YMMV / A Brother's Price

• Angst? What Angst?:
  • While Jerin does angst after he is kidnapped and a woman sat on his face without clothes in-between, i.e. sort of oral rape without actual penetration, but only because he fears he is Defiled Forever due to consensual sex he suspects he might have had in a night he doesn't remember. After he is told that all is well, the woman he thinks he slept with was his bride, anyway, and they didn't even have sex, and he is welcomed back by his wives to be he quickly recovers. May or may not be justified, regarding how serious of an issue one regards the thing that happened.
  • Other protagonists show realistic angst over the death of their relatives. Ren, for example, is plagued by nightmares of the night her sisters died in an explosion. Jerin's toddler sisters don't want to let him go, for fear he will never return, "like daddy"; their father died a couple of months ago, and Jerin was promoted to parent. The youngest doesn't quite understand that, unlike her father, Jerin will come back to visit.
• Crosses the Line Twice: When her sister tells says that the neighbor's boy, Balin Brindle, is rumored to have fathered his younger sisters. Corelle's reply? "And? At least we know he's fertile".
• Fanfic Fuel: there's the mysterious death of a whole family that is never really solved. One can believe it was coincidence, but with family sizes of about fifty people, that's not really likely - fuel for wild conspiracy fanfic. And then there are the events of the past, that are only told in flashbacks, and some only mentioned in passing, such as Keifer poisoning the princesses' father. The story ends with Jerin's wedding, and Jerin is certain that he'll be happy - but will he?
• Ho Yay: Women have no problem with admiring each other's beauty with several same-sex relationships mentioned, with Ren noticing that Eldest Whistler looks almost as fetching as her brother Jerin. When Jerin sees Cullen Moorland, all dressed up for a ball, he is impressed by Cullen's good looks.
• Less Disturbing in Context: A lot of things in sound less disturbing in context. One of those is the word "child brides" which sounds horrible, considering the Real Life thing. However, as the novel is Speculative Fiction, the Exotic Extended Marriage is such that the "child brides" are the younger sisters of the adult wives in a sororal polygyny marriage, and the husband has his own bedroom, where his wives visit him if they wish to. It is made very obvious that wives don't start visiting the husband's quarters at night until they come of age (and "interested in men", as one character puts it), and it is implied that they can choose to sleep alone for the rest of their lives. (If they're lucky, they might even be able to get a husband of more appropriate age later, though that would require to split the family.)
• Theiss Titillation Theory: Jerin somehow manages to convince himself that his nightshirt, which just about reaches his knees and is very thin, is almost as decent as a walking robe. Later on, after getting dressed up for the Mayfair ball, he is very aware that the tight trousers with a codpiece he is expected to wear are a lot more titillating than naked legs. Even if it doesn't leave much to the imagination.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
  • There's significant friction between Corelle and her younger brother Jerin. She wants him to be a proper male, with smooth soft hands and tight showy clothing; she also wants to trade him for the Brindle brother, while he wants to marry into a smaller and less violent family. When their mothers and elder sisters are away, she takes the middle sisters to visit the Brindles, leaving Jerin and the youngest children undefended by anyone above twelve. Eldest Whistler punishes her by confiscating her possessions and distributing them to her sisters. Corelle is defiant and irresponsible throughout. But when Eldest takes Jerin to court, Mother Eldest assigns Corelle to come with them with the idea that she needs to see more of the world, and one mistake shouldn't mean permanent blacklisting. Corelle is then well-behaved and careful for the rest of the book. Sure, she's under Eldest's eye, but it's odd that she doesn't so much as snipe at her brother.
  • By the end of the Book Corelle has responsibility, been favored with a trip to Mayfair, proved herself in the eyes of the queens and had a future husband of much better quality all but secured. Plus a few scenes of Hypocritical Heart Warming showcase how much she actually loves her brother.
  • The Wakecliff inheritance had the potential to be a major subplot but is dropped after the chapter in which it’s introduced, doing little besides having a subtle Chekhov's Classroom comment that relates to the Porters’ Inheritance Murder scheme. This feels very frustrating, since it's heavily implied that someone murdered the family, the princesses adjudicating and investigating the case could have given a better idea of their leadership capabilities, and the claimants brought up the interesting question of whether male-line cousins should inherit over sisters-in-law (and whether the claims of sisters-in-law should depend on fertility) in a matriarchal Lady Land society.
• Unpopular Popular Character: Princess Trini gets hate from all her sisters for not wanting to marry again...after her late husband tortured and raped her. As all sisters in a family marry the same husband, she gets in her sisters' way, but the reader, who likely has a different view on male-on-female rape, ^*  There are roughly twelve women for every man — it's considered wildly unlikely that a family with thirty-two children would count four boys amongst them. Jerin notes in the narration that he could do pretty much anything he wanted to his sister Corelle because she's a middle child and a girl, while he's a boy. will likely sympathize with her. She is also implied to be the most kind-hearted of the princesses, as she immediately changes her opinion on marrying Jerin when she is told that a family she thinks will mistreat him has also offered for him.

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