Skip to main content

Lady of The Imperial City by Laura Kitchell: A Book Review

Lady of The Imperial City
Author: Laura Kitchell
Genre: Historical Fiction
Publisher: CreateSpace
Release Date: 2015
Pages: 293
Source: Netgalley/Publisher in exchange for an honest review.
Synopsis: Love isn’t forbidden to Lady Kirei as long as it’s with a proper gentleman of Kyō and she doesn’t mind sharing him with his wife. Her provincial upbringing makes her socially unacceptable as a true wife, yet as a lady by birth and a court favorite, her position makes it impossible for her to seek a match below her station. She’s trapped. 

      When a nobleman of similar provincial upbringing arrives in town and becomes an instant favorite of the emperor, he is sent to Lady Kirei for tutoring on city ways. Lord Yūkan is smitten, but she’s not a conquest to be won. She’s a woman of substance and worth, and she’s off limits. 

      Despite his unrefined manners, Lord Yūkan’s aristocratic bloodline shows through his fine taste and quick mind. It doesn’t hurt that he’s handsome, too. As he begins to touch her heart, Lady Kirei is ever mindful that they can’t commit, especially when her uncle schemes to make her a consort to a prince. 

      Will her family’s honor relegate her to the shadow-life of a consort, or can love find a way? 

     My Review: Kirei is living with her aristocratic uncle in the city of Kyo. However, because she was born and raised in the country, she cannot have an advantageous marriage. Her most prosperous future is to be the concubine to a prince. One day, Yukan, a country relative and a distant relative to the empress, arrives in Kyo. Yet, his manners are so unrefined for the city people that he is a laughing stock. The emperor appoints Kirei to teach him the refined manners of aristocratic elite. While tutoring him, they soon fall in love. Can they find a way to be together or must Kirei resign herself to her fate as the prince’s concubine?

      Kirei is very lively. She is educated and observant in the behavior of the aristocratic society. She is feisty and headstrong. She does not want the life of what society dictates to her. She is attracted to Yukan because she can relate to his situation. He is a fish out of the water. While she laughs at him, she also feels sorry for him. Even though Yukan is often looked down upon by other members of society, he is very clever. He is hard-working and seriously strives to be a refined aristocrat. Thus, Kirei and Yukan make a good pair because both of them have a lot in common. Both of them are outsiders to society.

      Overall, this book is about friendship, love, choices, and happiness. The story is very slow-moving, but I thought it was a good character story. I liked how the relationship between Yukon and Kirei has progressed naturally and slowly. I found the author’s writing to be very beautiful. The author did a great job in describing the Japanese aristocratic society. Even though this novel was set in medieval Japan, it reminded me of Jane Austen and other Regency novels. I recommend this book to those interested Japanese history and to anyone who is looking for a light, sweet, love story that is not set in Europe.

 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Seven Sisters (The Seven Sisters #1) by Lucinda Riley: A Book Review

The Seven Sisters (The Seven Sisters #1) Author: Lucinda Riley Genre: Historical Fiction, Romance Publisher: Atria Release Date: 2015 Pages: 463 Source: My State Public Library Synopsis: Maia D’Apliese and her five sisters gather together at their childhood home, “Atlantis”—a fabulous, secluded castle situated on the shores of Lake Geneva—having been told that their beloved father, who adopted them all as babies, has died. Each of them is handed a tantalizing clue to her true heritage—a clue which takes Maia across the world to a crumbling mansion in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Once there, she begins to put together the pieces of her story and its beginnings. Eighty years earlier in Rio’s Belle Epoque of the 1920s, Izabela Bonifacio’s father has aspirations for his daughter to marry into the aristocracy. Meanwhile, architect Heitor da Silva Costa is devising plans for an enormous statue, to be called Christ the Redeemer, and will soon travel to Paris to find the right sculptor to
Post a Comment
Read more

The Magnificent Lives of Marjorie Post by Allison Pataki: A Book Review

The Magnificent Lives of Marjorie Post Author: Allison Pataki Genre: Historical Fiction Publisher: Ballantine Release Date: February 15, 2022 Pages: 381 Source: Netgalley/Publisher in exchange for an honest review. Synopsis: Mrs. Post, the President and First Lady are here to see you. . . . So begins another average evening for Marjorie Merriweather Post. Presidents have come and gone, but she has hosted them all. Growing up in the modest farmlands of Battle Creek, Michigan, Marjorie was inspired by a few simple rules: always think for yourself, never take success for granted, and work hard—even when deemed American royalty, even while covered in imperial diamonds. Marjorie had an insatiable drive to live and love and to give more than she got. From crawling through Moscow warehouses to rescue the Tsar’s treasures to outrunning the Nazis in London, from serving the homeless of the Great Depression to entertaining Roosevelts, Kennedys, and Hollywood’s biggest stars, Marjorie Merriweath
Post a Comment
Read more

A Noble Cunning: The Countess and the Tower by Patricia Bernstein: A Book Review

A Noble Cunning: The Countess and the Tower  Author: Patricia Bernstein Genre: Historical Fiction Publisher: History Through Fiction  Release Date: March 7, 2023 Pages: 266 Source: Netgalley/Publisher in exchange for an honest review. Synopsis: A Noble Cunning is a novel based on the true story of persecuted Catholic noblewoman Winifred Maxwell, who rescued her husband from the Tower of London with the help of a group of devoted women friends in 1716.             A Noble Cunning is a novel based on the life of Winifred Herbert Maxwell (1680-1749), who became the Countess of Nithsdale in 1699.     Set amidst the 1715 Rebellion against England’s first German king, George I, the novel depicts the ruthless persecution of Catholics and the relentless determination of protagonist Bethan Glentaggart to save the life of husband Gavin after he is captured and condemned to death. Bethan faces down a mob attack on her home, travels alone from the Scottish Lowlands to London through one of the wo
Post a Comment
Read more