A Wife for the Blacksmith by Viola Grey
18+ Contains Adult Content
Grace is living in misery, married to John, who treats her with zero respect, who hurts her and goes out gambling away all their money. One day, John gets himself into deep trouble, deep enough that he needs to flee the village. He grabs Grace, telling her to pack, but Grace has an idea. She tells John to sell her, auction her off in the town square. Which is exactly what John does, not knowing that the village blacksmith Gerald has been harbouring a longing for Grace for quite some time. Gerald is silent, grouchy and gruff, but when he sees Grace being auctioned, he steps up and pays a substantial amount of money for her to be his. Now Gerald can show Grace how she is meant to be treated; he can shower her with love and hope she will love him back.
Wife selling was an archaic practice, she knew, more suited to those wanting a cheap divorce or a convenient end to a disastrous match.
⚫️Historical Romance ⚫️Smutty ⚫️Short Story
I still have a few prompts to check off my 52-book checklist, and we are coming close to the end of the year. One of the prompts was to read a historical fiction, which is a genre I don’t read. So I did a quick Google search for a historical romance novella and saw on Reddit that Viola Grey was recommended. I saw this book was 66 days and thought, yup, I can sit through reading 66 pages. I didn’t think I would like historical fiction, so I didn’t want to commit to a full novel.
The book quite obviously moved at a fast pace since it is only 66 pages. Her relationship with Gerald moves obviously fast, and by day 4 or so, they say they love each other. Now, if this were a longer book, I’d be like dude too fast, but it’s a short story that is meant to be short, sweet and spicy, and that is exactly what it was.
She was the one who paid the price for his recklessness
I didn’t feel much way about either character, to be honest. John was obviously an arse, Gerald seemed like a cinnamon roll with Grace, but grumpy with everyone else. Grace, the poor love, had lived a hard life with John, and I was happy to see her getting the love and care she deserved with Gerald.
You want that, Grace? You want me to breed you, fill you up?
The book was set in the 1700s. I don’t know much about the time period, but I pictured a setting similar to that in a Knight’s Tale. The writing was okay, a good palette cleanser I would say.
My overall thoughts.
Would I read this book again? No
Would I recommend this book? Yeah, even if you don’t like historical fiction. If you want a short, smutty read then this book gives you that.
⭐️⭐️⭐️.5/5
🌶️🌶️🌶️/5
