This series focuses on exiled members of the French royal family, and this is Princess Danielle’s book. Not that she knows she’s a princess at the start. At that stage, she’s just Dani, a 22-year-old ‘village girl’ from Ivy Hill, Kent, who lives with her adoptive parents. She’s forthright, passionate about her community and looked to as a leader by that community despite her gender and age. It’s still a pretty quiet life though. That changes when Captain Luke Bannock enters the frame.
Luke is a war hero (with a complicated, traumatic past) and his reward from the crown for his bravery during a violent skirmish at sea (and rescuing the Prince’s cousin) is marriage to Dani, the secret exiled princess. He does not ask for Dani’s hand in marriage out of any love or admiration, but rather as a piece of the puzzle in his greater revenge and rescue plot. As part of that skirmish at sea, Luke’s surrogate father was captured by the cruel French Comte attacking them. What does the Comte want? The lands that come with Dani as part of her dowry.
Of course, when Luke arrives in Ivy Hill, Dani knows none of this. She doesn’t know any details of her own history. Because her parents have a failure of courage, it falls to Luke to break the news to her. Only he doesn’t tell her everything. At least not for the first section of the book.
The tension that is built by Luke gradually and partially revealing the truth is palpable. It had me shaking my book in frustration. Just tell her already!
If you’re concerned…
He eventually does tell her the full story and she’s enraged, understandably so. I really appreciated how Dani stood up for herself in that conversation. I mean, she stood up for herself the whole time, but she really let him have it when he eventually coughed out the full story.
This is in keeping with the Dani that we meet at the start of the book. She has big dreams as a village girl that are small fry for a princess. She accepts the engagement that is – for lack of a better word – bestowed on her and in her early interactions with Luke, it is her physical attraction to him that eases the transition. But that’s not to say that the more tender emotions aren’t engaged from the start. Luke might take a while to reveal the full story but even early on, parts of his true self, his innermost thoughts and history, come out when he talks to Dani. There is a tenderness and a magnetism there.
The tension doesn’t dissipate once the full truth is known. There are a number of subplots that need to be resolved, including how on earth Luke is going to rescue his surrogate father. Once the full truth of the marriage-revenge-rescue plot is revealed to Dani (as is inevitable the case when there are secrets being kept), there is the critical question of ‘what now?’ for Luke and Dani. Is there enough of a relationship to save? Do they want to save it? How on earth do you come back from that big of a pile of lies?
There is a clarity to the writing that made it easy to immerse myself in the story. Nothing is surprising or jarring: the emotions expressed made sense. The motivations of the characters match who they are as people. It’s a coherent piece of writing which makes it a pleasure to read. I know it sounds rather uninspiring as a critique, but I cannot overstate how relaxing it is to read a book in which things make sense. There is nothing incongruous to bounce me out of the story. Yes, there are surprises, but as surprising as they are in the moment, they make sense when looking at the characters as a whole.
When I initially picked this book up, I thought it was the first time I’d tried this series, but oh, it was not. I have read another in this series, but many moons ago, so I’d completely forgotten. Therefore, with authority I can say that it’s easy to read this book as a standalone. Dani’s past is so separate from that of her siblings (the subjects of the other two books) that it was easy to follow.
There are two potential points on which someone might not enjoy this story.
First, the cowardice of Dani’s adoptive parents. They’re so sure that Dani will stop loving them if they reveal that she’s a princess that they are driven to keep quiet. The longer they keep quiet, the harder it is to say something. As she was growing up, Dani did want to know about her history, but it distressed her adoptive parents so much that she chose to not pursue it. Now maybe I was just a rotten teenager, but there was nothing I did not pursue with rabid intensity when I was a teenager, so this is a little hard to buy.
The second point is, is there enough grovelling from Luke once the full truth is revealed?
Show Spoiler
For me there was and that’s due in large part to the series of letters that Dani and Luke write to each other. For me, this was far and away the most romantic part of the book.
Other readers might want a touch more groveling, but it was just right for me.
When the characters are likeable, the plots are tension-filled and make sense, and there is a balance of tender and sexy romantic moments, it’s a delight to read and I heartily recommend this book to the Bitchery.