The Peasant’s Dream – Melanie Dickerson (ARC review!)

Title: The peasant’s dream (Hagenheim #11)

Author: Melanie Dickerson.

Format: E-ARC (Thanks to NetGalley).

Publisher: Thomas Nelson.

Page count: 320.

Release day: July 7^th 2020.

Genre: Adult, romance.

Rating: 3.5 stars.

What is it about? (Summary from GoodReads)

In this reverse Cinderella story, a poor farmer’s son, who dreams of using his talent as a woodcarver to make a better life for himself, falls in love with a duke’s daughter and must fight for a chance to win her heart.

Adela is the youngest daughter of Duke Wilhelm of Hagenheim and is never allowed outside of the castle walls. She loves her family, but she sneaks away one day to the market in the town center. There she meets a handsome young man and wonders what it might be like to fall in love with a poor farmer with a kind heart instead of marrying the man her family is suggesting for her.

Frederick earns the income for his family and defends his mother from his father’s drunken rages. He also uses his talent and creativity to carve figures, animals, and scenes into wood, and he’s asked to carve these scenes into cathedral doors when his talent is noticed. Frederick is inspired by the sweet and beautiful Adela, but he has no knowledge of her true identity. When he gets swept up into a plan to kidnap the duke’s daughter, both are shaken by what they learn about the other.

With the heartbroken Adela resigned to an arranged marriage with her noble suitor, Frederick must decide what he’s willing to risk for love. 

Rating:
Characters: 8/10
Atmosphere: 7/10
Writing: 7/10
Plot: 6/10
Intrigue: 6/10
Logic: 7/10
Enjoyment: 7/10
Average: 6.86 (which means 3 stars!)

My thoughts:

Although this is book 11 in the series, you can read all the books as standalones! I’ve only read this one and the previous one, The piper’s pursuit (see review here!). As far as I know there is no connection between the characters, but they do take place in the same neighbourhood! They are also all fairytale retellings!

This particular story was a reversed Cinderella retelling! You could really see the Cinderella aspects in the story, but it was also not a direct retelling. It really was a story on its own!

We read the story from both perspectives, and I really liked both characters! Also most of the side characters were very well done! Although some of the relations felt a bit unrealistic for the time, but also the modernisation did fit the story well!

This is just a really nice quick romance story. But don’t go into this story expecting many romantic scenes, this book is really about their relation slowly developing. And also what all the other characters thought about this relation, and how this relation development impacted their other relations! And because of their relation development, they got stronger and were able to ‘fight’ some darker aspects in their life!

I really like Dickerson’s writing! If I want another quick romantic story I will definitely check out some of the earlier books from this series!

Happy reading!