If you can't stand Christian redemption or the glorification of self-denial maybe you don't want to spend any time with Charlotte M. Yonge. There's a lot of that. The n-word is also sprinkled in here in a way I haven't noticed in her other works so be aware that's going to happen.

Having read most of her work this is a minor one but it's pretty interesting in addressing:

--living with chronic and acute illness
--poorly considered marriages and how they can be redeemed
--awkward class dynamics created by marrying down
--differences in character: Yonge is always attentive to how people have their own paths based on personality and therefore very different struggles
--the appropriate role of influence in women's friendships
--disability (there's an intellectually disabled minor character and one who's deaf and mute)

If you want the full Yonge experience starting with The Clever Woman of the Family or The Daisy Chain would be preferable, but there's a lot to be interested in here culturally, plus some entertaining Bad Man Drama. She's a very thoughtful novelist, and her characters' dilemmas are always presented very fairly and legitimately, so you can see why they make the choices they do.

I have no idea who told the earlier reviewer that this was like Pride and Prejudice! That's a very weird idea. The plot trajectory is kicked off by an impetuous young man marrying a sixteen-year-old country girl, who gradually becomes a moral influence on everyone around her. Nothing could be less like Austen. I guess you could say Theodora, the sister-in-law, is motivated by pride and learns better but she's hardly Mr. Darcy.