This might be the case of "it's me, not you", but I just don't think that THE INGENUE was a right fit for me.

The story centers around former piano prodigy Saskia Kreis as she returns home to Milwaukee after the unexpected death of her mother. She expects to inherit the family estate, the Elf House, but discovers that her mother has bequeathed the house to a man that Saskia shares a complicated history with.

I've read quite a few books with the dark theme of grooming involved. and while I initially enjoyed the topic of the #metoo movement brought to books, and seeing the victims of abuse taking a stand, and getting the justice they deserved, I'm starting to feel like this subject is getting stale, and I just found myself losing interest with the rest of the story. There just wasn't enough going on otherwise to really draw me in. I love a story of women empowerment, but this just fell flat for me.

I had both the physical and audiobook, and enjoyed the narration by Stephanie Willis

*many thanks to St Martins Press and Macmillan Audio for the gifted copy for review

We follow a woman who heads back home b/c of her mother’s passing. It’s mostly a story of grooming and manipulation. She doesn’t realize what she went thru a very young teen was wrong until she’s back in town. A tragic story on how this relationship shaped her into who she is today. The character development in this was interesting. Listening to Saskia make a tragic discovery about herself and try to pull herself out of the shadow of the word ‘victim’ can be seen as empowering. While I enjoyed the ending, the book as a whole fell flat.

There are so many questions unanswered, particularly about the mom and the stories she wrote. I really enjoyed the little snippets of “fairytales for little feminist” at the beginning of each chapter. I want those books.

Thank you to NetGalley for an audiobook ARC.

I loved the Ballerinas and this just further shows Kaplke-Dales talents for slow burning simmering tension fiction.. Thank you to Macmillan Audio for the ALC.

I really enjoyed this one. It’s a VERY tough subject (CW: sexual abuse) to tackle and was well written. Saskia grows up the daughter of a musician and writer/artist. Her mother wrote a popular book series called, Fairytales for Little Feminists and this is how each chapter is set up, with a passage from one of her mother’s books. They’re not wealthy, but their family is from old beer baron money in Milwaukee. Saskia grew up in a huge house, nicknamed the Elf House because of the elf sculptures at the entrance. The house is well known and a source of pride, and enormous expense, for her parents. Saskia is a prodigy. She is magnificent on the piano and travels around the world playing. The story goes back and forth between Saskia as a child and Saskia as a grown woman. As a young teen, Saskia believes she has found love with a much older man. What she comes to understand as an adult is that their relationship wasn’t despite her age, it was BECAUSE of her age. She clearly starts to recognize what was taken from her, and the ending is explosive. Well worth a read! I listened to this one, too. Grade A!

THE INGENUE is a slow-burn suspense fiction story that will be of interest to readers who enjoyed My Dark Vanessa. The story kicks off as Saskia’s quest to understand why her mother would leave their prized family estate to a man from her past and slowly shifts to reveal a chilling reality from her childhood. The pacing is on the slower side, but I enjoyed the way Kapelke-Dale revealed details about Saskia’s childhood secrets. While the story was captivating, it did start to feel a bit repetitive at times and I found myself waiting for the next reveal. My favorite part is definitely the way Kapelke-Dale ended the book. I won’t spoil anything for potential readers, but just know you’re in for a treat!

🎧: I decided to check this one out over audio and I found it helped me click more with the pacing of the story versus reading it physically. The narrator does a fantastic job of bringing Saskia and her story to life!

🔊Song Pairing: Fairytale - Geel Music (theme from Shrek)

💭What I thought would happen:

Pretty cover! I did not realize this was the same author of The Ballerinas which I DNF’d yikes.

📖What actually happens:

After losing her mother, Saskia is shocked to find out the contents of her mother’s will and the executor is her lawyer ex boyfriend.

The passing has sent Saskia in a spiral to her past relationships and childhood as piano prodigy. There was a lot of darkness to unpack and sift through before sending her whole life up in flames.

🗯Thoughts:

Tbh before this if I heard the word ingenue I would have never spelt it correctly so hey thanks for that lesson! 😂

What I liked most was the intro to the chapters with the MC’s belated mother’s story concepts from Fairytales For Little Feminists. I would love to read that book,,,more than this one.

It probably didn’t help that while listening to this book I was also reading a book about a death of a family member with a vicious will. Neither blew me away soo that was a snooze.

Underwhelming but memorable. Win?

This was a very layered coming of age story featuring Saskia, a young piano prodigy and the traumatic sexual relationship she has with an older man. It's also a story about grief and loss and revenge. Told in alternating timelines, it was a little hard to follow at times on audio but I still really enjoyed it overall and thought the narration by Stephanie Willis was well done. Much thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early digital copy in exchange for my honest review!

#NetGalley ARC - thank you!
This novel was a bit of a slow start, but took off mid way. It has a weirdly far-reaching, dark dramatic twist, then ends with another twist.

5 stars! This is my second book by this author and she writes conflicting, sometimes painful stories that always pull me in. I really got this one! Several days of reading this had me re-remembering my past. There is definitely a #metoo trigger and I was ready.
The story was complicated and I can imagine many will not understand the spell she was under. I thought it was well done and I had a nervousness I hadn’t felt in awhile. It’s dark and troubling in a way that had a resolution.
If you liked (can I say that?) Dark Vanessa then you like this.
I read and listened to this. Both were intriguing. The audiobook gave me a chilling front row seat. The narrator was excellent.
Thanks St. Martin’s Press, McMillan Audio via NetGalley.

I enjoyed Rachel Kapelke-Dale's previous novel, The Ballerinas. So I didn't hesitate to grab this one, intrigued to see how her writing style might've grown. And indeed, it has. Once again she's used dual timelines to tell this story of a once-promising piano prodigy whose career was derailed by incidents revealed over the course of the book. In her first book it was sometimes difficult to tell when the timeline had shifted - especially when listening vs reading with eyes on page. This time she signals the shift not just with dates, but also with quotes from the series of books the main character's mother had authored. The writing is a bit tighter and less repetitive, but the story is just as compelling as the story in The Ballerinas.
Saskia Kreis returns home after her mother's death, expecting to inherit the family home, an imposing house known as Elf House. Instead, she finds that the Elf House was left to a man that Saskia knows all too well, but she's baffled as to the reason for the change in the family tradition of leaving the house to a blood relative. Over the course of the book we learn just what derailed her career as a pianist, what shaped her mother's decision, and how many of the things she thought she knew to be true turned out to be not quite what they seemed. It was an interesting look at the things we do for love, for family, and for retribution. The audiobook was a pleasure to listen to, nicely narrated by Stephanie Willis.
Thanks to Netgalley and Macmillan Audio for providing a copy for an unbiased review.

The Ingenue by Rachel Kapelke-Dale is said to be a mix of My Dark Vanessa and The Queen's Gambit and while I haven't read either of those books, I can still imagine that is an accurate description. Saskia being a prodigy mixed with her prior relationship with an older man screams both of those books, and if you are going to read this you definitely need to be prepared for a #MeToo story. I hadn't read the synopsis going in since my desire to read The Ingenue was based solely on how much I loved Kapelke-Dale's The Ballerinas (of course the gorgeous cover helped too), and I have to admit that I ended up with a lot more than I bargained for. Parts of the book did drag a bit for me especially in the beginning to middle and I started to lose interest, but I am really glad I stuck with it because the climax was nothing less than explosive.

There are some serious triggers in this book, so I would highly recommend checking those out before picking it up. However, I thought the way Kapelke-Dale approached them was in such a sensitive way that they might not be a dealbreaker either. The audiobook for The Ingenue is narrated by the extremely talented Stephanie Willis and I was in awe of how well she adapted to voice this novel. Her performance felt different than in other books I’ve listened to her narrate and she really brought Saskia’s character alive. She made it a lot easier for me to get through the parts that felt slow, and I loved the audio. The ending really made this book for me, and it is important to know the storyline is fairly dark. I really felt for Saskia, and I enjoyed watching the way she transformed by the time the story was over. The Ingenue had a bit of a coming-of-age story vibe as well, and though it was a tough read at times, I appreciated where Kapelke-Dale decided to take the storyline.

Last year, I read (and enjoyed) Rachel Kapelke-Dale’s gritty novel, The Ballerinas which showed the dance world’s dark and seedy side. I thought it was very well done. I’m happy to report that I enjoyed the author’s latest, The Ingenue just as much. I just really, really like her writing style. A lot. It’s haunting, atmospheric, mysterious, and even a bit disturbing at times. Both books are slow-burning and character-driven, and we all know that that’s my jam. The Ingenue includes a few of my favorite themes like mother/daughter relationships, family drama, and juicy secrets. It also dips into some risky subject matter like forbidden/inappropriate romance, revenge, and the #metoo movement. That’s all I’ll say about that. You need to read the book for all of the nitty gritty details. I must admit that I almost threw in the towel before the story even truly started. In the beginning, there was talk of whimsical elves, fairytales, and such which I scrunched my nose at. It was going way over my head, and I was a tad confused by it all. I’m so happy that I pushed through because the fairytale element was just a teeny tiny part of the novel, and I actually ended up loving how the author turned traditional fairytales into feminist ones. So if you get the same vibe at first, keep going. Trust me. This novel is being compared to My Dark Vanessa and The Queen’s Gambit, but I haven’t read either of those. So if you enjoyed those two books, definitely give this one a shot.

I went in mostly blind with this one so I didn’t realize how dark it was going to be at first but I still enjoyed it! I felt Saskia really resonated with me, especially how she found it difficult to connect with her peers. I liked her character arc, the multiple timelines, and the feminist fairytales at the beginning of each chapter. The ending was unexpected and captivating!

Favorite quote:

“When has it ever been a good idea to call a woman crazy?”

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the ALC!

Immediately upon starting The Ingenue, it started giving me Verity/ My Dark Vanessa vibes. This part I did like - it kept me entertained, my mind wondering what was going to happen next, and also had me a bit disturbed. I will say this didn't resonate with me the way I was hoping but I can't exactly pinpoint why. I think it may have had something to do with the overdone "older man abuses a younger girl" storyline without adding anything groundbreaking to the storyline. I did find the ending pretty captivating but it wasn't enough to save this for me.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an early copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

The main character, Saskie is a former piano prodigy. Unfortunately, she hit a wall when she was younger and her ability fell off. In addition, she has never really found a career that fits her. After a recent firing from her last job, Saskie was forced to take a job writing questions for testing exams for a set fee. It's barely enough for her to live on but she hasn't wanted for her family to know. When her mother dies, she returns to the family home. After her arrival there, she is slammed with multiple shocks.

This book was told in multiple time lines. It was a clever way to portion out the history of Saskia. Many of the mysteries in present day are tied to her past and what happened then. It's heartbreaking to read how Saskia viewed herself as a teenager growing up. She felt a good deal of pressure and didn't connect easily with her peers. It made her susceptible to people who wanted to take advantage of her.

I really enjoyed the gothic and creepiness of this novel at times. It was especially obvious when there were descriptions about how the house was built and the history of it. In addition, this author writes very descriptively, but not too much so. I felt as if I could really imagine my surroundings and the characters. In addition, the reader could easily feel Saskia's frustration as she's trying to uncover the present day "mystery."

AUDIOBOOK: In addition, I listened to the audiobook as well and found it to be quite good. The narration was a nice match for the characters and lent itself to my enjoyment of the story. 4 stars

Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC and ALC. I voluntarily chose to read/listen and review them and the opinions contained within are my own.

I love a storylines that blend current times with flashbacks and this one does it beautifully. This is a very dark and twisted story that touches on some very grim matter and issues. Emotional, verbal, mental and sexual abuse of a child, lies, manipulation, narcissistic parents who used their child as a show pony, broken promises are just some of the things that Saskia dealt her whole life by everyone who was supposed to love her. When she was old enough she left and stayed away. When she learns of the death of her mother she returns home. When she gets there she is yet again disappointed by her mother. All of the emotions that she has been keeping tamped down for years come to a head and she goes off completely the rails to get answers and her revenge. An interesting read. Good narration up the creepy factor.

Any book described as My Dark Vanessa meets The Queen's Gambit gets our attention, and this moody tale of suspense, talent and revenge doesn't disappoint. This gripping new release may not be for those easily triggered by stories of sexual assault, but if you're in the mood for beautifully written characters with complicated pasts, this one's for you. A particular highlight are the delightful feminist fairytales woven throughout. Paired with a crisp, cold martini, this thought-provoking new novel provides a bracing commentary on the #metoo era and what it takes...and what it costs... to excel. Thanks to @netgalley and @stmartinspress for the ARC.

Saskia is a former piano prodigy turned boxer. She has returned home to Milwaukee and the Elf House after her mother’s unexpected death. But, the bad memories are outweighing the good. Then she discovers her mother left the house to someone else. Saskia was supposed to get this house…so what happened?!?

Saskia is unsure where to turn after this shocking revelation. So, she goes straight to the source. The man she had an affair with at a VERY young age!

This story started strong and I was totally giving it 5 stars. Then the main character, Saskia does something completely out of character. And to be honest, it made me mad. I expected something, just not exactly that. I changed my rating to a 4. So you need to read this to find out! Then you need to find me somewhere online and let me know what you think.

The narrator, Stephanie Willis, did a good job. There were places in which her voice was too low. Not sure if this is a production problem or a narrator problem. Now, don’t get me wrong…I just kept turning the volume up. Because I HAD TO KNOW WHAT WAS HAPPENING!

There is so much more I want to say…but I just do not write long reviews. No one has time to read that. But this novel really hit the emotions from all directions! So, I am changing my rating back to a 5…mid review mind you! Any book which keeps the emotions rolling as you are writing the review…FIVE STARS IT IS!

Need a good novel with dark undertones and a freaking twist…THIS IS IT! Grab your copy today!


I received this novel from the publisher for a honest review.

Rachel Kapelke Dale does it again with her newest novel, The Ingenue, featuring a musical prodigy who has fallen from grace.

Back home to deal with the recent death of her mother, Saskia is expecting to inherit the famed Elf House that she grew up in. But when her mother’s will stipulates Saskia’s former lover is the recipient, Saskia goes in search of answers – unlocking the trauma of her past in the process.

Sprinkled throughout with vignettes of feminist retellings of fairytales, this searing story explores the mother-daughter relationship and examines the dark truth behind sexual predators. I was transfixed by her writing and rooting for Saskia to slay her demons like a true fairytale heroine. This heart-thumping novel about music was a best book of 2022 pick for me.

SHOP ON AMAZON

Unfortunately, I could not get into "The Ingenue" by Rachel Kapelke-Dale. This book touches on the #Metoo movement and does pick up in the second half but it was difficult for me to overcome the slow start. I think this book will appeal to many readers who enjoyed "My Dark Vanessa" but it was just not for me.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.