The Reluctant Heiress


Tessa is secretly Princess Theresa-Maria of Pfaffenstein. She is an unusual princess who wishes to escape life of royals and escape into the life of theater. Guy is an orphan who wishes to become rich and powerful in order to impress his love and be able to provide her dreams. Many complications arise when these two dreamers meet at Pfaffenstein. The novel “The Reluctant Heiress” is romantic historical fiction that tells the story of social society, unrequited love, and ignorance.

This story is full of people trying to escape their social status. Tessa wishes to escape the duties of royalty, while Guy’s fiancé, Nerine is blinded by the riches and power of high social status. Nerine insists that she only talk to people with a respectable rank in the social society because she believes that poor people are below her. Nerine wants riches and gladly accept the riches Guy gives her and yet she still wants more. The world is filled with people who are unhappy with who they are. There’s a famous quote that says, “The grass is greener on the other side.” But once you get there it might not always be as green as they say.

There are also many people faced with the problem of unrequited love, but once you find your true love there is nothing else you can do accept what good for them. This is exactly what Tessa does. Even though it is hard for her, she accepts the fact that Guys is in love with someone else. This is heartbreaking, but she continues to reach for her life in theater. Guy has also faced unrequited love. This happened when he was still and college and first met Nerine. Nerine refused to receive Guy’s love because he was a poor orphan. This, furthermore pushed Guy to reach his goal of beingrich and powerful.

Nerine is also ignorance personified. She is obsessed with the image of being rich, powerful, and beautiful that she cannot truly see Guy’s love and give love in return. Instead she thinks love is rewarding people by showing them her beauty. So to thank Guy for his many gifts she dresses up in lavish gowns and fixes her hair. Nerine is also very prejudice against people who do not have a high social standing because she thinks that if she converses with people below her other people of high rank will look down on her.

Many people witness Nerine’s bad personality, but they also the love developing Tessa and Guy. Unfortunately Guy and Tessa do not realize this themselves. As the story continues more and more complications develop that teach these characters about social standing, unrequited love, and ignorance.