This is dark book with some tough themes which would make a great book club pick. Saskia is a grown-up piano prodigy who expects to inherit her long-held family estate in Milwaukee and is surprised to find that her mother has left the estate to a university to be used by art students. The house will be in the hands of a man from Saskia's past that she has a complicated history with. The book explores some dark, complicated issues which evoke strong feelings. Equally, each chapter begins with a snippet from one of Saskia's mother's feminist fairy tale retellings, and some of these are quite interesting and thought-provoking as well.

First off I would like to thank NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for providing me with this ARC. The description comparing this story to My Dark Vanessa and The Queen’s Gambit was precise. This book was fierce. I read the blurb and thought I knew what to expect but I was obviously wrong. Piano prodigy Saskia Kreis returns home to Milwaukee in 2020 when her mother dies. She assumes that she will inherit the family estate, but when the will hands down the house to someone else, Saskia has to examine her past while keeping secrets buried. This book was incredibly well-written and she was able to interweave the past and present with tremendous style. It has the perfect mix of tension and drama and will captivate you from the beginning. This book will definitely be up for a book club discussion. You’ll just have to see for yourself!

I'd like to thank the publisher and NetGalley for allowing me a chance at trying to read this book.

I honestly did not like what I read of this book. It was like the author was attempting to speak high brow to me. As much as the book is about trying to take down the mentor / abuser, he is in it very little and there isn't much for me to feel outraged and upset as I should be.

I did not read the other author's work so I came into this one quite blind.

I don't think the author is for me and that's a shame because the synopsis seemed quite good.

This book was intense! I read the blurb and thought I knew what to expect but I didn’t. There are plot twists and turns on every page! This book was really well written. It hops back forth in time between child Saskia and current day Saskia. The setting is a giant old family estate that has been handed down from generation to generation. It covers a lot of deep family issues (the secrets!) and gives insight into the life of a child prodigy. The ending was completely unexpected. I think my favourite part was the little blurbs from “feminist fairytales” that Saskia’s mom wrote. They start off each chapter. Overall a great book!

What’s Going On?

Following the sudden death of her mom, Saskia returns to her hometown and finds herself caught in estate/inheritance complications. The house that has been bequeathed to her family for over five generations is now in the hands of an outsider, Patrick. And Saskia has a history, shall we say, with Patrick. Shocked and confused, Saskia and her father believe there must be something off about this whole arrangement. As Saskia ventures to find the truth, she confronts her prodigious past (and its fizzling out) and explores her relationship with her mother.


What Works?

-The prodigy premise was so fascinating. The idea always enthralled me, and gosh how I related to it. Burnt out gifted kid, also the state of being a woman. But we’ll get into that later.

-On a related note, it made for great one-liners like “her personal history is one of almosts” and cutting passages like “And isn’t there’s something in that word, ingenue, that makes you want to claw at his skin? The erasing of everything else you were into a stock character, an archetype. The removal of individuality, uniqueness, of everything that made you special. Doesn’t it hurt?”

-Fairytales for little feminists. A lot of them were cringy, but, y’know, better than the original. A bit too commercial feminism but maybe that’s the point. They were there to disrupt the dominant cultural narratives, and that’s what they did. They’d do well accompanying children’s exposure to mainstream media because they’re very direct.

-Liked the Persephone & Demeter resolution.

-Loved the ending.

-Presented convoluted themes simply on the surface, more underneath once you look. Left me with reflection material.

-We got to analyze the dual developments of her relationship with her mother and her relationship with her groomer. Intricately intertwined! We saw how her distance from her mother’s love primed her for a spot in Patrick’s series. Yet, it’s her mother’s love that drove her throughout the novel. At its weakest, it overpowered his strength. I appreciate the depth of these relations.

-The theme of age in our society — yes!!! Fitting title for this ingenue exploration. She grows too old for Patrick; she grows too old to be a child prodigy. It’s this whole idea of women and time — the harsh feel of time, the constant ticking that only women are exposed to. Those are the major pressings of time thematically speaking, but we also see it elsewhere — primarily in the main plot (racing against time to save her family’s legacy), inherently in the background (her mom ran out of time). The whole theme (and as a whole, topic) of time enlivens me, argh I can talk about it on and on and on and on.


What Needs Work?

-Choppy flow in the first half, could’ve gone smoother. You didn’t know what direction the book was going to go in, but in a confused-organizational way, not a suspenseful-intentional way. Second half went way better.

-More exploration on being a “failed” child prodigy at the beginning — had soooo much potential to show how her life changed now, how her frameworks and orientation for living were. Second half explored more, though.

-The mystery surrounding the house’s inheritance wasnt all that intriguing. Their hypothetical explanation ended up being the correct one, so it dipped into redundancy. Neither did I feel the stakes — I knew there was some big past with Patrick (and could guess what it was), but there was no emotional build up. Saskia also went to bat in contending the will only to lose all the intensity when confronting him; the intention may have been to show Patrick’s influence over her, but it discredited the entire angle. Granted, the scene meant to function as a stepping stone, but we lost the little mysteries in the grander mystery.

-On the subject of Patrick, we needed more of the “good guy” story in the first third of the book, the story Saskia had been telling herself all those years. It would’ve made her muddling through the gray area and the ultimate shift more effective.

-A solid back-and-forth riposte lacking in Saskia and Patrick’s early confrontations.

-The plot point of why Saskia quit piano was a missed opportunity. The mystery enshrouding it could have been built up, us wondering why did she give it all up? The grand reveal would have then been more impactful and given more credence to the issue’s complexity.


Who Should Read This?

Those wanting an interesting take on mother-daughter relations. Grooming readers. People enthralled by the theme of time.

THE INGENUE, by Rachel Kapelke-Dale, is a dark novel with intriguing subject matter. The writing is smooth, and the plot and structure of the book are interesting. The author blends a mystery with fairy tales in an engaging narrative that follows the journey that Saskia takes into accepting her past trauma and moving beyond the role of victim. The characters are fully developed with their pasts woven into the present narrative of the story. There is layer upon layer of secrecy, but karma sorts out everyone’s deeds and delivers a dish that the guilty deserves. For the first half of the book, I wasn’t taken with the story, but I am so glad that I kept reading. Between the lines, the reader finds a deeply running theme of a mother’s choice, her sacrifice, that she willingly gives to set her daughter free. What a great book this would be for a book club.

Predictable: no. Clever and entertaining: yes.

Saskia returns to her childhood home or rather mansion in Milwaukee for her mother’s funeral. She was always told that this property with multiple bedrooms, bathrooms, towers, gardens and beautiful art on the walls would someday be hers to keep in the ancestry line. But Saskia gets a shock when she learns her mother, Evie, made other plans. When her will is presented to Saskia and her father, Mike, it states that the $2.9 million dollar property is to be left to a development officer at the university to be used by art students. This changes everything. Since the late 1800s, there were five generations of women at the Harper house. Saskia wasn’t going to let it go without a fight. She quickly made her way to the attorney’s office to challenge her mother’s wishes.

I couldn’t flip the pages fast enough to find out what was going to happen next. Why would her mother, without any discussion even to her husband, pass along the mansion that has always been in the family to someone else? Saskia learns that the Patrick is the one that will benefit from the will. He was Saskia’s secret love affair during her teenage years and later broke her heart when he ended their relationship at 18 years old. She needed to see him.

There is so much going on in this book that it can tangle up the wires in your brain while reading. You can easily imagine which characters you like and which are less desirable. The reader gets immersed in the family of musicians, artists and writers. Saskia goes to her mother’s studio and looks at the 26 books she wrote about fairy tales. She noted that the “books don’t contain universal truths so much as they contain an alternate universe” encouraging others to be adventurous, and the best that you can.

I loved this book. It was captivating from the beginning and with all the multiple faucets, it all came together at the end – well, that’s the only part I didn’t like. I would have wanted something different. Yet, I found it to be very creative with lots of suspense and much to think about.

My thanks to Rachel Kapelke-Dale, St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for allowing me to read an advanced copy with an expected release date of December 6, 2022.

what a great book that talks about consent and what happens when one falls in love with a older man. I loved the different times and back to present time. I loved her dad and meeting josh. I loved how music was a part of the story and how she finally made peace and found others like her. He was such a creep. Loved the fairy tales stories with a twist.

Thank you to St Martin Press and NetGalley for allowing me to read and review the digital ARC of The Ingenue

Unfortunately this book didn’t grab me like I thought it would, and overall it was kind of hard to follow for me with the two time changes. The book had a great premise but I felt like the story fell flat. I think the most interesting thing about this whole book was the snippets at the beginning of the chapters with the feminist fairy tales

And here I thought The Ballerinas was phenomenal!
The Ingenue by Rachel Kapelke-Dale is astounding!

Very cleverly woven together, this is a deep character-driven story.
The writing is excellent and pleasantly paced, the characters are in-depth and true to life. 
Saskia's journey is an inspiring one. Her growth was amazing and I truly enjoyed reading her story.
The words in this book are beautifully written.
I was fully absorbed and honestly wish I could un-read just to read again for the first time.
I adored the flowing writing, the setting, and the beautiful language.
The Ingenue comes roaring, it is a stunner of a novel, with electric prose.. desire and longing.
I tore through this unforgettable read.. And will highly recommend this novel!

I ultimately fell in love with this stunning cover and can't wait for release day to have it sitting on my shelf.
I tried to wait and read closer to pub date which is expected to release on 12|6, but couldn't wait any longer.
I now have a favorite author to add to my list.
Rachel is absolutely killing it in the writing world.

I felt honored to pre-read it.
 
“I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.”

St. Martin's Press,
Thank You for your generosity and gifting me a copy of this amazing eARC!
I will post my review to my platforms, blog, B&N and Waterstone closer to pub date.

I enjoyed the last two thirds of this book enough to make up for the difficulty in getting through the first third. There was a bit too much about the financial logistics of inheriting a large house, with actual facts and figures, which some folks might enjoy but it made my eyes glaze over a bit. I wanted more descriptions of the actual house because it felt like it should be more of a character on its own. The most enjoyable part of the book was the little pieces of "Fairy Tales for Little Feminists" that introduced each chapter, and I liked some of the ways the entire story played with that theme. I wanted more of that and less about estate law. I also wanted to get to know some of the secondary characters more (Saskia's childhood friend Lexi, her adult friend Gina, etc) instead of being in Saskia's head at all times. I was surprised and slightly challenged by the way Saskia realized something important about her past. I wanted to reject the way she made the realization, but I think it's important to understand that the experience is different for everyone and when I viewed it through that lens it made the book come together for me in a more interesting way. As a pianist myself, I would have gobbled up more about that aspect of the book, but it (rightly) took a supporting role in the main theme.

Overall I really enjoyed this book! At first I wasn’t sure where the story was going to take me but towards the middle, it became more clear and then I couldn’t wait to see how it was going to end. I appreciated the remix of the fairy tales and how those themes were woven throughout the book and paralleled Saskia’s journey to growth and her new identity. I also loved Saskia’s relationship with her father. The structure of each chapter was well written beginning with the last and ending with the present each time and the epilogue was one of my favorites that I have ever read!

I was provided a free ARC of The Ingenue by Rachel Kapelke-Dave by St Martin's Press via NetGalley in return for my honest review of this book. Any opinions stated in this review are mine completely and are not influenced by outside sources.

Unfortunately this book didn’t grab me like I thought it would, and overall it was kind of hard to follow for me. I think I enjoyed the premise of this book more than I enjoyed the book itself which is unfortunate because I was very excited to get early access to this book. I think the most interesting thing about this whole book was the snippets at the beginning of the chapters with the feminist fairy tales.

The book has a very spooky, ethereal feel that I enjoyed, and the prose was delightful. It didn’t grab me how I hoped, however, but I think that’s more my mood than the book itself.

I can not recommend this book enough! Was absolutely one of the best books I’ve read this year. I plan to purchase this book for friends and family. Thank you to publisher and author for this wonderful read.

Super dark book but I did enjoy it. While it’s not my preferred genre, I thought it was well written with an interesting cast of characters. Thanks to NetGalley for the copy.

This ARC was provided to me via Kindle, St. Martin’s Press and by #NetGalley. Opinions expressed are completely my own.

It was okay it just didn’t grab me.

I loved The Ballerinas and was excited to read the arc provided by NetGalley. This is my honest review.

The description saying this was a cross between My Dark Vanessa and The Queen’s Gambit was spot on. The novel is dark and the subject matter is heavy. The writing and pacing of the story were superb. The princess stories were wonderful. My favorite was the princess from Beauty and the Beast. Along with complicated family dynamics, a prodigy and a “me too” story, there is so much here to discuss. This would be an excellent book club pick. The ending alone will spark some heated discussions! Yes, I know exactly what I did there!

I liked the feminist fairy tales and the ending. The Elf House felt gothic and magical. At times though it seemed to drag on, maybe because of the way it would jump back and forth in time.

Kindly received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Oh my gosh I loved this one! I fell in love with both the characters and the storyline, and I look forward to adding a physical copy to my library very soon!