I loved this book !! I loved the alternating timelines between the present and Saskia growing up!! I also loved the feminist version of all the fairytales tied in to teach a lesson to her within the story. Such a good one.. highly recommend!

This felt like the worst/guilty pleasure teenager tv show you have ever seen and I absolutely DEVOURED it. I enjoyed the multiple POV and the changing timelines that allow you to slowly piece things together as you read. I will say there was ALOT going on at times and that was overwhelming, but overall I LOVED the drama. The biggest story was between the main character and her MUCH older teacher and how they had inappropriate relations. This book definitely covered a lot of really controversial topics and I think the author did a good job of handling it. Overall, I think this was a good thriller, it definitely needed a little bit of fine tuning to execute it properly.

Such an amazing story! I was hooked from the very first page! I couldnt get enough!! I could not put this down for the life of me!

This disturbing story and and constant overbearing abuse of a child is more than I could take. I wanted to like it, but it was too much. Thank you @NetGalley@StMartinsPress@TheIngenue

I had the privilege to read Rachel Kapelke-Dale’s first book, The Ballerinas, as an ARC, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. So, when I was approved for her next book, The Ingenue, I was super excited.

This book follows Saskia, a woman in her 30s, while she goes home to her family estate for her mothers funeral. Through a series of events, she winds up staying and diving deep into her childhood experiences, where a lot of things come to light.

One thing I really liked about this book is it felt like a mystery. I found myself reading and thinking hm what will happen next? And then I’d make theories about what I thought was going on (which wasn’t always right). I also really enjoyed the thread of feminism through it.

One thing I didn’t love was that I felt a bit like the book had a slight air of pretentiousness. Which, wasn’t enough of a turn off, and I think added to the story, but it might bother some.

Overall, a sold 4 star read for me!

Saskia Kreis is no longer the piano prodigy she was as a child. As she returns to her ancestral home—The Elf House—after her mother's passing, she is haunted by this fact. Somewhere along the way, Saskia lost her passion for the piano. Somewhere along the way, she lost touch with her parents, her musician father and her artistic mother, Evelyn, who wrote a series of feminist retellings of fairytales. And somewhere along the way, Saskia lost herself, too. In an upsetting turn of events, a man Saskia had a complicated relationship with in her past stands to inherit The Elf House, and Saskia vows to do everything in her power not to let that happen—even if it means confronting the darkest parts of her past.
I was a fan of Rachel Kapelke-Dale's THE BALLERINAS, and I found the characters in THE INGENUE to be equally compelling and complex. The story is told in in alternating timelines (more present-day vs. Saskia's childhood), which I thought was interesting, although it does mean that certain characters or details are presented without context at first. THE INGENUE is a deep, engaging, and powerful novel about family relationships, talent, and trauma.

*thank you Penguin Randomhouse for an eARC in exchange for an honest review*

This story is claimed to be My Dark Vanessa meets The Queen’s Gambit. I haven’t made my way to TQG just yet but MDV was a favorite book of the year last year and I was excited to get another wonderfully woven story like that. I also read The Ballerinas by RKD when it came out and absolutely loved it, so this was highly anticipated from the same author.

Unfortunately, this one didn’t do it for me. The feminism woven into this story is very preachy yelling in your face what to think instead of showing you a story that makes you think. While I was kept intrigued about how this story was going to end because it has a big “wtf??” factor, I also couldn’t help but roll my eyes at the start of every chapter with the quotes from the “fairytales for little feminists.” Why did they make me roll my eyes? they’re for “little feminists” using words like “equal division of labor” … obviously this book is actually written for adults but it was so distracting.

Overall, while the story had a great foundation, the execution didn’t hit it right for me. 3 stars for this one.

The Elf House has been passed from generation to generation, with the pattern anticipated to play out for generations to come. Until everything changes, and the estate is being left to someone else. Everything that once was expected has now changed, and Saskia is forced to examine her own past to find out why.

This was a dark story. Told in both past and present, with the pressures of perfection and strong #metoo vibes, this really had layers to unpack for the reader. The writing was captivating, I love a story told in dual timelines and especially if an old house is involved. This one was no exception as the vibes really had it all. The witty fairy tales at the beginning of the chapter added an eerie layer that I enjoyed, I kept wanting to read as I was so curious how this would all played out.

Thank you to St. Martins Press and NetGalley for my eARC in exchange for an honest review!

Comparisons to My Dark Vanessa do not do this novel justice. IMO, this is a better novel, with more complex characters and a better storyline. So much more going on in this novel!

I finished this book, and it is still haunting me.


Special thanks to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

The Elf House didn’t always have the elves, but for as long as Saskia can remember the elves have been there. Saskia hadn’t planned on ever really saying goodbye to those elves, but after her mother’s death, and the reading of her will, Saskia is faced with a tough reality; she will not inherit the house, it will no longer remain in her family, and the new owner of the house–Patrick–is the last person she wants to have it. Attempting to find a way in which to keep the house from Patrick, Saskis must face her past and her relationship with Patrick while unburying her memories of a damaged childhood.

This is a novel centered around an intense topic and it approaches it, in my opinion, with a survivor, not victim, mentality. I enjoyed the style and setup of The Ingenue. Each chapter starts with an excerpt from one of the Fairy Tales for Little Feminists stories (written by Saskia’s mother), followed by a flashback (which themselves are in chronological order), ending with the present day events. This was very effective at laying out the events in a war that revealed truths at just the right time. While it is a good story, it didn’t exactly grab me however.

This story is back and forth from past to present. A hard read due to the nature of some of the content. Saskia was a child prodigy who has been used and abused. The book should have trigger warnings with regards to sexual abuse and rape.
This book has gotten many good reviews but it was a difficult read for me and it is not one of my favorites.

Thank you Netgalley for the advanced E-book copy in exchange for an honest review.

I have not read My Dark Vanessa, but this book is definitely dark and intriguing, that you can't help but be hooked. I found the main character beautifully flawed, so powerful that I wanted to hear her play the piano.

The only thing was that I was hoping for more of ghost story, the details about the house was really haunting. It felt cold yet oddly fit the main character.

Saskia was once a piano prodigy, but there is a reason she doesn't play anymore, so hang on it gets deep! She returns to her childhood home after her mom dies and expects to inherit the family estate. But that all changes when she finds out that her mother left everything to a man, she has complicated past relationship. In order to find a way to seek revenge and get what belongs to her she has to dig deep into her past. She has to find the answers to what lead her down a path she never recovered from. Has she starts to relive that part of life, new things come to light that she thought she had buried. Is revenge the only way or does she have to destroy what destroyed her?

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for copy of this book for my honest review.

After a cleverly well developed story like her previous work, “The Ballerinas”, I had high hopes for this one, and Kapelke-Dale did not let me down. Similar in theme, “The Ingenue” follows a piano prodigy, struggling to deal with the normal expectations of adult life, after her childhood dreams were literally ripped away.
Rachel Kapelke-Dale’s Ingenue alternates between Saskia’s childhood and events in the present. As a child she had a difficult relationship with her mother. It was not until after her mother’s death that she discovers just how far her mother would go to protect her. Each of the chapters begins with a quote from Evie’s fairy tales that often brought a smile as I read them.. While Saskia considers herself a failure when you first meet her, the character continues to grow and become stronger as she plots her revenge. Her final solution and the fate of the estate come with a twist that makes this book highly recommended. An Ingenue is a character in literature, film, or theater, generally, a girl or a young woman, who is endearingly innocent. This perfectly sums up our main character Saskia. Even though she was unlikeable at times, I still rooted for her. The characters and story were very well developed and I loved the setting of the elf house. It took me a bit to get into The Ingenue but once I did I ended up falling in love with the writing. Just like in The Ballerinas, Rachel Kapelke-Dale always evokes an elegance of yesteryear that’s not so common in modern times. In the same vein as My Dark Vanessa and Dark Horses, The Ingenue is centered around an adult woman who is reckoning with a past relationship she had as a young teen with a grown man. As with any story dealing with sexual abuse, this is not an easy story and will not be for everyone.

I almost didn't read this one. I had it on my shelf well past it's publication day, and I try really hard to read and review all the books on or before their pub date, for some reason I kept skipping, passing over this one. I finally made myself start reading it. I won't say I wasted my time but it was something of a struggle to get through. The writing is very dry, there isn't any ompf to it, there was too much focus on the legalise, ownership rights, deed etc. Ok, Ok, we know she expected to inherit and didn't I think we didn't need to know every legal detail.
There are shade of "My Dark Vanessa" which my be disturbing to some readers. I liked "The Ballerina"s", by Rachel and was maybe expecting this one to read along the same lines as it did, maybe my expectations were too high or unrealistic, maybe I compared the two books too harshly, but the bottom line is that this one just does not deliver for me, it doesn't strike that certain reader's chord that perks my senses up, heightens my interest and keeps me turning pages, anticipating what is to come while at the same time not wanting the story to end. This one I wanted to end. Sorry. I am sure others may like this book, it is just not the one for this reader.
Thank you to St. Martin's Press and to Net Galley for the free ARC, I am leaving my honest review freely of my own will.

What a dark and surprising book this was! It was a slow burn until about 50% in and then it took off in ways I never could have imagined. The writing is sublime and the premise is unlike anything I've read, mixing gothic, mystery and fairytale elements to tell the story of a mother and daughter and talent wasted.

(3.5 stars rounded up)
I couldn’t help comparing this one to My Dark Vanessa, but that wasn’t a bad thing! The subject matter is obviously uncomfortable and could definitely be triggering for some. I found that I enjoyed the “Little Feminists” quotes and the flashbacks to Saskia’s earlier years in the beginning of the book, but felt that both these elements were a bit overdone towards the end. The story was interesting (with the legal plot, Saskia’s character arc, and her reconciling her relationship with her father) but the ending felt completely rushed; I would have appreciated more wrap-up of the story and less build-up and flashbacks.

This book is a slow burn so if you want a quick story this isn’t for you. This also has a protagonist who will be off putting to some people but I liked her. She was complicated and messy with her choices and relationships but that’s what made her an interesting character…I prefer my characters gritty around the edges.

This is a very well written book by the author of The Ballerinas, which explored the perils and traumas of three friends struggling to be the top dancers at the Paris Opera Ballet. While this previous book was fairly dark in tone, The Ingenue is ever darker. This one focuses on a former piano prodigy, Saskia, who returns to her childhood home after her mother has passed away. Believing that she will inherit the ancestral home, she is shocked to discover that the house has been left to Patrick, a colleague of her mother's.

We see the two different lives Saskia has lived. When she was young, she was a piano prodigy who traveled the world and lived a fairy tale existence inhabiting a grand gothic mansion called Elf House. We learn that her fairy tale has ended and now she has to deal with her music career having fizzled, and the truth of what occurred between her and Patrick.

This book is very intense with many heart-rending passages. It's not an easy read, I found it quite upsetting at times, but if you are looking for an involving, intelligent story about a woman coming to terms with her past and the disappointments of her life, this book is highly recommended.

I’m not quite sure what this supposed to be. Is it literary fiction about a woman exploring her past? Is it a domestic thriller? Maybe a little of both? In any case, it’s kind of slow and dry. It took me two tries to get through it. I thought the parts where she gains perspective on her adolescence and comes to understand her mother were the most interesting. But there’s just a lot of legalese about estates and wills and property ownership that were plain old boring. And once again, just like in The Ballerinas, I thought the ending was abrupt and unrealistic.

A mesmerizing, evocative look at grooming, abuse, and how it ruins lives, and how people look away. The setting and characters are compelling.