Description:
A sumptuous and sensual tale of power, romance, family, and betrayal centered around four sisters and one King. Carefully researched and ornately detailed, The Sisters of Versailles is the first book in an exciting new historical fiction trilogy about King Louis XV, France’s most “well-beloved” monarch, and the women who shared his heart and his bed.
Goodness, but sisters are a thing to fear.
Set against the lavish backdrop of the French Court in the early years of the 18th century, The Sisters of Versailles is the extraordinary tale of the five Nesle sisters—Louise, Pauline, Diane, Hortense, and Marie-Anne—four of whom became mistresses to King Louis XV. Their scandalous story is stranger than fiction but true in every shocking, amusing, and heartbreaking detail.
Court intriguers are beginning to sense that young King Louis XV, after seven years of marriage, is tiring of his Polish wife. The race is on to find a mistress for the royal bed as various factions put their best foot—and women—forward. The King’s scheming ministers push Louise, the eldest of the aristocratic Nesle sisters, into the arms of the King. Over the following decade, the four sisters—sweet, naïve Louise; ambitious Pauline; complacent Diane, and cunning Marie Anne—will conspire, betray, suffer, and triumph in a desperate fight for both love and power.
In the tradition of The Other Boleyn Girl, The Sisters of Versailles is a clever, intelligent, and absorbing novel that historical fiction fans will devour. Based on meticulous research on a group of women never before written about in English, Sally Christie’s stunning debut is a complex exploration of power and sisterhood—of the admiration, competition, and even hatred that can coexist within a family when the stakes are high enough.
MY TAKE:
5+++ STARS
432 pages
NEW RELEASE!
Release Date: September 2nd, 2015
Publisher: Atria
With this book, I dove right in and started reading like crazy! I was LOVING this book! The characters, (in the beginning of this book it starts out with Hortense talking, the only sister who did not want to become a Mistress to King Louis XV) seemed to be jumping off the page at me and they all were really wanting to talk! I couldn’t even keep up reading! I was really enjoying this book, and loved this entire book!
Prior to starting a large series like this one will be, I do generally go to the back of the book and I look to see if there are any letters or notes written for the Reader from the Author, such as about the book, the characters, maybe information about something the author has taken liberty on from history, etc. Sometimes you can learn a LOT about a book when doing that, and I found the information the author left us in this book IS vital. Yep! There it was! The author wrote us a letter full of information. I'm so glad she did. She explained there is not a lot of information from this era. She even says what she did find was "stranger than fiction but all too true." I love how honest this author is with us about these sisters and the King. (This letter did not have any spoilers in it at all, and they generally do not. It's usually very interesting information about the story, and that's exactly what this one was like.)
The author also explained she was originally going to write this book as a Non-Fiction, but could not because of such little information to be able to do so, but she went on to describe that the characters seemed to come alive, they just started jumping out at this author, and at myself! I loved them! The author HAD to write this in the Fiction genre, and I am really glad she did!
This entire book is pretty much told in alternating letters back and forth between all five of the sisters, yes, including Hortense, even though she was not part of the King Louis’ mistresses. I really fell for these sisters and really enjoyed reading everything they had to say in their letters to each other and in person when they were able, both good and bad, and boy, oh boy! They sure could be snippy to each other! Wow! (Immature, very much so!) The sisters are young, but you have to remember that back then people never lived as long as we do today. By the time you were a teenager/young adult, you already had several children, and you lived a LOT of life already, if not the entire half of it by then.
This book is FULL of things you could choose to review, heck, you could even focus on King Louis and how ALL he seemed to want were things that pleasured him, be it sex or any other pleasurable things - FOOD! He is the King, after all! I have chosen, as you can see, the sisters to discuss because they have not had a chance in history to tell the[ir story yet, even if it is Fiction! I've already touched lightly on their relationships. Their characters just jumped off the pages for me (oh! sorry! I did say that! This author is extremely talented with that!) All the sisters pretty much got to experience all life had to offer, and each of them went after what they really wanted out of life.I believe this book would appeal to anyone who enjoys Historical Fiction. Amazon usually always has a "sample" you can try out by reading it on your ereader or ereader APP! Enjoy! I'm pretty sure you will like this if you try it out! Hey! NO ONE gets beheaded in with this King!
I want to thank Atria, again, for giving me the opportunity to read and review this book in exchange for an honest opinion! Thank you!!
About the Author:
Sally Christie
Goodreads Author
url
born
Born in England, currently living in Canada
gender
female
website
genre
member since
April 2015
About this author
The Sisters of Versailles is my first novel, though I’ve been writing since I could hold a pencil. When I’m not writing I’m reading, reading, reading; disappearing down various rabbit holes of historical research, and playing lots of tennis.
The next two books in the series are:
Book #2
The Rivals of Versailles (The Mistresses of Versailles Trilogy #2) 384 pages - Expected publication: April 5th, 2016
Book #3
The Rivals of Versailles (The Mistresses of Versailles Trilogy #2) No other information available for this book yet.
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On the form, you will need to use the scroll bar on the right just like you do on your computer pages! You'll see it - on the right side. See the scroll bar? Just like you would on your computer!
Thanks for coming by! I wish you the BEST of luck winning this book! Any questions, please leave a comment!
GOOD LUCK!!!
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