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Let's file this Hugo Award in the "Regrettable" category, along with those granted to The Wanderer by Fritz Leiber and Redshirts by His Grand Snarkiness John Scalzi. In this book, newly-pregnant Cordelia Naismith of the enlightened, progressive, touchy-feely Beta Colony settles in with her new husband and prior captor (insert eye-rolling emoji here) Aral Vorkosigan on the barbaric, warmongering world of Barrayar where, tragically, no one talks about their feelings enough; it's not too hard to see the Venus/Mars female/male analogy which is thickly applied. Cordelia immediately sets about endearing herself to the locals and challenging gender stereotypes by:
a) shopping
b) obsessing over wardrobe details
c) making prego talk with other expectant mommies
d) dispensing relationship advice to everyone within earshot
e) complaining constantly
f) standing around while her husband does stuff
Cordelia is a woman of complicated feelings and impulses, and she apparently spends every waking moment in painstaking examination of same. Fortunately, she shares them all with us, in excruciating detail, for page after page after page. You'll be happy to know that everyone else around Cordelia is a complete dolt, dunce, or idiot (which gives her lots of opportunities to enlighten them) or else they are scheming would-be usurpers to the recently-vacated throne (we figure out who these are early on because they are the people Cordelia doesn't like). Don't worry about mixing up all the names, each of which starts with "Vor," because they aren't much different from each other anyway. If there's anything you need to know, you can be sure that Cordelia will explain it to you at great length and with an air of bemused superiority. It should be noted that Barrayar comprises the 2nd half of the omnibus collection Cordelia's Honor, which should really be called Cordelia's Every Last Thought since that's what you'll be reading.