The Queen’s Dollmaker by Christine Trent Claudette Laurent, daughter of a prestigious dollmaker in Paris, loses everything to a devastating fire and must begin a new life. In a strange turn of events, she finds herself in London, first supporting herself as a lady’s maid and ultimately finding a way to use the talents her father bequeathed to her: that… Read more »
“If you marry into glass,” Pierre Labbe warned my mother, his daughter Magdaleine, in 1747, “you will say good-bye to everything familiar, and enter a closed world.” THE GLASS-BLOWERS by Daphne du Maurier “The world of the glass-blowers has its own traditions, it’s own language – and its own rules. ‘If you marry into glass’ Pierre Labbe warns his daughter,… Read more »
Author Sally Christie has answered a few questions on her last novel, The Enemies of Versailles. You can read my reviews of all three books in the trilogy at the following links: The Sisters of Versailles The Rivals of Versailles The Enemies of Versailles When you began writing this series, did you realize you’d be writing about so many women… Read more »
The Enemies of Versailles by Sally Christie The Sisters of Versailles (my review) The Rivals of Versailles (my review) The third in Sally Christie’s Versailles trilogy, The Enemies of Versailles is told by two women close to King Louis XV: his daughter, Adélaïde, and his last mistress, Madame du Barry. While The Sisters of Versailles focused on Louis’ early life… Read more »
Annette Vallon: A Novel of the French Revolution by James Tipton Set during the tumultuous French Revolution, this story revolves around a young upper-class, though untitled, lady named Annette Vallon. An unfortunate incident during her youth causes her to shy away from typical female society and helps build her character as an independent, brave woman. She meets the English poet… Read more »
Madame du Barry by Jean Plaidy This is the story of Jeanne Becu, most famously known as Madame du Barry, mistress to Louis XV of France in the last years of his reign and the most beautiful woman in France at the time. Plaidy’s du Barry is kind, good-hearted and forgiving of even her enemies, whom she tries relentlessly to… Read more »
Insatiable: A Macabre History of France ~ L’Amour Marie Antoinette by Ginger Myrick French Revolution meets Walking Dead in this alternative history mash-up by a prolific author who has explored Renaissance Iberia, Medieval Wales, 19th Century New York and the American Civil War in her previous novels: El Rey, The Welsh Healer, Work of Art, and But for the Grace… Read more »
Madame Tussaud by Michelle Moran Chronicling the famous wax figure maker’s years in France during the French Revolution, this novel gives a panoramic view of the Reign of Terror from a unique perspective. Marie Grosholtz had been primed from a young age to take over the family business–an entertainment enterprise based on life-like figures of famous and infamous people. This… Read more »
Days of Splendor, Days of Sorrow by Juliet Grey Juliet Grey, along with Amanda Elyot, is a pen name belonging to the lovely and talented Leslie Carroll—one of my favorite historical novelists. Having read seven of her books thus far, fiction and non-fiction, I much enjoy her smart writing style and her ability to write a perfectly balanced and intriguing… Read more »
Confessions of Marie Antoinette by Juliet Grey Anyone well-versed in French Revolution history will know the final four years of Marie Antoinette’s life (1789-1793) was utterly heartbreaking and miserable for the monarch and her family. Despite the anguish and despair the novel would obviously cover, I thoroughly enjoyed the first two installments – Becoming Marie Antoinette & Days of Splendor,… Read more »
Becoming Marie Antoinette by Juliet Grey The first in a trilogy, this is a rare look at Marie Antoinette’s early years, and is told in her unaffected and refreshingly naive perspective. Growing up in the Austrian court of the formidable Empress Maria Theresa, young Antonia was the spirited, though dutiful youngest daughter of a brood of sixteen. Through butterflies and… Read more »
The Lacemaker and the Princess by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley Isabelle, a lacemaker’s daughter, lives a poor and somewhat miserable life until, delivering lace to a noble at the palace, she is noticed by the queen, Marie Antoinette. It just so happened that Madame Royale, Therese, was in need of a playmate that day — and this Isabelle became, permanently. Isabelle’s… Read more »