Publication Date: August 10, 2026
In love, there are second chances …
Elijah wins Paulette’s heart the moment he rescues her from the raging depths of the King’s river. He doesn’t judge her calloused palms and fingers —hardened by farm work and hand sewing or the cheap fabric sewn together to make her clothes. Elijah doesn’t see her as the lowly handmaiden in the royal palace of Pica Valley. He sees her as an equal and treats her with a gentle kindness that makes her heart swoon.
However, after the revelation of Elijah’s royal identity, a not so subtle threat from his mother and the bitter rejection of her disappointed father, Paulette runs. She runs from her childhood home, the only life she has ever known and the man that once captured her heart and mind. In an instance Paulette is left to grieve the happily-ever-after she was never promised.
Nineteen years later and a chance meeting at the King’s river brings Paulette and Elijah face to face. Neither time nor distance had erased the love between them, but painful memories and secrets still linger.
Will their love be enough to heal old wounds and rekindle what once was?
Shunned as an outcast for having a child out of wedlock, a woman receives an unexpected second chance at love.
Author Chantol C. Aspinall delivers the third installment of The Kingdom Series with Paulette’s Choice that can easily be read as a standalone.
It’s a traditional story of a love affair gone awry, with an added twist of a rich, titled man and a poor woman. Separated by fate, Paulette and Elijah have an opportunity to reconnect almost two decades later.
While the story’s premise is engaging, the mid- to late 1800s time period and setting seem out of place, especially when coupled with modern speech and interactions between characters.
Paulette’s Choice provides a short story about a second chance at love.
 
Chantol is an island girl through and through, a lover of warm weather, clear skies, and beaches. She was born in Spanish Town, Jamaica, but spent most of her childhood in Nassau, Bahamas, where her sixth-grade teacher helped her discover her hidden passion for stringing words together on a blank page. She believes her writing has purpose and meaning and strives to use her truth and learned experiences to give hope and share love with the world around her. When Chantol’s not crafting another story, she’s working full-time as a registered nurse.
