Status Updates From Wine of the Dreamers

‘The image in their depths was all too clear. The gatekeeper did not see a lovely young queen as he gazed at her, no sweetly dutiful wife going to her husband. To him she was just a frightened little girl forcing herself to meet a fate she could not even understand. It only added to Meryt’s terror to realize he was right.’

‘Never in her life had a man looked at her or touched her with that kind of feeling. And never, she sensed would it happen again. For the rest of her days she would have to content herself with the fading memory of one fleeting hint of passion. She sensed it would not be enough as she watched herself grow old—old & ugly & bitter—beside a man who had not even a trace of love in his soul.’ ….Poor kid.

‘Whatever he had attempted in her bedroom the night before, she sensed he would not try it again. She was appalled by the relief that surged through her at the realization. Only the day before, not 24 hours ago, she had promised in front of God & his priest that she would be a good wife to this man. Now, barely a day later, she was ready, even eager, to break those sacred vows.’

‘She was surprised at her total lack of emotion. She had not expected to feel so little, not even a sense of loathing or anger at what had been forced on her. It seemed strange that despite the intimacy of the vows they had exchanged, she & this man were still strangers, existing in their own private worlds, shut off from each other by both circumstance & inclination.’

Twenty pages & it’s already better than my last several reads. 🥹 Please, Book Gods…give me a keeper! (I’d wish for multiple keepers in a row, but the Book Gods are fickle & ornery, esp if you push them too hard. 🫣)

‘Meryt did not fail to sense his longing, & it tore her heart apart. Only yesterday, that same longing had excited her, making her tingle w/ new, unfamiliar emotions, intriguing & frightening both—but yesterday she had still dared to hope that a young scribe, clever & ambitious, might one day aspire to the hand of a princess. Today she felt only an uneasy sense of foreboding.’

Gotta love a book where the truly evil villain is a man named Buffy Montmorency. That is a name sure to strike fear into the hearts of good people everywhere!

Now if only I could stop myself from singing "Don't Fall in Love with A Dreamer" in Kim Carnes voice.