It is simply a reader that is expressing what she thought of a book. Yes, I know that is what a review is but I don't feel I am qualified to be a reviewer. I haven't written a book, I have not study anything in college. I'm just a person that likes to read and talk about the book I read. So with that I will share my thoughts:
When I first started the book "The Duke's Handmaiden" by Caprice Hokstad I was not really sure what to expect. A wonderful friend has just read it and it has remained heavily on her mind. I love books like that. They can and do form how I view the world, hence the reason I am more vigilant now about what I read and by whom. I would have liked to read this book without "knowing" the author. I say "knowing" as the only thing I really know is that she is Christian. I loved what she said in an interview recently regarding Christian books "A Christian is a Christ-follower. A book is not a Christ-follower." I need to remember that when I read books that are written by follow Christians. My fault is that I was looking for something that was Christ-like throughout the whole book. Actually - I do this with everything I read now. So I probably would have looked even if I hadn't know she was sister-in-Christ. I wasn't disappointed but it also didn't work out the way I thought.
A quick RD run down of the book: In a fantasy world a young, lower-class, inferior-race woman decides she wants to become a slave. This is her journey and why she decides this. I don't know if it was my wonderful friend or the author herself that said it was a "non-traditional romance novel." A few days ago I would have agreed, but the more I "simmer" in my thoughts of the book - the more I believe that not to be true.
I loved how the story starts with the main character finding a place where she feels she truly belongs. It where she finds love, serenity, comfort and hope. All things she’s never had and/or experienced before. She will also do anything to maintain this - even becoming a slave. I understood this and could totally relate. I to have been lost and found of place of love, serenity, comfort and hope in my Lord Jesus Christ. I, too will do anything to maintain this - even becoming his slave. Of course the physical way I became a slave for Christ and the way our heroine does are totally different but the meaning felt the same. She will do anything her master asks of her, knowing he cares for her and will never require her to put herself in harms way. But if he did, she also knows in her heart there would be a reason for it and she will oblige without any qualms. I feel the same way. I will do anything the good Lord asks of me and, I hope, I would be able to do the unimaginable (thinking Abraham here) all the while knowing that He will take care of everything and it is for His purpose.
I was drawn in on the development of their relationship. At times I could see Christ our heroine - her self sacrifice, her true desire to do what ever her master asks of her and how she truly believed in her master. I could even see God’s characteristics in the hero by bringing vengeance on those that purposely defile what is his, how he loved his slaves. He even invites our heroine on to his lap, gently caressing her hair as she fell asleep. To me one of the ultimate ways a father holds his daughter, with love, serenity, comfort and hope.
I genuinely comprehended her choices in most of the book. Until chapter 34 or so. That is when it becomes a true romance novel, nothing non-traditional. Well, that isn’t correct. Our heroine and hero didn’t have sex before they were “married” and if they did after, it was in the privacy of their room without our watching eyes. but once we hit that mark I was disappointed in the way the story went. But it is here that I realized that this was going to be a regular romance novel. Our heroine does everything perfectly - always doing the right thing for the right reasons. Never getting upset, not a tinsy bit, that no one else if “pulling their weight”. She accepts life as it comes and only decides to do something when her master is in danger.
In fear of giving the ending away, it is only when she lies on deaths door does our handsome hero see what was always before him, changes his ways and gives his love back. Well, that isn’t right either. Both their love for each other had changed - they became human again and it became a romance story. To me, it would have been a “non-traditional” romance novel if they didn’t get together that way. If both their love for each other stayed just as it was - master and slave, protector and guide.
