2020 fantasy romance, second of its series. Effie is a housemaid who's
fallen for the youngest son of the Family. She knows perfectly well
it's impossible. Until she meets a fae who is determined to help her.
Like the other books of Atwater's I've read, this is rather
lovely. The faerie Lord Blackthorn, in particular, is both utterly
alien and oddly comprehensible by his own rules. With his help, Effie
has a hundred days to attract Benedict, in return for a work of
embroidery. But is that what she actually wants?
There's a lot of social awareness here, and the ghastly life of a
servant with a mistress who isn't so much cruel as failing to see the
staff as people at all. Perhaps that's all a bit basic, but it's done
reasonably well, and if you're going to have the servants on-stage in
the story at all, you might as well be realistic about their lives.
So while the story is clearly inspired by Cinderella, what it's
about is righteous anger, and kindness, and justice. I found myself
thoroughly charmed by it.