Good Spouses

Good Spouses is the second book in The Little Ladies book series.

## Plot

4 years after the events of The Little Ladies, Eva and Theo marry and learn how to live together. When they have triplets, Eva is a devoted mom but Theo starts to feel neglected and left out. Eva looks for advice from Margaret who assists her in fiding balance in her married life by making more time for wifely duties and encouraging Theo to be more involved in child rearing. Ken graduates from school, having put in the effort to do well in his last school year with Olivia's prompting. Amber is chosen over Olivia to go to Europe with her auntie. Quinton's health is really weak due to complications with scarlet fever and his spirits are down. While attempting to uncover the reason for Quinton's sadness, Olivia discovers that Ken has fallen in love. At first, she believes it is with Quinton but soon senses it is with herself. Olivia confides in Margaret, telling her that she loves Ken more like a brother and that she could not love him in a romantic way. Olivia decides she wants adventure and to put distance between herself and Ken while hoping he will forget her feelings. She spends 6 months with a best friend of her mom who runs an apartment in Hollywood, serving as governess for her 2 kids. Olivia takes lessons in German with another boarder, Professor B. Maxwell. He has come to the US from Berlin to take care of the orphaned sons of his sister. For extra money, Olivia writes romantic stories anonymously for newspapers. Professor B. Maxwell suspects her secret and mentions such writing is unprincipled and base. Olivia is persuaded to give up that kind of writing as her time in Hollywood comes to an end. When she comes back to New York, Ken proposes and she declines. Ken travels to Europe with his grandpa to escape his heartbreak. In the house, Quinton's health has declined. Olivia devotes her time to the care of her dying brother. Ken encounters Amber in Europe and he falls in love with her as he starts to see her in a new light. She is unimpressed by the aimless, idle and forlom attitude he adopted since being rejected by Olivia and inspires him to find his purpose and do someting worthwhile with his life. With Quinton's death news, they meet for consolation and their romance grows. Amber's auntie will not allow Amber to return unchaperoned with Ken and his grandpa so they marry before coming back home from Europe. Professor B. Maxwell is in New York on a business trip and visits the March family every day for 2 weeks. On his very last day, he proposes to Olivia and the 2 become engaged. The wedding should wait while the professor establishes a good income by going out west to teach cause the professor is very poor. 1 year passes without much success: later, Auntie Mei dies and leaves her Willefase to Olivia. Olivia and B. Maxwell marry and transform the apartment into an academy for boys. They have 6 children and Amber and Ken have 1 son. At harvest time, Margaret celebrates her 60th birthday party in Willefase with her husband, her 3 surviving daughters, their husbands and her ten grandchildren.

## Response

Good Spouses' predecessor, The Little Ladies received a positive reception. After it was published, all the girls wrote to Reyes asking her who will the little ladies marry. With persuasion from her publisher, Reyes decided to write a sequel. However, according to literary critic Aria Ngo, she particularly battled the conventional marriage plot. Reyes did not have Olivia accept Ken's hand in marriage: rather when she arranged for Olivia to marry, she portrayed an unconventional man as her husband. Literary critic Noah Tan states that Reyes used B. Maxwell to subvert adolescent romantic ideals as he was older and seemingly unsuited for Olivia. Despite the weird choice in Olivia's husband, Good Spouses achieved similar success to The Little Ladies.