Love or Sacrifice

Author: Delilah Godfrey
Genre: Historical Romance
Release Date: November 20, 2021

From a charming village on the French coast, a young man, Hugues, is corresponding with his buddy, documenting the wonders of this area, which lies snuggled between the shoreline and a majestic falling cliff. Hugues's sensitive and idealistic personality is evident by his response to this area, and his attention is quickly awakened by its historic chateau, occupied by a reclusive and misanthropic Marquis. As the narrative progresses, Hugues is put into the company of a beautiful, enigmatic young girl after meeting her in the woods surrounding the chateau, and his interest is instantly sparked as to her identity, a curiosity which is heightened when he discovers her name is Meriele and she is the only child of the mysterious Marquis de Montastruc. It is at this time that we realise Hugues is also an aristocrat, the son of the late Comte de Romanet, and, as such, a fitting match for Meriele. Nothing, not even the ominous intimations of Meriele's faithful but withered nurse, Georgette, will deter Hugues from his path to seek the Marquis' blessing on their union. But even these cryptic warnings do not prepare Hugues for the anger he experiences at his first meeting with Montastruc.

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Reviewer: Anna Bottoms

Love or Sacrifice is a debut novel with a lot of promise. Well-written descriptions paint a beautiful picture of the French countryside. The descriptions of both Georgette—spunky, acidic—and the Marquis—bitter, melancholy—give a perfect image of their personalities. 

I’m not sure what the reason for telling parts of the story in the form of letters was—Marcel really had no part in the story other than being the recipient of the letters—but I found that there was more telling about what was seen than experiencing it. This form of writing made it hard to sometimes follow the POV.  There were also quite a few grammatical errors and a few modern day words that were a slight distraction for me, though it didn’t detract from the storyline itself.

I enjoyed the redemptive aspects of the end of the book when the Marquis is exonerated of his debt by Dieupart and freed of the anger directed toward De Romanet, as well as the outcome of the romance between Hugues and Mireille.

I was given a copy of this book courtesy of the author through Interviews and Reviews. This is my honest assessment of the book.

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