A Reading Life (19)

I can't believe it has been a month since I posted A Reading Life! I've had so much going on, I just felt too exhausted every Monday for some reason.

Listening To:  Still Anna Dressed in Blood.  The kids are on Fall break right now so I haven't been doing much driving since I work from home. I'm also listening to Dracula on my computer while I work.

Books finished in the past few weeks:
The Shogun's Daughter, Laura Joh Rowland  (review)
The Princess Diana Conspiracy, Alan Power (review)
Confessions of Marie Antoinette, Juliet Grey (review)
The Arrow Chest, Robert Parry (not yet reviewed)
Cloud Atlas, David Mitchell (not yet reviewed)

Reading: 
City of Bones, Cassandra Clare
Joyland, Stephen King (TuesBookTalk)
The Historian, Elizabeth Kostova (read-a-long)
Northanger Abbey, Jane Austen (read-a-long)
Under the Dome, Stephen King (still)
Write-a-Thon, Rochelle Melander

Coming Up:  
Stoker's Manuscript, Royce Prouty
This House is Haunted, John Boyne
The Signature of All Things, Elizabeth Gilbert
Colossus, David Blixt
The Curse Giver, Dora Machado

Watching: The Walking Dead!!! It's back. What an excellent first episode. This is going to be a great season. I also really enjoyed Once Upon a Time in Wonderland. Seems promising. Thrilled that Supernatural is back and American Horror Story: Coven looks to be the best season yet. What really surprised me is Witches of East End on Lifetime. I'm not usually much on Lifetime series, but this one is great! I can't get enough of witches and I'm certainly getting my fill this Fall! On the movie front, I saw the excellent The Way, Way Back over the weekend. It was phenomenal. I highly recommend it. Also, watched a thriller on Netflix called 6 Souls which starred Julianne Moore and Jonathan Rhys Meyers. It was a good one and Rhys Meyers was excellent in it. It really had some creepy moments, that's for sure.

Making:  I'm still cooking every night, of course. Two growing boys and all. This week, I'm making Slow Cooker Chicken and Noodles, Cheesy Sausage Casserole, Ramen Noodle & Beef Skillet, and Chicken Salad Casserole. Most of these are pretty healthy because they have some form of veggies in them. Got to get those veggies into those boys of mine!

Grateful for: my boys being back home safe with me. They were with their dad for the past week in Gulf Shores. They've never been away from me for that long so I really missed them. They had a great time. Here's a pic of them enjoying themselves on the beach.

Looking forward to:  my birthday tomorrow! I'll be 45 years young. ;O) The boys and I are spending the whole day together (I'm off work) and then we're going out to eat with my mom and my dad and his girlfriend for my birthday dinner. I'm blessed.  

Picture: Library sale haul!

Halloween, Marie-Laure Mantoux

Pillar of the Sky, Cecelia Holland

The Secret Life of Emily Dickinson, Jerome Charyn

The Abstinence Teacher, Tom Perrotta

The Halloween Handbook, Ed Morrow

The Forsyte Saga, John Galsworthy

Alphabet of Thorn, Patricia A. McKillip

What's going on in your reading life?

Isabella: Braveheart of France by Colin Falconer: Guest Post and {Giveaway}

Please welcome Colin Falconer in celebration of the release of his new novel, Isabella: Braveheart of France. 

ISABELLA: SHE WOLF OR CREAM PUFF?

Colin Falconer

Some have called her the She Wolf; playwrights, film makers and novelists have all shone light on her from different directions but all we ever see is a silhouette. Isabella of France continues to polarise opinion.

Was she a femme fatale and arch bitch; or just a misunderstood cream puff?

Those who take Isabella’s side paint her husband, Edward II, as a cruel and despotic monarch. They view her as a tragic figure, a bewitched princess trapped in a loveless marriage to a negligent husband, a passionate and intelligent women driven to extreme measures by her situation. 

But was Edward cruel and despotic? He was certainly incompetent. But not all kings are born to rule; some are ill suited for their destiny. But to paint him as the villain is surely too simplistic. A TV news style of historical reporting where there has to be a good guy and a bad guy does not give us the true picture.

Edward II
Photograph: Siebrand

Edward battled private demons. Although regal and handsome, his inner life was tormented; he had endured a strained relationship with his authoritarian father, ‘Longshanks,’ and had looked for affection elsewhere, usually in passionate attachments to certain 'favourites'. 

His relationship with squires like Piers Gaveston led to violent quarrels between father and son, and eventually banishment for Piers.

But when Longshanks died, Edward could do as he pleased - and he did. He recalled Gaveston and made him Earl of Cornwall, a title previously reserved for the nobility, much to the outrage of his barons.

His marriage to Isabella was a political alliance, as all royal marriages were then. Isabella was just 12 years old. Edward was outrageously handsome and she would grow up to be exceptionally beautiful. They were a Hollywood couple. Today they would have been the new Brangelina. 

Perhaps we would have called them Edabella.

She was certainly no she-wolf then, just a bewildered and frightened girl in a foreign court. But she had been trained for her regal duties by one of Europe’s most adept and ruthless kings and she had a natural talent for politics combined with a passionate heart. It put her and Edward on a collision course.

Historians have prevaricated over his sexuality. But today being gay is not really so shocking - and certainly not unusual. Plenty of gay men marry and have children, because they have to, not because they want to. You don’t have to be a king to find yourself in that situation. But his weakness was in his decision-making not in sexual orientation. 

It is possible that Isabella was obedient and long suffering at first. But people change. A proud heart such as hers can take only so much submission. 

If she had had a milder nature, perhaps she would have endured in silence all her life, content to remain in the background.

This she did for a while and earned sympathy from her contemporaries for her husband’s behaviour. But a different Isabella appeared later. Her behaviour during her exile in Paris was scandalous and forced even her own brother to distance himself from her. 

She finally overthrew her husband with the help of her lover; but did she also collude in her husband’s death? We cannot know the extent of her involvement in the regicide. At the least she looked the other way. 

The queen who invaded England was not the same obedient mouse who came to England in 1207 as Edward’s 12 year old bride.

Powder puff or she-wolf? The best way to decide is perhaps to think what we ourselves might have done in her situation. 

Would you have been content to stay in the background and embroider with the ladies?

Or would you have had the guts - and the ruthlessness - to have wanted more?

For Isabella, daughter of one of France’s most ruthless kings, cream puff was never an option.

About the book

ISABELLA, Braveheart of France, available now from Amazon US and Amazon UK

And also available as POD from Cool Gus publishing. 

Colin Falconer’s blog page

Colin Falconer on Twitter

"She was taught to obey. But will she learn to rebel?

Princess Isabella of France arrives at the English court to find her husband the king.
She is just 12 years old.
He is one of Europe's most handsome princes, tall young, athletic.
And deeply in love with another.
... another man.
She fights to win her husband's love as his reign descends into crisis after crisis.
To finally create her own destiny she must defy all England.
She must even defy God.
Will she do it?
And what will be the cost?"

About the author
Colin Falconer was born in North London, and spent most of his formative years at school playing football or looking out of the window wishing he was somewhere else.

After failing to make the grade as a professional football player, he spent much of his early years traveling, hitch-hiking around Europe and North Africa and then heading to Asia.

His experiences in Bangkok and India later inspired his thriller VENOM, and his adventures in the jungles of the Golden Triangle of Burma and Laos were also filed away for later, the basis of his OPIUM series about the underworld drug trade.

He later moved to Australia and worked in advertising, before moving to Sydney where he freelanced for most of Australia’s leading newspapers and magazines, as well as working in radio and television.

He started publishing in 1984, mostly humor and young adult fiction, but with the publication of VENOM in 1990, he became a full time novelist.

He has published over 40 books in print. HAREM was an enormous bestseller in Germany and THE NAKED HUSBAND was ranked #9 in Australia on its release.AZTEC stayed on the bestseller lists in Mexico for four months. He is a bestseller in Europe and his work has sold into translation in 23 countries: Brazil, Belgium, Bulgaria, the Czech republic, Croatia, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Indonesia, Korea, Macedonia, Montenegro, Mexico, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain and Turkey.

He lived for many years in the beautiful Margaret River region in WA, and helped raise two beautiful daughters with his late wife, Helen. While writing, he also worked in the volunteer ambulance service for over 13 years His marriage ended in tragic circumstances, a story he has told in ‘The Naked Husband,’ and its non-fiction sequel, ‘The Year We Seized the Day,’ written with a writing partner, Elizabeth Best.

He travels regularly to research his novels and his quest for authenticity has led him to run with the bulls in Pamplona, pursue tornadoes across Oklahoma and black witches across Mexico, go cage shark diving in South Africa and get tear gassed in a riot in La Paz. He also completed a nine hundred kilometre walk of the camino in Spain.

He did not write for over five years but returned to publishing in 2010 with the release of SILK ROAD, and then STIGMATA the following year. ISABELLA is due to be published in 2013.

His likens his fiction most closely to Ken Follett – books with romance and high adventure, drawn from many periods of history.

Visit Colin at his WEBSITE.

Follow the instructions on the Rafflecopter form below to enter for a chance to win one of three eBook copies of Isabella by Colin Falconer!

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Cat Thursday: Authors and their cats' guest, C.W. Gortner (26)

Welcome to the weekly meme that celebrates the wonders and sometime hilarity of cats! Join us by posting a favorite LOL cat pic you may have come across, famous cat art or even share with us pics of your own beloved cat(s). It's all for the love of cats! Enjoy! (share your post in the Mr. Linky below)

The second Cat Thursday of each month is Authors and their Cats Thursday. Each time I will feature an author and their cat(s).

I have a very special guest today! Please welcome author, C.W. Gortner...

C.W. and his beloved, Paris

 Ever since I was a child growing up in Spain, I have loved animals.

When my parents decided to move to southern Spain – my mom is from Madrid, had married my American dad and moved to the US – we took with us our first family dog, a yellow lab named Rowdy. Rowdy was adored since he was a puppy; but in Spain, during those final years of Franco’s regime, when the country was frozen in a 1940s time-warp, animals were not treated well, particularly dogs.

My family rented a large villa in a wealthy colony dominated by English ex-pats. They all had pets, but just outside the colony the countryside was still farmed by peasants, who severely mistreated their dogs. I remember one dog, in particular, who I named Linda, was pregnant and she lived tied up all the time to a pole in a farm, near where I used to walk Rowdy. I went by her every day and heard her crying, and I saw how the ignorant farmer would cuff and beat her. She barely had anything to eat and when I dared to ask the farmer what he intended to do with her pups when they were born –I was a child, no more than nine, but very outspoken—he replied brusquely: “I’m going to drown them. They’re good for nothing.”

His words so haunted me that I organized a stealth rescue with my friends in the colony. We snuck to the farm after dark, after I’d spent a week bringing Linda bits of food so she’d come to trust me, risking the farmer’s wrath. He chased me away several times but he also spent most of his days in the fields. He and his family lived in a house with no running water or electricity; they were very poor, as so many campesinos were in the area. They ate over a fire in the center of their kitchen, and while they had dinner, I cut the rope binding Linda and took her away with me. Of course, she was a mess—starving, infested with ticks (Rowdy would later die of a tick-borne illness, as in those days we didn’t have Advantage or other protective products) and she was very fearful. My parents were bemused when they saw her, but I insisted on keeping her. As we had a swath of gardens surrounding the villa, I argued there was plenty of space. With time and care, she became a beautiful, if always timid, dog; she followed me everywhere with Rowdy and when she gave birth to four pups, one of whom died soon after, I wanted to keep them. My mom said it was impossible, so she helped me find families for them among the colony residents. And when the farmer came to shout that I’d stolen his dog and wave his garrote in my mom’s face, she threatened to call the Guardia Civil, the civil police in Spain that so many feared. My mom’s father was a famous film and TV actor in Spain and everyone knew it. The farmer did, too. He muttered and cursed her, but he didn’t return.

Thus began my life-long crusade to rescue dogs. Linda was the first of many I stole from neighboring farms, nursed back to health, and kept. I picked ticks out of their ears with my bare hands for hours, bathed and fed them. When I got up in the morning to go onto the terrace outside my bedroom, a chorus of barks and wagging tails greeted me. The colony started calling me the Doggy Pied Piper, because as I ran around with my friends, a herd of pooches were always at my heels.

Much later, my family returned to the US and we had other pets. But after I went to high school and college, I started working and didn’t have time for a pet. When I met my partner, we decided we wanted a dog after we bought our home. I adopted a rescue dachshund/corgi mix named ChaCha through Rocket Dog Rescue. ChaCha had been in and out of shelters; she was older and afraid, but in time she bloomed into this beautiful, trusting being. An autoimmune illness took her from me within the year and I was devastated. A few months later, I adopted my beloved corgi, Paris, who would be with me for the next twelve and a half years.

It was Paris who first discovered my cats. We walked every day in the park near my home, crossing a bridge over a creek, and one day she stopped suddenly. I was ahead, and called to her. She started barking. When I went to see what she was so eager to tell me, a ginger cat streaked past me under the bridge. I investigated and found Mommy Cat, huddled with a litter. Mommy was feral and wouldn’t get near me, but as I started bringing food twice a day, the kittens became fascinated by Paris. They tumbled about her as she sat there patiently. She was never aggressive toward other animals, and so I decided to employ her to help me trap the kittens. After contacting the local SPCA Feral Cat program to find out how to do it, I set out traps, baited them, and waited. I got all the kittens but one. Mommy also eluded the trap. I named the elusive kitten Boy, as he was male and he liked to swagger.

The kittens were adopted through the SPCA; I then turned my attention to trapping Mommy and Boy, with the help of a lady who feeds feral cats in the park. By the time we ended up getting them both, Mommy and Boy had bonded with me. At the advice of the Feral Cat Program, however, after they were spayed / neutered, they were re-released in the park, with the caveat that I’d continue to care for them. But in February of 2011, Boy showed up to his daily feeding with an injured paw. He sat at my feet, as if to say he needed help. I knew that if I left him to fend for himself, another dog might kill him. I'd rigged up shelters under the bridge where he and Mommy lived, but between rampaging off-leash dogs and raccoons knocking the shelters over, plus exposure to the elements and the cats’ bond with me, I was finding it increasingly difficult to leave them. I put Boy in a carrier and took him to the vet. He needed stitches; he also had to be confined indoors for a week while he healed, so my partner and I decided to bring him and Mommy home, to see how they’d fare. You never know with ferals, we were warned, as most never adjust to being indoor pets.

Boy and Mommy (gorgeous kitties!)

It’s been almost two years now, and Boy and Mommy have settled in. They are very happy, with the run of the house. They love belly-rubs and kisses. Paris was a bit miffed that she had to share her territory, and me, but she adjusted, too. In December of last year, she fell gravely ill with pneumonia, complicated by a two-month prior diagnosis of mega-esophagus, and I had to let her go, as her underlying condition was incurable and she’d lost half her body weight.

Losing Paris is one of the most heartbreaking events of my life. I mourn her still, but the cats were her gift to me, and they did all they could to comfort me. Were it not for them, I might have crumbled; Boy even began sleeping in the same spots she did, and alerting me to lunch time – tuna time, for him— when I became immersed in my writing. He’d hear me crying and creep into my lap, gazing at me with his stunning amber-green eyes. To this day, I believe he and Paris struck a silent pact; that she left something of her with him, for as she began to fade, I think she sensed my anguish and wanted Boy to assume her place.

Before Paris’s passing, I’d already begun assisting in rescuing dogs in high-kill shelters, especially in the Los Angeles area, through a Facebook group called Angels for Animals. I pledge money toward dogs and cats in imminent danger of being euthanized by these overcrowded, underfunded shelters, since in order to rescue an animal, rescues need the funds for the inevitable vet visits, boarding and fostering before a loving home can be found.

Today, I pledge over a thousand dollars a year in memory of Paris, who never knew a moment without love, and for the thousands of homeless, neglected and lonely souls who die in our shelters every single day. Backyard breeding, breed prejudice, and irresponsible ownership are the culprits for this holocaust that kills over 10,000 cats and dogs annually in the United States. Neutering and spaying pets is not only the responsible thing to do, it saves lives.

To find out more about the Angels for Animals network, please go here: https://www.facebook.com/AngelsForAnimals.AFA

If you can help, please do. A pledge of just $5 per person adds up, and though you may never meet the animals you help save, they will repay your generosity a hundred times over with their unconditional gratitude and endless capacity for love.

Thank you for spending this time with me. May we strive for a world where every animal in need of a loving home has it, and euthanasia at shelters becomes a relic of the past.

C.W. GORTNER is the author of five internationally acclaimed historical novels, including his most recent, THE QUEEN'S VOW: A Novel of Isabella of Castile, and THE TUDOR CONSPIRACY, Book 2 in the Elizabeth I Spymaster Chronicles. His books have been translated into 20 languages to date. He lives in Northern California and is a passionate advocate for animal rights. To find more about him and his work, visit: http://www.cwgortner.com

What a caring soul. I can't tell you how much this post touched me, but I'm sure you felt the same. Thanks again to C.W. for being our guest today.

Check out my reviews of C.W.'s books, The Last Queen, The Queen's Vow and The Tudor Conspiracy. He has become one of my favorite historical fiction authors and a good friend to boot. =O)

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#TuesBookTalk October Selection: Joyland by Stephen King

TuesBookTalk Read-a-Longs on Twitter (@tuesbooktalk #tuesbooktalk) and on Goodreads will be reading, Joyland by Stephen King, in October. Our first discussion will be on Tuesday, October 8. Our chats take place on Twitter at 9:30pm ET/8:30pm CT on Tuesday nights (see hashtag above). If you can't join us on Twitter, feel free to share your thoughts in the Goodreads group. Get the full reading schedule HERE. Hope you will join us!

Wolgast Castle by Linda Bell Brighton: Guest Post and {Giveaway}

When the Holy Roman Empire and the Ottoman Empire Actually Ended

The Holy Roman Empire (HRE) was a victim of Napoleon. After a military defeat at Austerlitz in 1805, the Holy Roman Emperor Francis II (not to be confused with France's Francis II who died in 1561) signed the Treaty of Pressburg. That signature dissolved an empire that had lasted 900 years, since around 900 AD.

The Ottoman Empire was a victim of WWI. Two men on board the HMS Agamemnon ended the “Middle Eastern theatre.” And in doing so, the Ottoman Minister of Marine Affairs Rauf Bey and the British Admiral Somerset Arthur Gough-Calthorpe ended the empire that had lasted almost 620 years. Not with fanfare, but off a Greek island with a little over 500 inhabitants.

But neither of those facts answers the question.

A writer during the 1700s, using his famous pen name Voltaire, wrote, “This agglomeration which was called and which still calls itself the Holy Roman Empire was neither holy, nor Roman, nor an empire.” If true, the empire never started. But like many well-sounding quotes, it’s not accurate. Since HRE began with a "transfer of rule" of the Western Roman Empire. Pope Leo III even agreed. In 800 he crowned the Frankish king Charlemagne as emperor. Of course, this was 300 years after the prior rule. And what was transferred was a declining and fragmented prior dynasty. And the transfer lacked a plan, purpose, or enthusiasm. That why 962 and Otto I is generally viewed as the start of the HRE. That it was decentralized, not the political unification formed in France, is true. Principalities, duchies, counties, and Free Imperial Cities elected the monarchy. The power of the emperor was limited. The various princes, lords and kings of the Empire were vassals and subjects who owed the emperor their allegiance. But they also had de facto sovereignty within their territories. Not Voltaire’s type of Empire, but an Empire none the less. The beginning of the end started sometime after All Saint's Day, October 31, 1517 when a lowly monk nailed his protest to the Pope’s plan to sell indulgences.

1683, when the Ottomans lost their battle to take over Vienna, was their beginning of the end of that Empire. After centuries of expansion, this was their first major territorial loss. 

And it was a Holy Roman Empire (with other countries) that won.

About the book

Forced to attend Princess Maria regent's celebration at Wolgast Castle, 1560 Germany, Sidonia von Bork, fears her magical abilities will be discovered and she'll be burned alive as a witch. When she discovers she is actually a member of an ancient shape-shifting race and the prophesied Golden One, she must face her destiny: to save the multiverse from the daemons determined to destroy all humans, and stay alive in the process.

About the author

Linda Bell Brighton fell in love with myths, magic, and monsters at an early age. On a thunder-storming day in the Keys, her father—in his bass reading voice—brought The Hound of the Baskerville to too-vivid-life. From that day forward, Greek and Roman myths merged with Wonder Woman and Super girl. After studying medieval and Renaissance literature in college, she now combines her loves by writing an alternate history of the Witch Burning Times that she calls magpunk: real history with myths, magic, monsters—and daemons, too. 

Linda Bell Brighton’s website- http://www.lindabellbrighton.com/

Linda Bell Brighton on Twitter: https://twitter.com/LindaBellWriter
Linda Bell Brighton’s Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/lindabell.brighton
Linda Bell Brighton’s video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLM9A8ejuBA
Wolgast Castle, Book One of the Sidonia The Sorceress Series Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/WolgastCastle

Wolgast Castle, Book One of the Sidonia The Sorceress Series on Amazon: http://amzn.to/1456jFK 

Giveaway Info

Linda is giving away prizes, including an e-copy of her book at each blog stop on her tour AND three Grand Prize Giveaway of one Travel Mug, one T-Shirt and one Custom Jumbo Tote Bag with your choice of fan art, chosen from here: http://www.zazzle.com/sidonia_the_sorceres , shipped to anywhere in the world!

1. To win a book: Leave a comment on this blog post on what is your favorite mythical creature to be entered to win a book. Be sure to leave your email address in the comments so we can contact you if you’re the lucky winner. This giveaway ends seven days after the post goes live.
2. To win the Travel Mug or the T-Shirt or the Custom Jumbo Tote Bag with Linda’s fan art of your choice, click the link to go to Linda’s website here http://www.lindabellbrighton.com/ and enter the Rafflecopter at the bottom of the page. The three lucky winners will be selected by October 7, 2013

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Cat Thursday Halloween...it's that time of year again!

Welcome to the weekly meme that celebrates the wonders and sometime hilarity of cats! Join us by posting a favorite LOL cat pic you may have come across, famous cat art or even share with us pics of your own beloved cat(s). It's all for the love of cats! Enjoy! (share your post in the Mr. Linky below)

Yup! I'm back with the scary/funny Halloween kitty images for the month of October (except for next week, when I have an extra special 'authors and their cats' post for you). I've also included an hilarious Faireset video at the end. Believe me...you will be picking yourself up off the floor over this one. =O)

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HFVBT: Confessions of Marie Antoinette by Juliet Grey-Review #ConfessionsOfMATour

My thoughts
Marie Antoinette had a tragic life. Taken from her home country of Austria at the young age of fourteen to become the dauphine of France, she was thrust into a world that was extremely different from what she had always known. Joined in marriage to a young man, the dauphin, who was withdrawn and in his own world and who knew nothing of the relationship between a man and a woman, she was maligned from the start for her failure to produce an heir. She was constantly ridiculed for her frivolities and expenditures (although true), which I believe were her way of filling the great hole she had in her life. The tragedy continues when she loses two of her children and then, finally, she is made the scapegoat for all that is wrong in France...for the starving people, for her negative influence on the king, and so on.

I have always been sympathetic toward Marie Antoinette. I feel like she has been treated unfairly historically. Propaganda and gossip of the time shoved her into a false light. There is a great quote from Voltaire in the opening pages of the book that I believe sum up what happened with Antoinette...what led to her misconstrued reputation.

Posterity should pay no heed to those secret legends which are spread about a Prince in his lifetime out of spite, or a mere love of gossip, which a mistaken public believes to be true and which, in a few more years, are adopted by the historians who thus deceive themselves and the generations to come.
--Voltaire, Eloge Funebre, written during the reign of Louis XV

Juliet Grey has written a fine trilogy about Antoinette. In this, the final book, she depicts the harrowing days leading up to the final outcome we all know so well. The imprisonment at the Tuileries, the ill treatment by the people of the revolution, the fickle nature of the public...it is all here in stunning detail. Antoinette is portrayed here as very brave, showing unswerving loyal support to her husband and a fierce love for her children. This is a poignant finale to the series. It's a book that will stay with me for many years to come.

About the book

Publication Date: September 24, 2013
Ballantine Books
Paperback; 464p
ISBN: 0345523903

Confessions of Marie Antoinette, the riveting and sweeping final novel in Juliet Grey’s trilogy on the life of the legendary French queen, blends rich historical detail with searing drama, bringing to life the early years of the French Revolution and the doomed royal family’s final days.

Versailles, 1789. As the burgeoning rebellion reaches the palace gates, Marie Antoinette finds her privileged and peaceful life swiftly upended by violence. Once her loyal subjects, the people of France now seek to overthrow the crown, placing the heirs of the Bourbon dynasty in mortal peril.

Displaced to the Tuileries Palace in Paris, the royal family is propelled into the heart of the Revolution. There, despite a few staunch allies, they are surrounded by cunning spies and vicious enemies. Yet despite the political and personal threats against her, Marie Antoinette remains above all a devoted wife and mother, standing steadfastly by her husband, Louis XVI, and protecting their young son and daughter. And though the queen and her family try to flee, and she secretly attempts to arrange their rescue from the clutches of the Revolution, they cannot outrun the dangers encircling them, or escape their shocking fate.

About the Author
Juliet Grey is the author of Becoming Marie Antoinette and Days of Splendor, Days of Sorrow. She has extensively researched European royalty and is a particular devotee of Marie Antoinette, as well as a classically trained professional actress with numerous portrayals of virgins, vixens, and villainesses to her credit. She and her husband divide their time between New York City and southern Vermont.

For more information please visit www.becomingmarie.com. You can also find Juliet Grey on Facebook.

Visit other blogs on the tour--Tour Schedule
Twitter Hashtag: #ConfessionsOfMATour

Be sure to stop by and check out Juliet's guest post and enter the giveaway HERE.

A copy of this book was sent to me in exchange for an honest review. I was not monetarily compensated for providing it.