Book Blurb:
When a Chinese woman becomes a royal gift, only a marriage of convenience can save them both.
Chinese apothecary Yihui never expected to be delivered to the Prince Regent like a bolt of silk—a living bribe from merchants desperate for English favor. Prinny can’t accept her, so he commands the Earl of Artanges to marry her instead.
Max has spent years managing the Prince's whims, but being ordered to wed a foreign stranger tests even his loyalty. Yet from the moment he sees Yihui's courage, he's captivated. Her healing knowledge may be foreign to English medicine, but her fierce spirit speaks a language his heart understands perfectly.
Trapped in a royal decree neither wanted, Max and Yihui must navigate a pretend engagement while very real enemies circle. Max’s duty transforms into a desire more potent than any brew. But when their charade ends, Yihui must claim her freedom or trust her heart to a man whose world will never fully accept her.
Some royal commands change everything. Some foreign gifts become priceless treasures.
A Regency romance where East meets West, duty battles desire, and love proves the most intoxicating remedy of all.
Tropes:
*High Gravity ALC *Historical Romance *arranged marriage *Chinese FMC x British MMC
*Class difference *family drama *multiple POV *Spice *Trigger warnings
Thoughts:
This is book three in the My Lady's Potions series, but can be read as a stand alone.
I got this ALC from High Gravity and was excited to be able to listen to the full series! Persephone Lee and Christopher Tester did a great job bringing these books to life.
This book follows along with the rest of the series in being different from the usual historical romances I pick up. Yihui (FMC) is brought from China originally as a gift to the prince however the prince is already married and the hardened people who she came with feeling that she had failed in her mission threatened her life, in a last minute decision the Prince declairs that even though he can't marry her she can marry his friend Max (who is a future Duke).
Max (MMC) just wanting to protect Yihui in the moment agrees to take her to his home... then he has to figure out how to get out of this situation he is already been promised to marry another woman since childhood (even though he hasn't asked, and she hasn't pushed the issue). This situation creates for a bit of a hostile environment at home with both of his parents not wanting their only son and the heir to marry a woman from outside of their own country.
Yihui has gone through many hardships including being sold by her own father to pay his debts, and her feet were badly damaged by her captors in an escape attempt, now she is staying with strangers in a foreign country.
Yihui not wanting to be a burden to anyone wants to prove her worth and she has skills in Chinese medicine, which come in handy especially when her remedies are needed to heal her own infection.
Max and Yihui get to know each other better while she is staying with his family, while Max and his sister are both kind to Yihui their parents are pretty rotten towards her.
Max still initially set on his plans to have Yihui break off their engagement knowing that society will never fully accept her soon comes to realize that maybe that's not what he wants at all... it did take him awhile to get there though.
Yihui tries to make plans for her future if she is not to marry what will she do? She can't return home, but how will she be able to support herself in this new world? She can work as an apothecary but even that would be hard to start up with some people not very trusting of foreigners.
My heart went out to Yihui she was so brave, intelligent, resourceful and skilled and trying to make the best of her current circumstances even though she had been treated terribly. It was hard to read about her treatment from those she traveled with to English society because she was foreign, and after she was trying to settle into a new country the discrimination Yihui faced was heartbreaking.
Max is so sweet and caring towards Yihui he's protective and even before he realizes that she means more to him than he initially realized you could see the love forming. Yihui even though she knows she shouldn't can't help but fall for Max he's been nothing but kind and supportive towards her since she arrived and when she had no one in her corner when she came to the country that meant so much to her.
I loved that Max listened to Yihui and made adjustments in the way he did things with his staff and that they were able to teach each other new things.
The book is fairly long (over 400 pages) and there were sections that dragged a bit for me.
Have you read this one? What did you think?
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