This was an amazing book! It was witty and charming. The main characters were engaging and the writing was superb. This was my first story by Philippa Lodge and I look forward to reading much, much more from her! I loved it!

Melisande has had a very hard start to her life being an illegitimate child to Comte, also her mother has brought her up and they have been totally poor and hounded out of villages because her mother is a practicing witch.
So when she gets the chance for her father to own up to Melisande being his daughter she is willing to do almost anything especially if it means she can make her mother and brothers life easier in the end.

But coming from a background of witchcraft isn't going to make Melisande live any easier. And people are not willing to forget what she is or what she might have been??

Well written though, the storyline did seem to stutter in the middle of the story. This can also be read on it's own even though it is part of a series.

This is a moving story of a grown illigitimate daughter, whose Mother is a Witch, and her father a French nobleman. He professes piety, yet is totally cruel, vindictive, a totally self righteous hypocrite! His Catholicism, has him paying the Church to absolve him from his multitude of sins when he was younger, also trying to buy his only son, who has died into heaven! A true, gruesome look at the hypocrisy of the Roman Catholic Church, you can continue in your sins, as long as you have the money to buy off your continued sins. Poor illigitimate Mesillande, the daughter brought into the home of her father, not to be loved, or cherised, but to have Satan driven painfully from her sweet soul. Thankfully, there is Luc DeGranville there, the Comte's Godson, whom he also treats like a servant! Luc is realizing the hypocrisy of his godfather, shown by the despicable way he treats his own daughter! I highly recommend! Thanks! I know that you will enjoy the last one third of the book!
carolintallahassee 👒

Publisher's Description:

Lucas de Granville—pious, respectable, impoverished, lonely—will do nearly anything for the godfather who raised him, even though his godfather doesn’t seem to want to do anything for him.

Melisande—mundane, illegitimate, dirt poor, lonely—will do nearly anything to make sure her mother and brother have shelter and food, even though they are critical of her lack of magical talent.

When Melisande’s father, a pious comte, sends his godson Lucas to bring her to Versailles and help him train her to be a fine, staunchly religious lady, their attraction is immediate, but so is their distrust.

Her eagerness to get as much money as she can as quickly as possible gradually changes into a wish for something higher, better, and holier. Something that Lucas can help her achieve: love.

My Thoughts:

This is a story that starts out promising but soon turns into an abusive tale of a father who's only thoughts are of how pious he can be to hopefully make his way into heaven after living a life most assuredly with the lack of piety.
What starts out reading like a fairytale is definitely not one.

There is just too much piety or signs of lack thereof in this story. To this reader there is only one person who is deserving of a hint of piety and that would be the heroine.

I have no real understanding of the nature of religion in the Catholic Church being a protestant so much of what occurs is foreign to me.

It may be a well written book but the details are lost on this reader. It is also Book #5 of a series and this is the only one I have read.

I gave this book 3.25 of 5 stars for storyline and character development and a sensual rating of 1.5 of 5 flames. There simply isn't much that could be called sensual about this story and the plot is all over the place in this readers opinion.

I received a complimentary digital ARC of this book from the publisher via NetGalley as a preapproved recipient. This in no way affected my opinion of this title which I read and reviewed voluntarily.

I agreed to give an honest and fair review for this ARC. It was quite a long read and there were some interesting characters but I found it hard to really get into.

A good read.