Revolutionary Times

Book Blog

I strayed from my currently reading book to read a book a co-worker gave to me. She too has a hook-up in the publishing world so we are going to start exchanging books to read. I also got her to sign up on Good Reads. I am sort of addicted to that site. Anyway...the book is called Mistress of the Revolution and I absolutely loved it. It's a great historical fiction about a lady's life during the French Revolution. I wish I had read the book when I was learning about the French Revolution in college...it clears up a lot of confusion. Here's the synopsis from the back of the book:

"Set in opulent, decadent, turbulent revolutionary France, Mistress of the Revolution is the story of Gabrielle de Montserrat. An impoverished noblewoman blessed with fiery red hair and a mischievous demeanor, Gabrielle is only fifteen when she meets her true love, a commoner named Pierre-André Coffinhal. But her brother forbids their union, choosing for her instead an aging, wealthy baron.

Widowed and a mother while still a teen, Gabrielle arrives at the court of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette in time to be swept up in the emerging cataclysm. As a new order rises, Gabrielle finds her own lovely neck on the chopping block—and who should be selected to sit on the Revolutionary Tribunal but her first love, Pierre-André. . . .

Replete with historical detail, complex and realistic characters (several of whom actually existed), and a heroine who demands—and rewards—attention, Mistress of the Revolution is an unforgettable debut."