A COURTESAN'S DESIRES by Killarney Sheffield is a tragedy in the best sense. It
pulls you on an emotional journey while showing you another side of the Regency
era romance - that of life as an immigrant. The realism is intense and
definitely worth the read.
A COURTESAN'S DESIRES tells the tale of Rachel
Sholis, a fifteen year-old girl in a Hutterite (similar to Amish) community, who
is on the cusp of getting her heart's desire - a husband. The leader of her
community in Germany is tricked into sending half the community to England,
though, allegedly to set up a new community there, and Rachel's family is chosen
to go, separating her from the young man she cared for.
Tragedy befalls
the Hutterite group on the voyage. Many of the people get sick; Rachel's own
mother dies on the boat. Then the ship breaks up in the middle of a storm, and
she is the only one who survives. Washed up on the beach with no family to
protect her, she is raped by sailors who survived the wreck, thrown into Newgate prison,
purchased by a man who forces her into a life as a courtesan, and then sold to
the Duke of Eastborne, with whom she falls in love.
This book is not for
the faint of heart and should come with its own box of tissues. The drama
described above occurs within the first 40 pages of the book, and Rachel's life
continues to get worse. She doesn't know whom to trust, and ends up putting her
trust in the wrong man.
Tragedy aside, A COURTESAN'S DESIRES is, for the
most part, well written. The characters' emotions and Rachel's naiveté are
clearly conveyed. With every twist and turn of the plot, the reader is taken on
an emotional roller coaster that continues until the very end of the book. I
would have liked it, though, if the ending was not so abrupt. Readers love happy
endings, and if there is a happy ending, that part of the story should be told,
especially if the characters have gone through some heart wrenching times. While
A COURTESAN'S DESIRES ends with some happiness, there wasn't enough time spent
describing it, so emotionally, I was left still feeling blue.
The
development of the romance between the duke and Rachel also needed some work.
While at the beginning, one can understand how Rachel would feel like she had
fallen in love with the duke - given everything she's been through, he's the
first person in this new land to genuinely care about her - there is too little
time spent showing how that love matures. With the duke, I wasn't quite sure why
he fell in love with Rachel. I would have liked there to be more description of
his feelings for Rachel in the beginning, as well as in the end.
Despite
the fact that the book is heavy on the tragedy and light on the development of
the romance between the characters, there is still plenty of good reading here.
If you are a fan of historical fiction that is grounded more in the difficulties
of the lower classes rather than the privileges of the nobility, or if you just
want a different perspective on life in England during the Regency era, then
this book is definitely for you
Review originally written for The Romance Reviews:
http://www.theromancereviews.com/viewbooksreview.php?bookid=6638
