LILAH'S LIMIT

A disfigured man is drawn to a woman working under duress in a New Orleans bordello in Smith’s post–Civil War dark romance novel.

Philippe Renault, who has “an ultra-thin, round, black leather patch that lay flat and flush over the apple of his left cheek,” is being shown his options in a New Orleans bordello circa 1870. He spots a dark-haired beauty seemingly about to pitch herself down the stairs. The madam warns him that this woman, named Lilah, is “very disagreeable.” Undeterred, Renault requests Lilah, with whom he feels an affinity since she has the “same vanquished, hopeless look” that he had during the time when he was kidnapped by Romani people and made to perform as a circus freak due to his congenitally scarred face. Renault takes Lilah home to his nearby manor. When Lilah has a traumatic response to his rose petal–strewn bed, he refrains from pursuing a sexual encounter. Renault and Lilah (or Diana, as he later comes to know her) intellectually connect over books in his library. The novel proceeds to detail Lilah and Renault’s growing mutual attraction and the eventual revelations of Lilah’s dark secrets. After a physical consummation of their love, Renault realizes that “It wouldn’t surprise him if the next time he looked in the mirror, he saw Diana’s face instead of his own.” Attempting to save Lilah/Diana from her miserable circumstances, Renault takes actions that, in his mind, mark him as forever damned. The author has crafted an atmospheric, intense amalgam of The Phantom of the Opera and Beauty and the Beast. Smith gracefully handles the alternating mood and tone required for the masked Renault and Lilah to bond over books as well as engage in carnality. While Smith has the couple endure travails that are at times unbelievably nightmarish, these elements are also typical of the dark romance genre, and the back-to-earth conclusion is a particularly satisfying relief and catharsis after the drama and angst that preceded it. 

A satisfying, Gothic-flavored rescue fantasy.