[Historical Romance] Bookshop Cinderella by Laura Lee Guhrke

 

Evie Harlow runs a quaint little bookshop in London, which is the biggest adventure an unmarried woman with no prospects could hope for. Until Maximillian Shaw, Duke of Westbourne, saunters into her shop with a proposition: to win a bet with his friends, he’ll turn her into a diamond of the season. The duke might be devilishly attractive, but Evie has no intention of accepting his ludicrous offer. When disaster strikes her shop, however, she’s left with little choice but to let herself be whisked into his high-society world. 

Scandal at the Savoy. Book 1

Finished the novel, this is how it is with historical romance from beloved authors and when the book does not disappoint you, it passes in a flash.

Meet Evie, an owner of a bookshop named Harlow's, and Max, who is a duke, and a bet that changed the fate of the two.

Although the bet sounds a bit icky, it's not like that at all in reality. I was also a bit on defence when I read that premise, but the truth of the story and settings are as follows: Max's cousin Delia was in contact with Evie as her best help when organizing dinners, but now Delia is sent to Rome on a short notice and she trusts only Max to visit Evie's little bookshop and fetch some papers she must have arranged for her. Max has done so, but he saw Evie preoccupied in being awe-struck by a young men (who we later find out is her old acquaintance), she was so awe-struck that she forgot all about doing her job properly, something she was proud of, she delays the date few days later. But when he returns she again finds that she's not ready, since she hastily agreed to the young man's proposal of using her back premises as a place for his meetings, but she was so tired because of it that she forgot again.

But this time Max was not alone, he was in a comany of three young men, who Evie deemed as his friends, but it wasn't so. But this crossing between the young men and him and their unfavorable discussion of Evie later that day put Max on defense, he was of the opposite opinion and the young men stirred to prove it. With that dose of alcohol Max agreed, he was on the verge of being angry with his own "peers" that they dared to say such undeserving things.

Later Max, explaining the whole situation and admitting that his words will definitely offend her, still proposes the bet. Of course Evie refuses. But to her dismay, he says something that sends her off. After all no one before could see through her shell. He knew her work through Delia's words, he saw Evie for himself and he was sure that it will be a bit of adventure for her too, because he saw those sparkles of interest that shined through.

“I think the real reason you’re turning down my proposition is that you’re afraid.”

“Afraid? That is absurd!”

“On the contrary, it’s perfectly understandable. After all, if you change things, you move into unknown territory. If you dream, your dreams might be crushed. If you aspire to more than you have, you might fail. If you hold your standards too high, you might never find romance. So instead, you try to reconcile yourself to the hand you’ve been dealt and tell yourself it’s good enough. You settle for less than you deserve, including the attentions of a man who is unworthy of you.”

“How dare you say such things?” she cried, her anger flaring higher. “You don’t even know me.”

“Neither do you. You can’t see yourself as you truly are or explore what you could become. Don’t you want to find out? Don’t you want to at least peek out of your safe little nest to see what exciting, wonderful possibilities might be out there for you?”

Even if she refused and Max took it as her answer and was a gentleman not to go any further, it still left Evie with a lot to think and process. We have a bit of backstory of hers, that she inherited her dad's bookshop, but with debts on top of it, she managed to work herself to the bone, but she also managed to pay off the debts. She was proud of this challange in which she succeeded. But then was no challenge, just a mundane life, her safe little nest she talked herself into believing was the best place for her.

Evie looked up, staring at her surroundings. The shop, the flat, the books—this was her safe little nest, she realized with a grimace. It was familiar and predictable. And she had always been happy here.

Until now.

Evie slammed the cash register closed. She’d been glad to come back here, happy to help her father in the shop, relieved to be back in a world that accepted her for just what she was, a world she knew and understood. And after Papa’s death, she’d welcomed the distraction of running things on her own. Making it solvent again had been a challenge, one that in her grief, she had badly needed and had eventually come to enjoy. And with each debt paid off, there had been a sense of triumph and satisfaction.

But now, there was no debt. There was no challenge. Only the mundane daily routine. And lately, hadn’t she felt a faint discontent stirring in the air? During the past year or two, there had been mornings when getting out of bed and going downstairs had seemed like a pointless journey, endless days when even her beloved books weren’t enough to hold her interest, nights when she’d lain in bed, staring at the ceiling, bone tired yet unable to sleep. She’d wondered, more often than she liked to admit, if perhaps it might be best to let it all go, do something else.

But one thing had always hushed her questions and silenced her doubts before they could ever take hold: What else was there for a woman like her?

It's a bit of "And then he kissed her" situation. That she loved the past and would not change it, but it deprived her of many joys too. 

What was unexpected was not only that deep inside she agreed, but also she had to agree. Her boiler blew up and the bookshop was flooded with water. A disaster stroke. At that moment of her questioning life itself she thought that taking a break wasn't such a bad idea.

What I liked about the whole novel is that we see a woman, who is not sure of her charm (that she even has one) is also very preoccupied with herself, what she does, how people will evaluate her, the woman who later lets go of her worries, through Max's affection and passion she can find confidence within herself. That she is worthy.

He was flirting with her. At that realization, Evie’s heart gave another nervous lurch, slamming into her ribs with enough force to rob the breath from her lungs. Thankfully, he didn’t seem to notice.

Her lack of confidence lurked like a shadow after her. Starting from her days in school, when she did not expect to see so much scorn because she was among ladies of peerage, but she was a middle class. The hurtful fact that she seemed to be unattractive to the opposite sex.

In agreeing to this holiday, she’d known she would be entering an entirely different world, but even as she’d checked into the opulent Savoy Hotel, even as she had eaten the rich cuisine of the famous Escoffier and chosen beautiful frocks from the fashionable Vivienne, Evie hadn’t appreciated just how alien her holiday world would prove to be.

Now, however, as the duke led her into an enormous ballroom of gold and white, with an intricate parquet floor, dozens of gilt-framed mirrors, and a domed ceiling at least thirty feet high, the contrast between her life and that of her companion could not have been more stark, and she was more convinced than ever that when the time came for the duke’s ball, when all of those fashionable people in her imagination became real, when they were staring at her with the same disdain as the gargoyles on the gate outside, she was going to make an utter fool of herself and justify all their expectations. Her fantasy to triumph over Freddie Maybridge and his friends, her need to face the past and put it behind her, her wish to have a more fulfilling, interesting life in the future—it all seemed ridiculous now.

Only with time, new relations, new experience, she could feel the change in herself. That she was more confident, that she was worth of all this. That these months were a wonderful experience for her. Something she never thought would happen is that shift on her own opinion of herself.

This was not the same woman who had stared into the wavy mirror above her shop sink, wondering what the duke had seen in her that she could not see in herself. It was a superficial change, perhaps—an illusion or a mirage or a trick of cut and color—but even to her own eyes, she did not seem plain or unremarkable. She no longer felt bored or boring.

Because of rules they could not appear together and her most fun began when Delia returned home. Both did not insist on finding her a husband, but just wanted to have fun. Those weeks filled with fun she had never had before changed her completely.

But it wasn't only herself who changed, but her relationship with Max.

The main conflict of the relationship and how they were "not fit together", does not come only from the fact that both come from different classes, but because of Max's first marriage. A passion during his youth and a wife who could not bear the scorn of the lot due to her origins (she was American), she eventually became hostile and the lot had the same attitude towards her. She escaped but died under a carriage. So Max is a widower.

Although he burned with passion, but he was dead set on the fact that he needs a woman of his class (hence the chosen Helen, whose younger brother placed a bet against duke). He knew that nothing good would turn out if they continued, especially after his first experience that was a splitting image and it didn't help that Evie was scornful towards the nobles too. But of course no matter how one denies it, Max came to conclusion that it can only be Evie and no one else.

Anyway, I really liked the two of them, I like her stories, she picks up two interesting people, they may have similar traits or Guhrke might use similar tropes, but in general there is a lot of respect, support, understanding in relationships. They become soulmates withouth a strong emphasis on it. Although some may find historical romance not as good as simply romance, but I do not agree. It depends on a book too :)

RATE: 4/5. Only because it has the feel of previous books. Although the lightness of it, the romance of it are still as good.