This is probably biggest disappointment in a few years. And not because it is worse than something i have read recently (like second book in the Null-A trilogy, which i rated 5/10). But because The Little Lady of the Big House is by Jack London, whose books i usually love and one of my favorites is his “The Valley of the Moon”. It just didn’t resonate with me at all. Although it has some shared aspects with other books. Like very similar love triangle like in “Hearts of Three”, where main female character loves two men and can’t decide who is more important to her. But “Hearts of Three” is an adventure book in essence and the love story doesn’t bog it down and doesn’t feel very serious. It is just a side element. Depiction of how main character of this book establishes his business can be seen similar to how couple of Moon Valley are settling on a new territory. But in that book there is struggle for survival in the beginning, the travels and kind of adventures. This book is too bland and boring in comparison to above mentioned other works. I am not used to such London. All crazy adventures in this book are described as something that happened at some point in the past and are mentioned by characters in passing during conversations. First, this book starts depicting our main male character, going back to his teenage years, showing his strong will and good eye for business from early days. It was somewhat interesting to read about how he established everything in his estate, although servants naming scheme was odd and probably wouldn’t fly today at all. But at some point i started to feel it is too much of all the technical information on how to breed these animals and sell them and grow these crops better, etc. After some point i couldn’t make myself continue to read this book. Then they briefly introduce his kind of eccentric and unique wife. And then a third man appears on the scene and i thought to myself “Really? A love triangle?”. It also developed in a very banal way, so it was not engaging or interesting to follow. Ending was tragic and got me a little bit. But now thinking back on it, was still banal and probably common for love novels. After writing this review i am thinking maybe it was on par with the worse book in recent time actually. Maybe i should have re-read The Valley of the Moon for the 5th time instead 🙂 5/10