Darswords

The Ingenue by Rachel Kapelke-Dale
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I don’t usually include a blurb. In this case, I think it is needed.

“When former piano prodigy Saskia Kreis returns home to Milwaukee after her mother’s unexpected death, she expects to inherit the family estate, the Elf House. But with the discovery that her mother’s will bequeathed the Elf House to a man that Saskia shares a complicated history with, she is forced to reexamine her past–and the romantic relationship that changed the course of her life–for answers. Can she find a way to claim her heritage while keeping her secrets buried, or will the fallout from digging too deep destroy her?

Set against a post #MeToo landscape, The Ingenue delves into mother-daughter relationships, the expectations of talent, the stories we tell ourselves, and what happens when the things that once made you special are taken from you. Moving between Saskia’s childhood and the present day, this dark, contemporary fairy tale pulses with desire, longing, and uncertainty, as it builds to its spectacular, shocking climax.”

This Kindle version with text-to-speech was from Libby, the library app. I wish I could have found it as an audio version. Sometimes the robotic voice, pleasantly British and all, still confused me as to the speaker’s point of view or emotional status.

Still, this book is worth the weirdness you might encounter at first. I nearly tossed the book. I have millions of books to read; why get hung up on something I’m not liking? And I wouldn’t say I liked the main character.

But, honestly, you sometimes meet someone who doesn’t click with you in real life. Most of the time, it has a lot to do with where you are in your own life, where that person is in theirs, or a combination of the two. I think that is what happened here for me. By the end of the book, I found myself rooting for her and hoping for her best ending.

On the other hand, it was less satisfying for me as a fictional ending than another, more legally binding end. But then again, maybe I missed something in hearing TTS instead of a human voice.

This is worth the read, if only for the altered fairy tale fems.

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