Verdict: The gentlest and most crowd-pleasing of the Axedale books — a swoon-worthy butch farmer, a posh femme with epilepsy and a village that feels like a warm bath — held back by a heroine many readers find grating for the first half and a hero some find too perfect to be real.
Best for: Readers who want a classic butch/femme courtship with low angst, a butch who carries the femme out of the mud, and a disability thread handled with care, and who can wait out a prickly, high-maintenance heroine until she thaws.
Heat level: ★★★☆☆ (3/5 — open door, medium heat; romance.io has no steam rating yet)
Rating: ★★★★☆ (3.9/5 — a 4.09 Goodreads average across 555 ratings, with a heroine readers learn to like rather than like on sight)
Tropes: Butch/femme, opposites attract, city girl and farmer, slow burn, protective butch, chronic illness, virgin heroine, English village, returning cast, happily ever after.
Wooing the Farmer by Jenny Frame is the third and final book in Bold Strokes Books’ Axedale series, a contemporary lesbian romance published in March 2019 and set in the same English village as the first two — and the collision at its centre is Sam McQuade, the shy, kind butch farmer who spent two books watching her friends fall in love, meeting Penelope Huntingdon-Stewart, an ultra-femme London food vlogger who arrives in heels, falls face first in Quade’s driveway and would rather die than accept her help.
It holds a 4.09 average across 555 Goodreads ratings — the highest of the three Axedale books — plus 3.92 on StoryGraph. Seventy-seven percent of Goodreads raters give it four or five stars. The reviews agree on what nearly put readers off, and on why most stayed. Both halves of that are worth understanding before you start.
What Is Wooing the Farmer About?
Wooing the Farmer is a small-town lesbian romance in the cosiest possible key: a working farm, a dog called Dougal, a manor house full of the previous two couples, and a village that treats a new arrival as communal business. It is also a fish-out-of-water story with a health condition at its heart — the publisher’s own metadata tags it disability, food, first love and weddings — which means the conflict comes from inside the heroine rather than from a villain.
Penny lacks the one thing her wealth cannot buy: the confidence that her body will not betray her in public again. Quade assumes the problem is that a woman like Penny would never look twice at a farmer. The excerpt The Lesbian Review shares sits in Quade’s head, and reviewers describe Penny’s fears from the inside too, which is what lets the push and pull read as self-protection rather than simple snobbery.
What Makes This Butch/Femme Village Romance Work
- Quade: The most-praised element by a distance. Readers who met her in the first two books call her swoon-worthy, an old-fashioned romantic and a knight in shining armour, and several say they read the whole series waiting for her turn.
- The epilepsy thread: At least two reviewers say they had never met epilepsy in lesfic before, and the Good, the Bad and the Unread singles out how patiently Quade handles both the seizures and the fear they have left behind.
- Classic butch/femme courtship: The title means it. Quade woos Penny the old-fashioned way, and fans say this is exactly what they come to Frame for.
- Low angst: “Light and fluffy” and “low angst” are how The Lesbian Review files it, and 90% of StoryGraph reviewers tag it lighthearted. One reader calls it a respite after a run of angsty books.
- The returning cast: Harry and Annie, Bridget and Finn are all here, and catching up with them is a pleasure readers name again and again.
Book Synopsis
Penelope Huntingdon-Stewart has built a clean-eating empire out of a website, a vlog and a relentlessly pink personal brand, and she did it without leaning on her famous family’s money. Then she has a seizure during her first live television interview, and the whole country sees it. Six months under her parents’ protective watch later, she needs out. Her business partner’s solution is a stint in the countryside: a cottage in Axedale, a country-cooking web series, a new cookbook. Penny calls it a new direction. Everyone else can see it is a retreat.
The first person she meets is the farmer next door. Sam McQuade — Quade to the village — runs the land her family has worked for generations, helps manage the estate at the hall, and has quietly wanted a wife for years. She is also the one who picks Penny up off the ground on her very first day, which is precisely the kind of rescue Penny has sworn never to need again. Quade is kind, capable and very easy to look at, and Penny is rude to her almost on principle.
Quade keeps showing up anyway — with advice about the countryside, with lifts, with an unshakeable calm when Penny’s health wobbles. Penny keeps pushing her away, and the more she does it, the clearer it becomes that the walls have nothing to do with the farmer and everything to do with what Penny has never told anyone. With her stay in Axedale only ever meant to be temporary, and her whole business waiting in London, the question is whether she will let Quade close enough to find out.
My Review
Quade is the reason to read this, and she earns the two-book wait. A big, shy, gentle butch who wants nothing more complicated than someone to love and a farm to share, written without irony and with obvious affection — that is Frame’s sweet spot, and here she gives it a whole book. The meet-cute, with Penny face down in the mud and Quade scooping her up while two dogs bark, sets the tone perfectly.
The second strength is Penny’s epilepsy. It would have been easy to make it a plot device that produces one dramatic rescue. Instead it shapes everything she does — the fierce independence, the refusal of help, the reluctance to let anyone close — and her inexperience is handled with the same care. That is what turns an apparently shallow heiress into someone readers end up rooting for.
Where it struggles is Penny herself, at least early on, and this is not one reader’s gripe — it is the single most repeated criticism in the reviews. Readers call her annoying, stuck up, exasperating and, in one Amazon review, a narcissist; several say they expected to hate the book within the first few pages. Most report that she grows on them. Stacked on that is the opposite problem: Quade is so good that at least three reviewers call her too perfect or a Mary Sue, which drains some tension. A third theme is the push and pull, with one reviewer saying there was too much of it across the first 60%.
One expectation to reset: the blurb frames this as a city girl and a farmer who might never fit, and it sells a will-they-won’t-they. What readers actually get is a low-angst, reassuring romance whose outcome is never really in doubt. If you came for drama, calibrate; if angst is what worried you, relax — this is the series at its gentlest.
My honest note: A four-star butch in a book whose heroine takes half its length to become likeable. If a prickly, spoiled femme will put you off before she thaws, this will test you. If you can give Penny the benefit of the doubt, Quade and Axedale make it the warmest of the trilogy.
| Element | In Wooing the Farmer |
|---|---|
| Central relationship | Sam “Quade” McQuade & Penelope Huntingdon-Stewart — shy butch farmer and ultra-femme London vlogger, opposites attract |
| Core tropes | Butch/femme, city girl and farmer, protective butch, slow burn, chronic illness, virgin heroine |
| Setting | Axedale, an English village — Quade’s family farm, the rented cottage next door and the hall |
| Heat level | 3/5 — open door, medium heat |
| Series | Axedale book 3 of 3 — new couple, readable on its own; earlier books add context |
| Content notes | Epilepsy and on-page seizures, public humiliation, overprotective family, first-time sexual experience, on-page sexual content |
How Spicy Is Wooing the Farmer?
A 3/5, and it is worth saying where that comes from. romance.io lists the book but has only seven ratings for it and no steam rating, so the band here is derived from two sources: The Lesbian Review, which files it under average spice and medium heat, and reader reviews, where one Amazon reviewer calls it a nice amount of spice, as usual for Frame. That puts it level with Courting the Countess and a notch below Charming the Vicar. The heat is part of the courtship rather than the point of it.
The element worth knowing in advance is that Penny is inexperienced — the publisher’s metadata tags it first love, and one reviewer praises how her lack of sexual experience is handled — so the intimacy builds slowly and carries more tenderness than edge. No reviewer I found flags anything beyond that. For the same heat band, Courting the Countess opens the series at 3/5, and Get It Right is a butch/femme romance in the same open-door band that also writes chronic illness into a heroine.
Who Should Read This Book?
You’ll likely love it if: you want a gentle giant of a butch doing old-fashioned courting, you like low-angst romance that feels safe from start to finish, you enjoy English village settings with a big returning cast, and you appreciate chronic illness written with care.
You may want to skip it if: a spoiled, hot-and-cold heroine will lose you in the opening chapters, you need a love interest with real flaws, you want high stakes and genuine uncertainty, or classic butch/femme roles feel like a stereotype to you.
In short: the comfiest book in the series, provided you can wait for its heroine to earn the hero.
What Readers Are Actually Saying (September 2026)
There is no viral moment here and nothing new driving the book in 2026. What it had was a well-covered release — NetGalley review copies through Bold Strokes, a B from the Good, the Bad and the Unread, and a glowing audiobook review from The Lesbian Review — and it has accumulated steadily since, with Amazon reviews still arriving as recently as February 2026. Much of that accumulation is audio. The audiobook, narrated by Nicola Victoria Vincent and running 7 hours 5 minutes, came out in April 2019 and holds a 4.8 average across 289 Audible ratings. The Lesbian Review calls Vincent the perfect narrator for the series, and one Goodreads listener says the voices stay consistent across all three books. The Goodreads spread is healthy — 36% five stars, 41% four, 17% three, and just 4% at one or two.
Why readers love it (according to the discourse): Quade, first and loudest — “swoon” is the recurring word, and readers who have followed her since book one describe finally seeing her happy as the whole point. The Lesbian Review’s reviewer lists the pros as everything and the cons as nothing, and tags it one of the site’s best of the best. Second, the epilepsy representation, which readers call rare in the genre and handled with depth. Third, the mood: StoryGraph readers tag it lighthearted, and every StoryGraph reviewer who answered says the characters are loveable. And a notable minority view: several readers who expected to hate Penny say she won them over, with one saying Frame turned a likely caricature into a three-dimensional woman.
What readers argue about and complain about: Penny’s first half, above everything. At least eight independent reviewers describe her as annoying, stuck up or exasperating early on, and the P.B.Reader review on Amazon goes further. Most add that she improves; a couple never came round. The second theme is Quade’s perfection — at least three readers call her too perfect or a Mary Sue, and one says her selflessness looks less like nobility and more like being a punching bag. Third: pacing, with complaints about too much push and pull or unnecessary drama before the relationship takes off. Beyond that, one Amazon reviewer found it flat and formulaic, one reader objected to stereotyped butch/femme roles, and a one-star Goodreads reviewer felt the characters objectify each other. The genuine split is the series ranking: some readers call this the best Axedale book, others the weakest.
The series question worth asking first: You don’t need the first two books, though you will enjoy it more with them. Several reviewers read this first and say it stands alone; one felt the gaps because the returning cast matters so much. Amazon lists it as book 3 of 3, and readers hoping for a fourth book about young Riley have had no announcement. If you want the whole arc, start with Courting the Countess (3.99 across 889 Goodreads ratings), then Charming the Vicar (4.08 across 646). This is the highest-rated of the three.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Wooing the Farmer a butch/femme romance?
Yes. Quade is a butch farmer and Penny is described by the publisher as ultra femme, and the whole courtship is built on that dynamic. Goodreads readers shelve it as butch/femme and fans call it a classic Frame pairing.
How spicy is Wooing the Farmer?
A 3/5 — open door with medium heat. romance.io has no steam rating for it yet, so that number comes from The Lesbian Review’s medium-heat label and reader reviews describing a moderate amount of spice.
Does Wooing the Farmer have a happy ending?
Yes. Quade gets the happily ever after readers spent two books wanting for her, and one Amazon reviewer says she finds her dream wife. There is no cliffhanger.
Do I need to read the other Axedale books first?
No. Reviewers who started here say the romance stands on its own. The couples from Courting the Countess and Charming the Vicar appear throughout, so reading in order adds context and payoff.
Is Wooing the Farmer the last Axedale book?
Yes, so far. Amazon lists it as book 3 of 3, and no fourth book has been announced despite readers hoping for one.
Is there an audiobook?
Yes. It is narrated by Nicola Victoria Vincent and runs 7 hours 5 minutes. It averages 4.8 across 289 Audible ratings, and reviewers praise the narration as consistent across the series.
If You Loved Wooing the Farmer, Read These Next
Start with the rest of the village: Courting the Countess gives you the same gentle butch/femme courtship and the same heat, with Harry and Annie at the centre, and Charming the Vicar turns up the spice and puts the femme in charge. Outside Axedale, Butch Girls Can Fix Anything offers another capable, big-hearted blue-collar butch and a found family that looks after its own, at a similar medium heat.
For more in this register, browse our butch/femme lesbian romance guide or the full Book Reviews collection.
The Bottom Line
Wooing the Farmer sets out to give a beloved side character her own love story, and it mostly delivers. Quade is as swoon-worthy as readers hoped, the epilepsy thread gives the book genuine depth, and Axedale is as warm as ever. It also asks readers to spend half the book with a heroine many find grating, makes its butch so perfect that the tension leaks out, and never really puts the outcome in doubt. If a gentle, low-angst butch/femme courtship is what you want, this is the series at its most comforting. Check Wooing the Farmer on Amazon →
The Eikna Overall Ranking
On the Eikna scale, Wooing the Farmer ranks as a comforting traditionally published butch/femme village romance — warm, low in angst and carried by a much-loved butch, held back by a slow-to-thaw heroine and little real tension, and best approached for Quade and Axedale rather than for drama.
The Evidence Scorecard
Overall ★★★★☆ 3.9/5
- ✓ 4.09 average across 555 Goodreads ratings
- ✓ Highest-rated of the three Axedale books
- ✓ 4.8 across 289 Audible ratings
- ✓ 3.92 on StoryGraph, below Goodreads
Romance ★★★★☆ 4/5
- ✓ Old-fashioned courtship fans call swoon-worthy
- ✓ Meet-cute in the mud sets the tone
- ✓ Opposites-attract friction readers enjoy
- ✓ Push and pull drags for some readers
Characters ★★★★☆ 3.8/5
- ✓ Quade is the most-praised element
- ✓ Penny grows on most readers who doubted her
- ✓ All StoryGraph reviewers call the cast loveable
- ✓ Quade called too perfect by several readers
Writing ★★★★☆ 3.8/5
- ✓ Readers call it warm and well written
- ✓ Humour lands, from onesies to dog outfits
- ✓ Returning couples a recurring highlight
- ✓ Predictable and formulaic to some reviewers
Emotional Impact ★★★★☆ 3.7/5
- ✓ Epilepsy thread gives the book real depth
- ✓ Quade’s long wait for love pays off
- ✓ 40% of StoryGraph reviewers call it emotional
- ✓ Low angst means little is truly at risk
Heat Level ★★★☆☆ 3/5
- ✓ The Lesbian Review files it as medium heat
- ✓ Readers report a moderate amount of spice
- ✓ First-time intimacy handled with tenderness
- ✓ No romance.io steam rating yet
Ending ★★★★☆ 4.2/5
- ✓ Quade gets her happily ever after
- ✓ Closes the Axedale trilogy
- ✓ No cliffhanger, stands alone
- ✓ Outcome never really in doubt
Re-read Value ★★★★☆ 4/5
- ✓ Audiobook narration widely praised
- ✓ Comfort-read mood suits a return visit
- ✓ Rewards a full-series reread in order
- ✓ Penny’s opening chapters test patience again
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