La Semaine sainte is set in 1815, there’s war, there’s Napoleon, there’s all manner of horses and mud and soldiers. It is also 853 pages long, and I have to read all 853 of them. En français, of course. I totally heart Aragon, but after spending an hour trudging through the first five pages, having to look up every single bloody bit of military vocabulary in the dictionary, it was clearly time to take a break. A literary break. Like any good glamorous romance novel heroine, I put the scullery maid to work doing the dishes, and went here:

The Regency Romance Quiz: What kind of Romance Heroine are you?

whereupon my decolletage and I discovered:

“Lucky you—you are the Belle of the Ball. Looks, wit, charm, accomplishments and money—you have them all. You are the toast of Society, and have received offers from no fewer than three Dukes. There is no one who does not love you on sight. Sound good? It isn’t, because to compensate for these riches, the author has something very nasty indeed in store for you. I mean, she does have to write a novel here, and you can’t expect to be happy all the time. So, you have a Dark Secret. Or perhaps a Secret Love for the only man who does not appear to desire you. Or maybe you will be kidnapped, or become embroiled in a scandal, or be wagered and lost by your brother in a card game. The possibilities are endless, but you may be certain of two things: (1) You will not get through this book without some kind of scandal being attached to your name. I’m sorry, but that’s just how it is. (2) Whatever it is, he (the man of your dreams, that is) will fall in love with you, rescue you, slay your opponents, defy your detractors, marry you, and live happily ever after. This is a romance novel, after all.”