when she was only six years old and her father when she was only fourteen years old. But she also has to live with her tyrannical uncle, who abuses her for five long years, forcing her into a marriage with a man, who's like forty years older than her and treats women like dirt under his shoes. Beatrice's relationship with Seth is also complicated to say the least. And just when she thought that things would turn out good between them, cue Edvard ruining everything! She was [[spoiler: brutally raped and almost killed on her wedding night]]...

* NobleMaleRoguishMale: Seth might be a better man than what you might think at first, but he does have a roguish thing going on, and he just keeps having meaningless affairs with numerous women. His friend Johan is noble and pretty much flawless. But despite how different they might seem, they remain close to each other, and [[spoiler: they eventually get married to two cousins]]. Interestingly enough, while LightFeminineDarkFeminine is the technical [[DistaffCounterpart distaff counterpart]] to this trope, their love interests Beatrice (a SpiritedYoungLady) and Sofia (a ProperLady) rather have a TomboyAndGirlyGirl dynamic.

* ReconstructedTrope: GoldDigger (Lily Tremaine is stupid enough to turn down Seth's proposal and ends up in an abusive marriage with a British lord, but she can later find happiness in a new marriage) and LookingForLoveInAllTheWrongPlaces (Seth has been searching for love so badly, that he eventually gets an wrongful reputation as a [[TheCasanova Casanova]], but he can find true love when [[spoiler: he and Beatrice ''finally'' work things out in the end]].

* SubvertedTrope: DeceasedParentsAreTheBest (Beatrice misses her parents, but she can still admit that they had flaws) and DeathByChildbirth (Sofia does get ecclampsia and becomes very ill, but survives.

* DeconstructedTrope: GoldDigger (Lily Tremaine is stupid enough to turn down Seth's proposal and ends up in an abusive marriage with a British lord, but she can later find happiness in a new marriage) and LookingForLoveInTheWrongPlaces (Seth has been searching for love so badly, that he eventually gets an wrongful reputation as a [[TheCasanova Casanova]], but he can find true love when [[spoiler: he and Beatrice ''finally'' work things out in the end]].

* DeathByChildbirth: This story has two examples of this. The first one is a straight one, where Beatrice explains that her mother died in childbirth (her baby sister died too). The second example is a downplayed or subverted one: Sofia suffers from eclampsia, becomes very ill, but survives.

* AWorldHalfFull: 1880s Sweden. There were still many injustices to fight against, and the protagonists have to deal with three different villains. Things will eventually get better...

* DeceasedParentsAreTheBest: You would expect this trope to be played straight here, considering how Beatrice is treated by her uncle. But it ends up being [[SubvertedTrope]] subverted instead. Because while she misses her parents, Beatrice can still admit that they had flaws.

* DeceasedParentsAreTheBest: [[SubvertedTrope Subverted example]]. You would expect this trope to be played straight here, considering how Beatrice is treated by her uncle. But while she misses her parents, she can still admit that they had flaws.

* IdiotBall/JustEatGilligan: Beatrice and Seth could have solved all their problems at once, just by talking to each other and admit that they loved each other! [[IdiotPlot But alas...]] At least Seth later admitted that he had been an idiot...

* DeceasedParentsAreTheBest: Subverted example. You would expect this trope to be played straight here, considering how Beatrice is treated by her uncle. But while she misses her parents, she can still admit that they had flaws.

* GoldDigger: Lily Tremaine is a reconstructed case. She got married to an old British lord, who turned out to be an abusive alcoholic, rather than accepting the proposal from Seth (who wasn't rich yet at the time). And even when she later does get engaged to Seth, she does it only because she needs someone to help her with financial issues. But then, [[spoiler: she does find true love at the exact same time as Seth gets reunited with Beatrice, and they decide to not get married after all]].

* IdiotBall: See "Cannot Spit It Out" and "Ditzy Genius".

* JustEatGilligan: Beatrice and Seth could have solved all their problems at once, just by talking to each other and admit that they loved each other! [[IdiotPlot But alas...]] At least Seth later admitted that he had been an idiot...

* LookingForLoveInAllTheWrongPlaces: Seth is a reconstructed example. He's believed to be a [[TheCasanova casanova]], but really, he's looking for "the right one". And after he meets Beatrice, he starts losing his interest in any other woman.

* SexAsARiteOfPassage: We get a RareFemaleExample when Beatrice has sex for the first time with Seth. Despite how she has to keep this a secret, because of the uptight culture of the 1880s in general and her family situation in particular, this is clearly a big turning point in her life.

* EarnYourHappyEnding: [[spoiler: Beatrice and Seth need twenty months to sort things out, so the happy ending sure was over due.]]

* TomboyAndGirlyGirl: The two Löwenström girls has something like this going on. Beatrice is the [[TheLadette Ladette-like]] and competent one, who will even compete with men in ice-skating and horse-riding. But her cousin Sofia is beautiful, demure and "perfect". But while SensitiveGuyAndManlyMan is the technical SpearCounterpart of this trope, their love interests Seth (a ByronicHero) and Johan (an Ideal Hero) rather have a NobleMaleRoguishMale dynamic.

[[caption-width-right:185:The original Swedish paperback cover.]]

* TomboyAndGirlyGirl: The two Löwenström girls has something like this going on. Beatrice is the [[TheLadette Ladette-like]] and competent one, who will even compete with men in ice-skating and horse-riding. But her cousin Sofia is beautiful, demure and "perfect". But while SensitiveGuyAndManlyMan is the technical SpearCounterpart of this trope, their love interests Seth (a ByronicHero) and Johan (a NiceGuy) rather have a NobleMaleRoguishMale dynamic.

** Beatrice seems to have inherited both her appearance and her personality from her paternal grandmother. She must have inherited her intelligence from her father, who was a professor at Uppsala University.

* TomboyAndGirlyGirl: The two Löwenström girls has something like this going on. Beatrice is the [[TheLadette Ladette-like]] and competent one, who will even compete with men in ice-skating and horse-riding. But her cousin Sofia is beautiful, demure and "perfect". Their love interests Seth (a ByronicHero) and Johan (a NiceGuy) rather have a NobleMaleRoguishMale dynamic.

''Överenskommelser'' has been translated into several other languages. It's called ''Aegtepagten'' in Danish, ''Unelmia ja yllätyksiä'' in Finnish, ''Ein ungezähmtes Mädchen'' in German, ''Ritratto di donna in cremisi'' in Italian, ''Nepaklaviga'' in Latvian and "Frihet og fangenskap" in Norwegian.

* YouthfulFreckles: Beatrice is very younga and she has red hair and freckles. She's a tomboy and a PluckyGirl.

''Överenskommelser'' has been translated into several other languages. It's called ''Aegtepagten'' in Danish, ''Unelmia ja yllätyksiä'' in Finnish, ''Ein ungezähmtes Mädchen'' in German, ''Ritratto di donna in cremisi'' in Italian and ''Nepaklaviga'' in Latvian.

While the main theme of a Romance novel should be a love story, how two lovers will find happiness together, it's possible to cover other themes too. And that's what Swedish writer Creator/SimonaAhrnstedt did in her debut novel, "Överenskommelser" (first published in 2010). It's so easy to believe that rich people always have been happy. After all, don't they live in big houses, wear fine clothes, go to fancy parties and have servants to do everything for them? But reality behind the facade can be ugly, maybe even terrifying. And we only have to go back a handful of generations to end up in an era, when women had much fewer rights than what men had. This is the story about how a seemingly glamourous life in the upper classes of 1880s Sweden could become a nightmare. The title of the novel can be translated as "Agreements" or "Understandings", refering to a forced arranged marriage...

"Överenskommelser" has been translated into several other languages. It's called "Aegtepagten" in Danish, "Unelmia ja yllätyksiä" in Finnish, "Ein ungezähmtes Mädchen" in German, "Ritratto di donna in cremisi" in Italian and "Nepaklaviga" in Latvian.

* AWorldHalfFull: 1880s Sweden turns out to be this in the end. There were still many injustices to fight against, and yeah, the protagonists have to deal with three different villains. But still, things will eventually get better...

* BreakTheCutie / TraumaCongaLine: Beatrice might be smart, competent and tough, but life has been really hard on her. Not only did she lose her mother when she was only six years old and her father when she was only fourteen years old. But she also has to live with her tyrannical uncle, who abuses her for five long years, forcing her into a marriage with a man, who's like forty years older than her and treats women like dirt under his shoes. Beatrice's relationship with Seth is also complicated to say the least. And just when she thought that things would turn out good between them, cue Edvard ruining everything! Not to mention that she was [[spoiler: brutally raped and almost killed on her wedding night]]...
* CannotSpitItOut / PoorCommunicationKills: Beatrice won't tell anybody the truth about why she agreed to the betrothal to Count Rosenschiöld. (Which is partly justified as she seems to think that if Seth knew the truth, it could hurt Sofia, but still...) As for Seth, he can only assume that Beatrice wants to marry Rosenschiöld to become a countess, and stupid pride keeps him from admitting that he loves her. Cue a lot of misunderstandings, not to mention a lot of misery for Beatrice...

* DirtyOldMan: Carl-Jan Rosenschiöld wishes to marry Beatrice, who's like forty years younger than him, just because he wants a virgin. And let's not forget that he's also a serial abuser of women, and a brutal rapist.
** And we also have Beatrice confirming that there was quite some age difference between her parents, so her father might come across as a milder case of this. But while Beatrice states that her mother was only seventeen years old at their marriage, we have no idea how old her father was at the time. We're most likely talking about a May-September Romance rather than a [[MayDecemberRomance May-December Romance]] though.

* GenerationXerox / [[IdenticalGrandson Identical Granddaughter]]: Beatrice seems to have inherited both her appearance and her personality from her paternal grandmother. Edvard has inherited his abusive side from his father, Sofia is beautiful but weak like her mother.
** Not to mention that Beatrice must have inherited her intelligence from her father, who was a professor at Uppsala University.

* KickTheDog: Edvard and Rosenschiöld repeatedly abuse women while having sex with them. These scenes have little to no bearing on the overall plot, and are just there to really show us what scum these two guys are.
** But we also have the moment, where Rosenschiöld cuts off Beatrice's hair [[spoiler: after raping and battering her]]. That was a pointless act of evil, that he only did to further humiliate her.
* LaserGuidedKarma: Count Rosenschiöld ends up dying what we only can hope is a painful death. As a beautiful irony, Beatrice survives to [[spoiler: find happiness with another (much younger) man and work for women's rights]].

* NobleMaleRoguishMale: Seth might be a better man than what you might think at first, but he does have a roguish thing going on, and he just keeps having meaningless affairs with numerous women. His friend Johan is noble and pretty much flawless. But despite how different they might seem, they remain close to each other, and [[spoiler: they eventually get married to two cousins]].
** Interestingly enough, while LightFeminineDarkFeminine is the technical [[DistaffCounterpart distaff counterpart]] to this trope, their love interests Beatrice (a SpiritedYoungLady) and Sofia (a ProperLady) rather have a TomboyAndGirlyGirl dynamic.

* RedHeadsAreUncool: Beatrice belongs to the fiery cathegory. She's both an intelligent book lover and a plucky tomboy, not to mention that she's a proto-feminist, which turns a lot of people away from her. She's described as not conventionally beautiful, with too many freckles and a too wide mouth, and she also seems to often wear unflattering clothes.

* SiblingYinYang: Sofia, a flawless good-hearted ProperLady, and Edvard, a serial abuser sadistic [[TheSociopath sociopath]]. They only have one thing in common: They're both good-looking. It becomes very clear that Sofia has taken after their ExtremeDoormat mother, while Edvard has taken after their DomesticAbuser father.

* TomboyAndGirlyGirl: The two Löwenström girls has something like this going on. Beatrice is the [[TheLadette Ladette-like]] and competent one, who will even compete with men in ice-skating and horse-riding. But her cousin Sofia is beautiful, demure and "perfect".
** Interestingly enough, while SensitiveGuyAndManlyMan is the technical [[SpearCounterpart spear counterpart]] to this trope, their love interests Seth (a ByronicHero) and Johan (a NiceGuy) rather have a NobleMaleRoguishMale dynamic.

* TraumaticHaircut: We get a terrible scene, where Rosenschiöld not only [[spoiler: rapes and batters Beatrice]], but just to further humiliate her, he decides to cut off her hair. But it turns out that she's way more bothered by the other things, that he did to her...

* UngratefulBastard: Edvard asks Seth for some money. Seth doesn't like Edvard at all, but as he happens to his best friend's brother-in-law and his love interest's cousin, he does give him some money. But how does Edvard thank Seth? By using the same money to separate him from Beatrice!
** Justified as Edvard must have been a sociopath, and a sociopath will have a hard time understanding the concept of gratitude.

* UpperClassTwit: Edvard is a very creepy example of this trope. It's not bad enough for him to be a grown man still acting like a SpoiledBrat (albeit with a history of being abused by his father, which is the only thing, that can give us a slight sympathy for him), who totally depends on other people's money, because he doesn't have any idea how to earn any on his own. But he also happens to be [[TheSociopath a sociopath]] and a serial abuser of women.
** Sofia is also very close to being a female version of this trope. She's a genuinely good-hearted person, unlike her sociopath brother, and no, she's not quite stupid enough to be an airhead. But she would never have been able to make it on her own in the world, because except for that she's good at playing the piano, she doesn't seem to have any other skills at all! She's just a beautiful ProperLady, who needs her father and then her husband to support her.

* YouthfulFreckles: Beatrice has red hair and freckles. Not to mention that's she's a {{Tomboy}} and a PluckyGirl.

* CannotSpitItOut: Beatrice won't tell anybody the truth about why she agreed to the betrothal to Count Rosenschiöld. (Which is partly justified as she seems to think that if Seth knew the truth, it could hurt Sofia, but still...) As for Seth, he can only assume that Beatrice wants to marry Rosenschiöld to become a countess, and stupid pride keeps him from admitting that he loves her. Cue a lot of misunderstandings, not to mention a lot of misery for Beatrice...

* AbsurdlyYouthfulMother: This story has two examples of the Borderline variety.
** Clear example: Sofia gets married when she's only seventeen years old, and her only son is born eight months later, when she can be no more than eighteen.
** Unclear example: Beatrice states that her mother also was only seventeen at her marriage, but we don't know exactly how soon after that Beatrice was born.

* RedHeadsAreUncool: Beatrice belongs to the fiery cathegory. She's both an intelligent book lover and a plucky tomboy, not to mention that she's a proto-feminist, which turns a lot of people away from her. She's described as not conventionally beautiful, with too many freckles and a too wide mouth, and she also often seems to wear unflattering clothes.

* RedHeadedHero: Beatrice, of course.

** His sister Sofia is also very close to being a female version of this trope. She's a genuinely good-hearted person, unlike her sociopath brother, and no, she's not quite stupid enough to be an airhead. But she would never have been able to make it on her own in the world, because except for that she's good at playing the piano, she doesn't seem to have any other skills at all! She's just a beautiful Proper Lady, who needs her father and then her husband to support her.