The Muse in the Fog Book Review | Historical Fiction: February 2012

Monday, February 27, 2012

Mailbox Monday

Mailbox Monday is the gathering place for readers to share the exciting books that came into their house last week via post. Warning: Mailbox Monday can lead to envy, toppling TBR piles and humongous wish lists!

Mailbox Monday was created by Marcia at A Girl and her Books, and is currently being hosted by Metro Reader for the month of February.

For Review:

The Courtesan's Lover

by Gabrielle Kimm

Publication date: 5/1/2012

Format: paperback 528pp

Synopsis (From the Publisher):

"A compelling and vibrant tale from an up-and-coming fresh voice with glowing reviews and strong sales in the UK. The Courtesan's Lover is a return to the fascinating, decadent world that Kimm fans will want to savor. Francesca Felizzi, former mistress of the Duke of Ferrara, longs to be one of the most prestigious of the courtesans. But a chance encounter reveals to Francesca that her sumptuous life is a gaudy facade, and soon an unexpected event plunges her and her two young daughters into a danger she has long dreaded."

Her Highness, the Traitor

by Susan Higginbotham

Publication date: 6/1/2012

Format: paperback 336pp

Synopsis (From the Publisher):

"When Henry VIII dies, leaving behind his nine-year-old son as his heir, a deadly series of power struggles begins, transforming the lives of two women. Jane Dudley's husband, the Duke of Northumberland, becomes the most powerful man in England, while Frances Grey perches with her daughter Jane dangerously close to the throne. But when Mary Tudor asserts her own right to the crown, Frances and Jane Dudley find that the lives of their husbands and children are in mortal danger. The never-before-told story of the women behind the crowning of Jane Grey, this novel is an illuminating tale of ambition gone awry."

What delights arrived at your door?

Review: The Garden Intrigue by Lauren Willig

Publish Date: February 16th 2012

Format: Hardcover 400pp

Synopsis (From the Publisher):

"In the ninth installment of Lauren Willig's bestselling Pink Carnation series, an atrocious poet teams up with an American widow to prevent Napoleon's invasion of England.

Secret agent Augustus Whittlesby has spent a decade undercover in France, posing as an insufferably bad poet. The French surveillance officers can't bear to read his work closely enough to recognize the information drowned in a sea of verbiage.

New York-born Emma Morris Delagardie is a thorn in Augustus's side. An old school friend of Napoleon's stepdaughter, she came to France with her uncle, the American envoy; eloped with a Frenchman; and has been rattling around the salons of Paris ever since. Widowed for four years, she entertains herself by drinking too much champagne, holding a weekly salon, and loudly critiquing Augustus's poetry.

As Napoleon pursues his plans for the invasion of England, Whittlesby hears of a top-secret device to be demonstrated at a house party at Malmaison. The catch? The only way in is with Emma, who has been asked to write a masque for the weekend's entertainment.

Emma is at a crossroads: Should she return to the States or remain in France? She'll do anything to postpone the decision-even if it means teaming up with that silly poet Whittlesby to write a masque for Bonaparte's house party. But each soon learns that surface appearances are misleading. In this complicated masque within a masque, nothing goes quite as scripted- especially Augustus's feelings for Emma."

My Review:

Emma Delagardie and Augustus Whittlesby are two people who would never dream of associating on a social level, for she is too flirty and he is too overzealous in his poetry and character. But when they are suddenly thrown together in order to produce a masque for the Bonaparte family, they suddenly discover that their appearances could merely be a means of running away from reality. As they peel back the layers of their facade, they soon realize that there is much more to themselves, and life, than they thought possible. But alas, in a time of war and espionage nothing is as it seems and everything comes at a price. As Napoleon continues to rise in power, so does the threat of his invasion on England soil. In a battle of time and wits, Emma and Augustus must determine where certain loyalties lie in order to thwart the Emperor's dastardly plan to create a weapon of great destruction which will ensure victory for his future conquests.

I greatly enjoyed the glimpses of Augustus Whittlesby in The Orchid Affair, so when I discovered he was to be a main character in The Garden Intrigue I could not have been more elated. To see a charming man beyond that flamboyant character was a real treat; he was so life-like that, like Turnip from The Mischief of the Mistletoe, I felt as if he was telling me his tale in person.

Being the 9th book in the Pink Carnation series it is amazing that the series hasn't lost one bit of its compelling attributes. Although this one did not have as many plot twists, it never lacked for intrigue or a fast paced plot. In fact, once Emma and Augustus's story came to a close I found myself wanting it to go on for another hundred pages. It seems there is no limit to Lauren Willig's wit and enchanting prose, so it is no wonder that I am already eagerly awaiting the next Pink Carnation escapade.

FTC: I received this book from the publisher. As always, these are my own honest opinions.

Friday, February 24, 2012

Friday Finds at The Bookstore: The Gilded Shroud by Elizabeth Bailey

Every Friday I will be posting my latest book discovery that I found while browsing the bookstore or the library. If you'd like to join in on the fun feel free to do so, just link back to this blog :)

The Gilded Shroud by Elizabeth Bailey

Publish Date: September 2011

Format: Paperback 368pp

Synopsis (From the Publisher):

"First in a new series that has the perfect mix of Regency murder and mystery.

When the marchioness is found murdered at Polbrook mansion, the Dowager Lady Polbrook's new companion, Ottilia Draycott, finds herself in a house of strangers and every one of them a suspect. Only she can unmask and outwit a desperate killer and keep a Polbrook family secret buried."

Monday, February 20, 2012

Mailbox Monday

The Queen's Secret. Victoria Lamb

by Victoria Lamb (UK)

Publish Date: February 2012
Format: Hardback 368 pp

Synopsis (From the Publisher):

"Elizabeth I, Queen of England, arrives at Kenilworth Castle amid pomp, fanfare and a wealth of lavish festivities laid on by the Earl of Leicester. The hopeful Earl knows this is his very last chance to persuade the Queen to marry him.

Yet despite his attachment to the Queen and his driving ambition to be her King, Leicester is unable to resist the seductive wiles of Lettice, wife of the Earl of Essex. And soon whispers of their relationship start spreading through the court.

Enraged by the adulterous lovers' growing intimacy, Elizabeth employs Lucy Morgan, a young black singer and court entertainer, to spy on the couple. But Lucy, who was raised by a spy in London, uncovers far more than she bargains for.

For someone at Kenilworth that summer is plotting to kill the queen. No longer able to tell friend from foe, it is soon not only the queen who is in mortal danger - but Lucy herself."

The Book of Lost Fragrances

by M. J. Rose

Publish Date: March 13th 2012
Format: Paperback 384 pp

Synopsis (From the Publisher):

"A sweeping and suspenseful tale of secrets, intrigue, and lovers separated by time, all connected through the mystical qualities of a perfume created in the days of Cleopatra—and lost for 2,000 years. Jac L’Etoile has always been haunted by the past, her memories infused with the exotic scents that she grew up surrounded by as the heir to a storied French perfume company. In order to flee the pain of those remembrances—and of her mother’s suicide—she moves to America, leaving the company in the hands of her brother Robbie. But when Robbie hints at an earth-shattering discovery in the family archives and then suddenly goes missing—leaving a dead body in his wake—Jac is plunged into a world she thought she’d left behind.

Back in Paris to investigate her brother’s disappearance, Jac discovers a secret the House of L’Etoile has been hiding since 1799: a scent that unlocks the mysteries of reincarnation. The Book of Lost Fragrances fuses history, passion, and suspense, moving from Cleopatra’s Egypt and the terrors of revolutionary France to Tibet’s battle with China and the glamour of modern-day Paris. Jac’s quest for the ancient perfume someone is willing to kill for becomes the key to understanding her own troubled past."

Enchantments: A Novel

by Kathryn Harrison

Publish Date: March 6th 2012
Format: Paperback 336 pp

Synopsis (From the Publisher):

"From Kathryn Harrison, one of America’s most admired literary voices, comes a gorgeously written, enthralling novel set in the final days of Russia’s Romanov Empire.

St. Petersburg, 1917. After Rasputin’s body is pulled from the icy waters of the Neva River, his eighteen-year-old daughter, Masha, is sent to live at the imperial palace with Tsar Nikolay and his family—including the headstrong Prince Alyosha. Desperately hoping that Masha has inherited Rasputin’s miraculous healing powers, Tsarina Alexandra asks her to tend to Aloysha, who suffers from hemophilia, a blood disease that keeps the boy confined to his sickbed, lest a simple scrape or bump prove fatal.

Two months after Masha arrives at the palace, the tsar is forced to abdicate, and Bolsheviks place the royal family under house arrest. As Russia descends into civil war, Masha and Alyosha grieve the loss of their former lives, finding solace in each other’s company. To escape the confinement of the palace, they tell stories—some embellished and some entirely imagined—about Nikolay and Alexandra’s courtship, Rasputin’s many exploits, and the wild and wonderful country on the brink of an irrevocable transformation. In the worlds of their imagination, the weak become strong, legend becomes fact, and a future that will never come to pass feels close at hand.

Mesmerizing, haunting, and told in Kathryn Harrison’s signature crystalline prose, Enchantments is a love story about two people who come together as everything around them is falling apart."

By the King's Design

by Christine Trent

Publish Date: February 2012
Format: Paperback 384 pp

Synopsis (From the Publisher):

"Annabelle "Belle" Stirling inherited the family draper shop from her late father, only to have it sabotaged by her ne'er-do-well brother, Wesley. Belle travels to London to seek redress, and while there, the Prince Regent, future King George IV, commissions her to provide fabrics for his Royal Pavilion. As Belle's renown spreads, she meets handsome cabinetmaker Putnam Boyce, but worries that marriage will mean sacrificing her now flourishing shop. When Wesley plots to kidnap the newly crowned King, Belle finds herself entangled in a duplicitous world of shifting allegiances, where every choice could have unexpected consequences for her future, her safety, and her kingdom..."

What delights arrived at your door?

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

What's New Wednesday: A Look at Next Weeks New Releases

Every Wednesday I will be posting the upcoming historical fiction and historical non-fiction releases for the coming week.

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Accidents of Providence by Stacia M. Brown

Format: Hardcover 272pp

Publish Date: February 14th 2012

Synopsis (From the Publisher):

"It is 1649. King Charles has been beheaded for treason. Amid civil war, Cromwell's army is running the country. The Levellers, a small faction of agitators, are calling for rights to the people. And a new law targeting unwed mothers and lewd women presumes anyone who conceals the death of her illegitimate child is guilty of murder.

Rachel Lockyer, unmarried glove maker, and Leveller William Walwyn are locked in a secret affair. But when a child is found buried in the woods, Rachel is arrested.

So comes an investigation, public trial, and unforgettable characters: gouty investigator Thomas Bartwain, fiery Elizabeth Lilburne and her revolution-chasing husband, Huguenot glover Mary Du Gard, and others. Spinning within are Rachel and William, their remarkable love story, and the miracles that come to even the commonest lives.

Fans of Fingersmith and The Dress Lodger will love Accidents of Providence, absorbing historical fiction featuring Rachel Lockyer, a character wronged by her time and the kind of woman forgotten by history, whose love affair leads to her trial for murder."

Midwife of Venice by Roberta Rich

Format: Hardcover 352pp

Publish Date: February 14th 2012

Synopsis (From the Publisher):

"Hannah Levi is renowned throughout Venice for her gift at coaxing reluctant babies from their mothers—a gift aided by the secret “birthing spoons” she designed. But when a count implores her to attend to his wife, who has been laboring for days to give birth to their firstborn son, Hannah is torn. A Papal edict forbids Jews from rendering medical treatment to Christians, but the payment he offers is enough to ransom her beloved husband, Isaac, who has been captured at sea. Can Hannah refuse her duty to a suffering woman? Hannah’s choice entangles her in a treacherous family rivalry that endangers the baby and threatens her voyage to Malta, where Isaac, believing her dead in the plague, is preparing to buy his passage to a new life. Not since The Red Tent or People of the Book has a novel transported readers so intimately into the complex lives of women centuries ago or so richly into a story of intrigue that transcends the boundaries of history."

The Garden Intrigue by Lauren Willig

Format: Hardcover 400pp

Publish Date: February 16th 2012

Synopsis (From the Publisher):

"In the ninth installment of Lauren Willig's bestselling Pink Carnation series, an atrocious poet teams up with an American widow to prevent Napoleon's invasion of England.

Secret agent Augustus Whittlesby has spent a decade undercover in France, posing as an insufferably bad poet. The French surveillance officers can't bear to read his work closely enough to recognize the information drowned in a sea of verbiage.

New York-born Emma Morris Delagardie is a thorn in Augustus's side. An old school friend of Napoleon's stepdaughter, she came to France with her uncle, the American envoy; eloped with a Frenchman; and has been rattling around the salons of Paris ever since. Widowed for four years, she entertains herself by drinking too much champagne, holding a weekly salon, and loudly critiquing Augustus's poetry.

As Napoleon pursues his plans for the invasion of England, Whittlesby hears of a top-secret device to be demonstrated at a house party at Malmaison. The catch? The only way in is with Emma, who has been asked to write a masque for the weekend's entertainment.

Emma is at a crossroads: Should she return to the States or remain in France? She'll do anything to postpone the decision-even if it means teaming up with that silly poet Whittlesby to write a masque for Bonaparte's house party. But each soon learns that surface appearances are misleading. In this complicated masque within a masque, nothing goes quite as scripted- especially Augustus's feelings for Emma."

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Upcoming 2012 Historical Fiction Release: The Kingmaker's Daughter by Philippa Gregory

(cover not available)

Publish Date: August 14th 2012

Format: Hardcover 400 pp

Synopsis (From the Publisher):

"In The Kingmaker’s Daughter, #1 New York Times bestselling author Philippa Gregory presents the riveting story of Anne Neville, her sister Isabel, and their ever-changing fortunes.The Kingmaker’s Daughter is the gripping and ultimately tragic story of the daughters of the man known as the “Kingmaker,” the most powerful magnate in England through the Cousins’ Wars. In the absence of a son and heir, he uses the two girls as pawns in his political games, but they grow up to be influential players in their own right. In this novel, her first sister story since The Other Boleyn Girl, Gregory explores the lives of two fascinating young women.

At the court of Edward IV and his beautiful queen, Elizabeth Woodville, Anne grows from a delightful child brought up in intimacy and friendship with the family of Richard, Duke of Gloucester, to become ever more fearful and desperate when her father makes war on his former friends. Her will is tested when she is left widowed and fatherless, with her mother in sanctuary and her sister married to the enemy. Fortune’s wheel turns again when Richard rescues Anne from her sister’s house, with danger still following Anne, even as she eventually ascends to the throne as queen. Having lost those closest to her, she must protect herself and her precious only child, Prince Edward, from a court full of royal rivals."

Thursday, February 2, 2012

Upcoming 2012 Historical Fiction Release: The Queen's Lover by Francine du Plessix Gray

Publish Date: June 14th 2012

Format: Hardcover 304 pp

Synopsis (From the Publisher):

"Historical fiction of the highest order, THE QUEEN'S LOVER reveals the untold love affair between Swedish aristocrat Count Axel von Fersen and Marie Antoinette.

The Queen's Lover begins at a masquerade ball in Paris in 1774, when the dashing Swedish nobleman Count Axel von Fersen first meets the mesmerizing nineteen-year-old Dauphine, Marie Antoinette, wife of the shy, reclusive prince who will soon become Louis XVI. This electric encounter launches a lifelong romance that will span the course of the French Revolution.

The affair begins in friendship, however, and Fersen quickly becomes a devoted companion to the entire royal family. As he roams the halls of Versailles and visits the private haven of Le Petit Trianon, Fersen discovers the deepest secrets of the court, even learning the startling, erotic details of Marie Antoinette's marriage to Louis XVI. But the events of the American Revolution tear Fersen away. Moved by the cause, he joins French troops in the fight for American independence.

When he returns, he finds France on the brink of disintegration. After the Revolution of 1789 the royal family is moved from Versailles to the Tuileries. Fersen devises an escape for the family and their young children (Marie-Thérèse and the Dauphin-whom many suspect is in fact Fersen's son). The failed attempt leads to a more grueling imprisonment, and the family spends its excruciating final days captive before the King and Queen meet the guillotine.

Grieving his lost love in his native Sweden, Fersen begins to sense the effects of the French Revolution in his homeland. Royalists are now targets, and the sensuous world of his youth is fast vanishing. Fersen is incapable of realizing that centuries of tradition have disappeared, and he pays dearly for his naïveté, losing his life at the hands of a savage mob that views him as a pivotal member of the aristocracy.Scion of Sweden's most esteemed nobility, Fersen came to be seen as an enemy of the country he loved. His fate is symbolic of the violent speed with which the events of the eighteenth century transformed European culture. Expertly researched and deeply imagined, The Queen's Lover is a fresh vision of the French Revolution and the French royal family as told through the love story that was at its center."

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Book Review: At the King's Pleasure by Kate Emerson

Publish Date: January 3rd 2012

Format: Paperback 351 pp

Synopsis (From the Publisher):

"Married to one man. Desiring another. Beautiful Lady Anne Stafford, ladyin- waiting to Queen Catherine of Aragon, is torn between her love for her husband, George, Lord Hastings . . . and the king’s boon companion, the attentive Sir William Compton. But when King Henry VIII, amorous as always, joins the men clustering around her, Anne realizes she has become perilously enmeshed in the intrigues of the court. Will she be forced to decide between the two men she desires—and the one she doesn’t?Kate Emerson charms again with a heroine who steps out of the pages of history to win our hearts in this sumptuous novel of Tudor scandal and intrigue."

My Review:

Told from the perspective of Lady Anne Stafford, At the King's Pleasure takes the reader on an entertaining journey of intrigue and seduction within the Tudor court. Betrayed by her husband and brother, Anne is forced to atone for a sin she didn't commit and is removed from the court in disgrace. Full of spirit and determination Anne makes her way back to court with the hope of reclaiming what was so cruelly taken from her, but when she finds herself in the same risky situation which lead to her downfall years earlier, will she once again have the strength to resist taking part in the scandal?

This is the third book in Kate Emerson's Secrets of the Tudor Court series and I am pleased to say the series has not lost its allure! The ever-changing plot makes for a quick read, and the lively personality of Lady Anne will have you thoroughly engaged throughout the book. One of the most delightful aspects of this novel is the effortless blending of historical detail and fictional scandal, which gives the reader a better understanding of key historical figures. In addition to these appealing aspects, it is also refreshing to have a novel set in the Tudor court without having the main focus on the immediate royal family.

Definitely recommended to all fans of the Tudor era, At the King's Pleasure is a stand alone novel that will have you captivated with every turn of the page.