This book was surprisingly sluggish and repetitive despite coming in under 200 pages, an unfortunate mismatch with its promise of adventure. There was little of the intrigue or suspense I’d expect from a novel centered on the lost dauphin. The narrative never builds tension or stakes, and any potentially compelling developments are flattened by the dry, monotonous tone. The characters are difficult to connect with. The setting, which initially intrigued me as a current Montreal resident, is disappointingly underexplored. There's little atmosphere or historical detail to immerse the reader in the era or city, and the book does little to distinguish itself from other fictional takes on this well-worn historical jumping-off point. This book is forgettable. There’s no life in the storytelling, and it felt like a chore to finish. I rarely say this, but I wish I had put it down sooner. Skip this one, there are far better ways to spend an afternoon.

Thanks to NetGalley and Lodestone Books for the opportunity to read this book.

Heart in a glass.
This novel tells an imagined story of Louis-Charles, dauphin of France in a had he escaped, reminiscent of Grand Duchess Anastasia survival stories. There is a bit of history about the ill fated prince woven into the story which is always nice in historical books. However, I never felt like I knew any of the characters. It also felt like I was reading two stories at once. Some of the book is in first person from Louis’s point of view and others parts are told in third focusing on the men of the ship that carried him. These could have been two separate books. Louis-Charles’s voice also did not sound like that of a fifteen year old boy. I believe this novel would most interest those who like French and Canadian history and ‘what-if’ stories. It is clear a lot of research went into making this story.

I wanted to like this book better -- it is written with pleasant clarity and the author has done a lot of research. The premise is also intriguing.

However, the book never really gets off the ground in terms of tension. I didn't feel any interest in the developing relationship between the leads, the protagonist's quest to make something of himself felt unimportant, and there were a lot of side plots for such a short book. I never felt like I got to know the characters properly. The end didn't resolve anything; it felt like it ended half way through?

There was also a strange fixation on how noticeably aristocratic the protagonist was, and how it made him 'better': the plot tried to correct that with a democratic message, but it didn't take away from the constant insistence that he was different and better than the people around him because of his background.