Krishna
We have reviewed very few romance novels. This will be one of the few that we have.
King Francoise is happy to come back to France after being imprisoned by King Charles. He is sad that his two sons have to go as hostage for good behaviour to Charles. The intent is that he will cede the Duchy of Burgundyto Spain but has no intention to do so, even though he knows that this will entail the death of his two sons whom he loves dearly. Thus the prolog ends.
The proper story begins with two sisters, Aimee and Honorine. Aimee, the elder is eighteen and a tomboy; Honorine is seventeen and prim and proper.
Aimee, eating bread and cheese in a meadow in a forest, comes across two gentlemen who are trying to hunt a deer and distracts them, saving the deer. The two huntsmen – not counting the entourage – are St Briac and King Francoise themselves. St Briac is intrigued by Aimee who seems to be very pretty but very innocent at the same time.
When they go to the king’s banquet, both Aimee and St Briac are surprised to see each other there. Aimee longs for St Briac but she has been betrothed to the ugly and old Armand Rovicette whom she despises.
She feels trapped. The King and St Briac are leaving the next day, possibly never to return again. In the midst of her despair, she finds a messenger from the King asking Mademoiselle de Fleurance to accompany him on the ship. Even though she knows it was for her sister Honorine, she decides that her only escape is to go on the ship and escape the clutches of her parents, especially her mother Eloise who is determined to marry her off to an old, ugly, repulsive man.
The King sends St Briac to prepare his new girl for a visit from his royal self and St Briac is shocked to find Aimee there instead of the willing Honorine! Aimee manages to send the king off with a plea of sickness but realizes that she is now in serious danger from the King who is unaware that the girl who he invited is not there. So she goes in the night secretly and pleads with St Briac for help.
The story has several problems. Aimee is supposed to be free spirited but behaves stupidly, each time getting into danger and having to be rescued. This is a ‘historical’ romance – or supposed to be – but you don’t see much history. When Aimee, true to character, wanders off into the gardens, the king decides to pursue ‘his latest addition’ and goes to the garden. St Briac, warned by Aimee’s maid, goes there earlier and pretends to be in locked embrace with her. The king sees them and since she is not a blond, goes in search for his Honorine.
Aimee and St Briac are filled with passion and he deflowers her. Knowing that she is a virgin, he is filled with remorse but Aimee shrugs it off as her decision.
The King comes to find her finally in his chambers but after his initial disappointment, sees the ‘charms of’ this new girl and decides to have her as his. But St Briac comes and rescues her the only way he knows how : he states that he intends to marry Aimee so that the king will back off.
Then follow a lot of lover’s quarrel and more of Aimee’s thoughtless actions. She manages to go into town and lose control through a drugged fruit and is almost raped until (of course) St Briac rescues her again.
Not much of a story, then. If you are purely interested in romantic actions of two people, you will enjoy this but if you are looking for a trace of a story with the romance, you will be disappointed – so far at least.
All through the book, it is this ‘he loves me and he loves me not’ by Aimee and ‘how pretty she is but she does not wish to be with me’ from him. Gets a bit monotonous after a while.
Everyone behaves as if they know they are in a romantic novel.
Look, I am not knocking the book. Yes, it is a romantic comedy and there are misunderstandings between the two. Aimee desperately loves St Briac but thinks he does not reciprocate. And vice versa for St Briac. So they play games.
Two undesirables come to the castle where they are staying and claim, without presenting any evidence that St Briac was promised to the daughter – the younger of the two. He is definitely not interested, so he pretends to be passionately in love with Aimee. When they get together in bed to enact a surprise, things go too far and St Brian and Amy have to marry to satisfy the king and the Bishop who is scandalized by Aimee’s behaviour. But they continue to resist each other.
All nice and cutesy cutesy. But if you are looking for something more than emotional interplay between two adults and populated by scheming Disney like evil characters (‘when they are bad, they are very bad’ kind), you will be disappointed. If that is exactly what you came looking for, then this story will please you. Simple but straightforward.
It is just my fault that I get bored with nothing much happening.
At this point, almost belatedly, the story takes off.
Honorine comes to visit Aimee and Aimee catches her in collusion with the obnoxious Chauverge who is a bitter enemy of St Brian and is also a cunning scheming man. Honorine finally comes to her senses and tries to cheat Chauverge to delay him while St Brian goes to Paris to free his friend Georges Teverex, who is unjustly condemned to die. They manage it, but are chased by Chauverge. They rescue the wounded Honorine and take her back to his sister’s place to hide.
Georges, a friend of St Briac is now infatuated with Honorine.
The story ends well, as all romantic novels would, and in fact grows on you a bit.
I will leave this review with some final impressions. The book would have benefited from expanding the intrigue of Chauverge to a larger part of the book than the ‘he loves me he loves me not’ and ‘she loves me she loves me not’ that both St Briac and Aimee go through for two thirds of the book.
5/10
— Krishna