3 Stars. The title and the official synopsis led me to believe that I was going to read a book centered on Queen Lakshmi of Jhansi, "India's Joan of Arc." Imagine my surprise when I started reading chapter after chapter describing Sita's life in a small village. It was interesting enough but I honestly chose the book to meet the [...]
Marie Tussaud, or Grosholtz as she is named throughout most of the book, was in an ideal position to narrate a history of the French Revolution. A foreign-born commoner, she was neither part of the nobility nor of the starving peasants. She and her family owned, designed and operated the wax museum that has become synonymous with her name. As the book opens, she is maneuvering to have the royal family visit the Salon, as it was then called, and thus bring more visitors in their wake. Even as she's trying to work out this deal, Robespierre, the Duc d'Orleans, and Marat are meeting in her house and discussing the problems with the French monarchy. As time goes by, Marie does get close to members of the royal family, even as more famous Revolutionaries, such as Lafayette, meet and talk under her roof. I absolutely loved this. I have tried and I can't think of one complaint. Every word is perfect. It's well-written, engaging, and hard to put down. I opened the book and found myself in 18th-century France. I just love when an author can do that for me. My reading has slowed down considerably over the past year or so but I read through this at a speed I haven't achieved in a while. Marie herself is believable and mostly likeable. She's very driven to have the Salon succeed and she has a sharp business sense, especially for a woman of her times. I occasionally disagreed with some decisions that she made but I always understood where she was coming from. I can't imagine doing some of the things that she had to in order to survive the upside-down, bloodthirsty world she finds herself in. Even having some idea what was going to happen with the Revolution, I…
When Cleopatra and Marc Antony are defeated by Octavian, their children are taken to Rome, where Octavian can make sure they don't become rallying points for those who might oppose his rule. Their daughter Selene is never happy in Rome and constantly looks for ways to win her family's way back home. This book jumps right into the action as Octavian conquers Alexandria and thus Egypt. It grabbed my attention right away and held it until I finished. I really enjoyed the way that Moran brought these historical figures from so long ago into such a vibrant reality for me. I even cared about (or hated, as the case may be) the minor people from history that I hadn't heard of before. Selene herself is just a great character. She's smart, strong, independent, loyal, free-thinking, and far from perfect. Who likes perfect characters anyway? She acts without thinking sometimes and gets herself in trouble. I did occasionally get confused by the names. There were Octavian/Octavia and Antonia/Tonia. In the author notes, Moran said she actually changed some of the names to make it less confusing. I guess Octavian and Octavia are so famous that she didn’t feel like she could change them, but I frequently had to stop and try to remember which one was the emperor and which one was his sister. I know people got married younger and didn’t live half as long as we do now, but these kids felt entirely too old. Selene and Alexander are supposed to be 11-15 years old when this takes place, but they honestly felt about a decade older to me. Moran addressed this in her Afterword, saying that they had been so highly educated and trained to rule practically from birth that they would feel precocious to us. I can…