Kay's Bookshelf

The book started out a bit too romance-y for my taste, making me worry a bit about it being just another bodice ripper. And yet very soon the characters started to develop and to show me their facets, and I fell in love with them all. Ariane, the woman with quiet eyes, has all the qualities necessary to the good leader she tries to be, trying to follow in her mother’s footsteps yet struggling to live up to the expectations of her title. Renard (whose name means “fox” in French) is the typical romance male (he has a title, he’s a skilled warrior but he’s never afraid to show his gentle side, he’s physically attractive and oh so predictably well endowed), and yet he didn’t read like a cliche, on the contrary, both he and Ariane manage to come to life from the page. Everything turned out to be a far cry from what I worried that the book would be after the first chapter, and I was happy about it, of course. :)

A lot of pages are dedicated to Ariane’s two sisters, Gabrielle and Miribelle, setting the scene for the next two books (each featuring one of them as a main character). They are both well developed characters, and I loved reading about them and their “adventures” of their own. So far my favorite of the two is Gabby, the impetuous one who used to be an incredible painter until she lost her magic in the arms of a man. She tries to harden her heart as her main ambition now is to become a courtesan (the book about her is named “The Courtesan” too), but underneath it all she is still a kind, brave girl, wanting to be loved. Miribelle is as yet a child, elf-like and a protector of all living creatures, understanding their language and taking care of any wounded creature she comes across. She also has premonitory dreams, and on the whole, although I did like Gabrielle more, it’s Miri that I am most curious about, how she will turn out to be when she grows up and how her own love story will develop. Especially as we already get to know her (possible) future beloved in this book, and at the end they part on less than friendly terms, to say the least.

What I liked most: The way the book deals with historical truth. Sure, this is a fantasy and as such there are some liberties taken (especially when it comes to Catherine de Medici, the title character). However I very much liked the fact that all the important moments in the story, history-wise, have actually happened. For example, Catherine’s Escadron Volant has actually existed, and so did the suspicions over Jeanne d’Albret‘s death as being due to a pair of gloves poisoned by Catherine. Not to mention, of course, the night of St. Bartholomew‘s Eve. The author has taken the known events of the time and has imagined some motivations for them, fantastic ones, with magic involved, but she did this as smoothly as possible, and I loved that.

Also, Miri’s pony is named Butternut :)

What I liked least: A minor qualm only: one of the abilities of a witch is reading someone else’s thoughts in their eyes. While a plausible enough idea (eyes being the mirror of the soul and so on), at times the technique was used for finding out specific dates and names, which was for me a bit harder to believe. A very minor thing, I know, especially as an author’s universe is her own and anything she says can be done simply can.

Recommend it to? Anyone who enjoys a good Historical Fiction/Romance book. It’s a light and entertaining read :)

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