He's a What?!

I read romance novels. But it's not what you're thinking - with the sappy love stories and Fabio on the cover...I actually draw the line at Fabio. I read historical romances set in England or Scotland - with a timeframe of Regency or Victorian era. I usually don't stray from this criteria. I think I've read over 200 books in the past 1.5 years. It really has gotten me through some down times in my life and I've even started collecting some that have become my favorites.

Usually, the stories go like this - handsome rake has reached the age where he needs to find a wife and create an heir (because all these people are gentry). Handsome rake finds strong willed and proper lady that succumbs to his charms and they fall in love eventhough rake really only wanted to do his "duty" and never give his heart. OR there's the beautiful lady with the scandalous past and the handsome rake with the scandalous past and they decide to freak everyone out by getting together but end up falling in love...blah blah blah - you know how it goes. But I'm a sucker for it...and for beautiful people because I won't lie - I do look at the picture in the book and if they're good looking and the story on the back cover looks interesting, I'll take it! I'm also proud to say that I've become one of the top customers of the Fairfax County Library system - I would be broke if I purchased every book I read - so I use the library system to get my fix.

Anyways - I recently purchased a couple of books and got around to reading them. This one in particular had a back cover summary about how the most handsome man in all of England swoops down to sweep a non-beauty off her feet...and she falls instantly in love with him but has doubts about why he only has eyes for her. As for the hero, he is not what he seems but once he reveals his truth to the lady, she realizes that their love can survive.

My first thought was - oh, he's probably a spy because apparently spies were quite the thing in the early 1800s. I've read plenty of books with spies so that wouldn't be too surprising for me. So I start reading the book expecting by the first couple of chapters, I will know that he is indeed a spy. But no...in the first four chapters, it was all from the lady's perspective so I really could not confirm what this guy's secret was. It wasn't until 3/5 of the way did you get an inkling that something "not quite right" was going to happen.

The hero's sister pretty much goads the heroine into finding out the secrets he's been hiding and possibly ruin their relationship. But when the sister finds out that the heroine is with child, she kind of does an about face, and tries to get with the heroine's brother in hopes that she can also become pregnant. Why the hubbub with getting pregnant? Well, here is it. The hero is actually a fairy. I'm not saying fairy like he's a homosexual (they were called dandies in those days)....he's a folklore fairy person -but he doesn't have wings and he can't fly but the life span of his people are about 500-600 years (give or take a 100) and they can exist in our world but they have to go to their world every six months (which apparently you get to through a long cave) to 'rejuvenate' or else they will eventually age and die out like the rest of us. He's a FAIRY! He didn't look like a fairy on the cover.

His mission was to procreate because his species were dying out and he needed to create a baby that was part of "his people" in order to carry out the legacy of the fairies. And that is why the sister wanted to get pregnant with the heroine's brother - because she could also help the fairy race. And so of course upon learning the truth that her husband was really a fairy, was already 300 years old and had three wives already with no kids, she didn't know if she could go on with him, even though she was already carrying his child. And she learns that she was targeted by him in particular because of her genealogy...apparently, on her mother's side (who is conveniently deceased in the book) they were of the same fairy/elf clan but the heroine never really knew. So in fact, she is like 1/4-1/2 fairy. But the thing is, for the hero, out of all his wives and in his 300 years of life, he had never felt love or knew what love was and just like that, he became like Foreigner and wanted to know what love is - so instead of going to his realm and rejuvenating, he decided that he was going to sacrifice his life, all in the name of love, and live out the rest of his years with his current wife (whom he loves) and raise their child and let the child decide if he wanted to stay in the human world or go to the fairy world, where everyone was beautiful and happy (FYI).

At the end of the epilogue (I really do like epilogues), I huffed, closed the book, and pretty much wanted to throw it across the room. But instead, I turned out the lights and woke my husband up and told him the nonsense I just read through - he was a FAIRY! Since when do fairies exist in Victorian England? I have been so careful in what I read - England, Scotland, Highlanders, Spies, etc - I try to avoid vampires, time travel, and other countries. I will say this though - I didn't see that coming.