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Duke Leonard von Stachel, Adelaide's brother, has died at the Battle of Waterloo. Adelaide barely has time to mourn before she is expected to wed and continue the family line. She will choose a husband on her own terms, despite being pressured otherwise. Philippe di Violetta, a stable hand, is an unassuming noble of humble origins. His days involve mucking up the stalls of other lords and ladies. Adelaide and Philippe soon encounter each other and things fall quickly into place. Their enemies are out to expose Philippe's past and ruin his relationship with Adelaide. She will have to choose between love or her reputation. Can their bond survive all the ensuing challenges?
111 pages, Kindle Edition
Published July 20, 2018
4 people want to read
About the author
Lisa Cai
8 books9 followersLisa Cai is from Toronto, Canada. She graduated from York University with an Honours BA in History and a Master of Library and Information Science from Western University.
She has been published in Diabolical Plots, The Dark Magazine, Year’s Best Canadian Fantasy and Science Fiction, and others.
When not reading or writing, she is probably wrangling with IT systems at a university, watching anime, taking a long walk, or solving crimes in Among Us.
She has been published in Diabolical Plots, The Dark Magazine, Year’s Best Canadian Fantasy and Science Fiction, and others.
When not reading or writing, she is probably wrangling with IT systems at a university, watching anime, taking a long walk, or solving crimes in Among Us.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
April 29, 2018
disclosure: the author of this book is a good friend of mine. but hey, if you think about it, that shows that i must have found something worthwhile here because i'm not above pretending i've forgotten how to read in the event that i dislike a friend's work :')
anyways, i think this might be a good romance for people who don't like romance as a genre. it's strongly characterized by reserve -- the heroine, adelaide, is a very measured person who deliberately sets out to find a husband who won't be in a position to prevent her from running her estate. she proposes within a few minutes of meeting philippe, not out of a sense of passion but because she discovers that while he's nobility, he's impoverished, lacking an inheritance, and clearly not the overbearing type. perfect for her goals.
that same sense of reserve characterizes the depiction of their relationship. the book shys away from diving in deep on their interactions, particularly during the early establishment of their relationship. it explains why they both said yes to marriage, establishes their personalities, and then mostly relies on the passage of time to get them to a point where adelaide will admit to being fond of philippe. i, being the unsophisticated tumblrite that i am, would have preferred a lot more time spent on their developing feelings, but i'm also the type of girl who'll read high school AUs all the live long day because teenagers are fountains of dramatic emotions and i enjoy that. i think it's a austen vs. the brontes situation where this book is chilling on the far end of the austen spectrum and i'm out here shouting about depth of feeling with my girl jane eyre
one thing i did find particularly interesting is that the dynamics between adelaide and philippe felt like a gender flipped take on benevolent paternalism? i feel like if adelaide read, say emma, she'd relate more to mr. knightley than anyone else. in contrast, philippe's out here being the bright, cheerful young miss, who goes around mildly scandalizing high society every other day because why NOT just casually express yourself?
last note: there's a discussion regarding samuel richardson's pamela near the end that i found deeply hilarious mostly because one character basically goes 'LISTEN UP; the ending to pamela sucked and i fixed it, death of the author, long live fanfiction' and adelaide's basically like '...ok. i'd rather read tax reports but you do you?'
3 stars
anyways, i think this might be a good romance for people who don't like romance as a genre. it's strongly characterized by reserve -- the heroine, adelaide, is a very measured person who deliberately sets out to find a husband who won't be in a position to prevent her from running her estate. she proposes within a few minutes of meeting philippe, not out of a sense of passion but because she discovers that while he's nobility, he's impoverished, lacking an inheritance, and clearly not the overbearing type. perfect for her goals.
that same sense of reserve characterizes the depiction of their relationship. the book shys away from diving in deep on their interactions, particularly during the early establishment of their relationship. it explains why they both said yes to marriage, establishes their personalities, and then mostly relies on the passage of time to get them to a point where adelaide will admit to being fond of philippe. i, being the unsophisticated tumblrite that i am, would have preferred a lot more time spent on their developing feelings, but i'm also the type of girl who'll read high school AUs all the live long day because teenagers are fountains of dramatic emotions and i enjoy that. i think it's a austen vs. the brontes situation where this book is chilling on the far end of the austen spectrum and i'm out here shouting about depth of feeling with my girl jane eyre
one thing i did find particularly interesting is that the dynamics between adelaide and philippe felt like a gender flipped take on benevolent paternalism? i feel like if adelaide read, say emma, she'd relate more to mr. knightley than anyone else. in contrast, philippe's out here being the bright, cheerful young miss, who goes around mildly scandalizing high society every other day because why NOT just casually express yourself?
last note: there's a discussion regarding samuel richardson's pamela near the end that i found deeply hilarious mostly because one character basically goes 'LISTEN UP; the ending to pamela sucked and i fixed it, death of the author, long live fanfiction' and adelaide's basically like '...ok. i'd rather read tax reports but you do you?'
3 stars
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