5 stars I received an ARC of this book from Netgalley. Enough time had passed since I read To Catch an Earl for me to forget some of the names of the characters. However, I quickly remembered Alex and Emmy’s story and how much I enjoyed that one. As I read this, I thought I liked it better, but rereading my review of the other, I’m hard-pressed to say which I like better. Both are engrossing, engaging, and unexpectedly sweet love stories. If I’m smart (which is somewhat debatable), I’ll read This Earl of Mine, the story of Benedict and Georgie. I’ve added it to my TBR list, which seems to multiply daily. Anyway, back to Sebastien (Sebastien Wolff, Earl of Mowbray) and Anya (Princess Anastasia Denisova). Their meeting is certainly unusual—he comes to the brothel where she is tutoring some of the women, mistakes her for one of the women who works there, and is baffled when she turns down a large sum of money in exchange for a few hours with him. After a scorching kiss, she leaves, wondering whether she made a mistake saying no and he leaves, newly obsessed with her and discovering why she (or anyone) would say no to him. As fate would have it, Anya, having adopted the name of Anna Brown to avoid detection in England, works for Sebastien’s aunt, the “Dread Dowager Duchess.” The Duchess turns out to be surprisingly adept at engineering the eventual collision between Anya and Seb. Though both suspect her, neither is capable of denying the logic of her suggestion they spend time together. After spending time together, “Seb felt as if he’d been taken apart and put back together in a completely different configuration.” When Seb attempts to deny his feelings for Anya, the Dowager is not fooled for a minute, especially when he presents Anya with a gift for her “coming out” that goes beyond anything that could be reasonably expected. Suddenly, Seb realizes “He wasn’t wearing his heart upon his sleeve—he’d put it in a bloody jeweler’s box and handed it to her with a roomful of witnesses.” Nevertheless, he continues to insist it means nothing; he seems to be the only who believes that. Naturally, his friends Alex and Ben tease him mercilessly. Because Anya is Russian, there are quite a few traditional Russian practices thrown into the story, but what I liked most was the use of fairy tales. For one, Seb’s last name is Wolff, and there is reference to “Little Red Riding Hood’s encounter with the wicked, predatory beast,” with Anya musing to herself about the story. “She’d always had a soft spot for the wolf in that tale. What if he were really a man trapped in the body of a beast? What if he fell under the spell of the beautiful girl? What if she tamed him? He’d be the very best protector. She let out a soft laugh at her own foolishness. Wasn’t that what every woman dreamed? That she’d be the one to gentle the beast? No doubt they believed it right up to the moment they were eaten up for dinner. She wasn’t such a fool.” Clever foreshadowing. The Dowager presents Anya with a book of Russian fairy tales and asks Anya to translate them into English. When Seb asks her about her favorite, she relates the story of the ice maiden Snegurochka, a beauty made of snow, the daughter of Spring the Beauty and Ded Moroz, old Father Frost. She does not reveal that she had been dubbed the Ice Princess by the people of Russia because she had been unwilling to accept the marriage proposals of many suitors. Her hesitancy had been due to her position and her fear that it was only that power which attracted them. Immortal, but loney, the fairy tale “ice princess” falls in love with a shepherd boy named Lel. In one version of the story, the act of falling in love causes her to melt and disappear in a puff of water vapor. In another, she marries the shepherd and they have a long and happy life together. Anya admits that although she prefers the second ending, the first is more likely. Seb agrees it’s unlikely any woman would give up her privileged position for love. Again, some clever foreshadowing. When Seb discovers that Anya is, in fact, a princess, he is furious that she tricked him. He calls her “princess,” drawling “the title like an insult, a deliberate bastardization of the term of endearment.” Crushed, she longs for him to use it as an endearment instead. Unfortunately, Seb is not as confident as he had appeared and does not consider himself worthy of her. He pushes down how he feels, certain no woman would ever give up her privileged position for love. Anya is a strong, independent, free-thinking woman, friends with a notorious madam and happy to live like a commoner if it means she is free. She finds an unlikely ally and someone of the same mindset in the Dowager. When the Dowager brings up the issue of a woman being “ruined,” Anya loses her temper. “This is what I hate about ‘polite society.’ If a woman is taken against her will, she’s ruined. If she gives herself to a man willingly, before marriage, she’s ruined. Yet no one expects a man to go to his marriage bed untouched. It’s such a double standard!” When the Dowager immediately agrees with her, it encourages her to finally share her secret. It is likely at this point that the Dowager initially hatches her plan. This is a fun story, with a bit of danger in the form of Vasili Petrov, a Russian traitor determined to find Anya and force her to marry him so she won’t be able to testify against him, and lots of tension between Anya and Sebastien. Anya, determined to never again be a victim, is resolute in protecting herself, but she welcomes the assistance of Seb. The ancillary characters of the story add depth to the plot, but it is really Anya and Seb who carry the story. I really enjoyed it and I recommend it. January 1, 2021
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September 2022
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