Fairy Tale Trilogy, The Kimball Family Series by Colleen Shannon

"This Hans Christian Andersen tale is one of the most moving, to me. The Steadfast Tin Soldier stays devoted to his ballerina even to fire and death. I thought it would be interesting to convert that steadfastness to an unexpected place--high Regency society. A wealthy earl falls in love with the ultimate misalliance, Chantal. She's a penniless French ballerina. His stern mother does everything within her considerable power to stop the match when she learns he intends to marry the girl... more"This Hans Christian Andersen tale is one of the most moving, to me. The Steadfast Tin Soldier stays devoted to his ballerina even to fire and death. I thought it would be interesting to convert that steadfastness to an unexpected place--high Regency society. A wealthy earl falls in love with the ultimate misalliance, Chantal. She's a penniless French ballerina. His stern mother does everything within her considerable power to stop the match when she learns he intends to marry the girl. She's successful for many years, totally unaware that in banishing Chantal, she's banishing her own grandson. Telling neither of them she's with child, Chantal flees to the continent to become a world class, celebrated ballerina. When she meets the earl again years later, she pretends not to know him. To protect herself, yes, because she never quit loving him, but most of all, to protect the son he doesn't realize exists. As is customary with me, I love to create powerful secondary characters, and Chantal herself isn't aware she has a formidable ally--her own real father, one of the wealthiest men in England, whom never never knew." less

“Based on the Frog Prince fairy tale, this story of two mismatched characters, an ice princess and a Frenchman (or in British parlance, any Frenchman is a Frog) who is the unacknowledged son of Sir Cecil Rhodes, the famous British explorer and exploiter of Africa, African diamonds in particular because he started the de Beers company. He also endowed the famous Rhodes Scholarship named for him. So I decided to use as fodder for this tale one of my other interests, jewelry design... more“Based on the Frog Prince fairy tale, this story of two mismatched characters, an ice princess and a Frenchman (or in British parlance, any Frenchman is a Frog) who is the unacknowledged son of Sir Cecil Rhodes, the famous British explorer and exploiter of Africa, African diamonds in particular because he started the de Beers company. He also endowed the famous Rhodes Scholarship named for him. So I decided to use as fodder for this tale one of my other interests, jewelry design. I made the heroine heiress to a famous jewelry studio somewhat like Tiffany’s today, and she has the jeweled book passed down from Kimball to Kimball as her inspiration. However, she claims she’ll never wed and has a distaste for men. Devlin literally climbs into her life through a window because he’s out to steal her jewels. It was fun trying to sustain romantic conflict without him being able to kiss her, because he will transform in her eyes when he kisses her. Cecil Rhodes appears briefly." ” less