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Almost a Queen: Book One of The Three Graces Trilogy
Cousins to the King of Navarre, the Cleves sisters witness the glamour and danger of the French royal court firsthand. Youngest sister, Marie is trapped in an unhappy arranged marriage with her cousin, Henri, Prince de Conde. Determined to make the best of her situation, she awaits the wedding of the King of Navarre in Paris. Paris of 1572 boils with religious war, and few will make it out of the wedding celebrations alive. Those that do survive face an impossible convert or die. Will Marie and Conde make the decision to abandon their Protestant faith in order to save their lives? Will it cost them their souls? Along with the threat of death comes a change for true love with the king's younger son, the Duc d'Anjou. Yet Marie promised to love honor and cherish her husband till death did them part. Will death part them soon? Is it possible to find love in the midst of tragedy? The Cleves sisters' story starts with Marie, the youngest sister introduces you to the world of court politics in France of the 1500s. Like most great noble families of the period, the web of intermarriages and alliances made enemies out of blood relatives. It also meant that the stories of the people who served the Valois monarchs were as intertwined and as complicated as their marriages. Led by the ever-vigilant Catherine de Medici, Queen Mother of France and a force of nature, the members of the court shaped the political and religious future of France of the Sixteenth Century. In upcoming novels, you'll meet the often- derided Charlotte, Madame de Sauve, and enough royal mistresses to satisfy your need for scandal. Marie's story is one for the ages, and one that needs to be told. So don’t wait, scroll up and grab your copy today. You'll instantly be front and center at the world of the Valois court, and all of the danger and splendor of Renaissance France! Reading historical fiction was my guilty pleasure when I was a kid. I think I learned more about history from reading Jean Plaidy's novels. It wasn't a big surprise when I decided to go to graduate school and get my own degree in history. Before I became a writer, I worked full time as an archivist. I spent 40 hours a week talking with full time academics and researchers, secretly envying them for being on the other side of the table. Eventually, I got tired of handing historical documents to other people and decided to write historical fiction full time. Man, am I glad I made that switch! In school, I researched the Gilded Age and the 1920s of the American South, so French history really wasn't part of my curriculum. I ran across some stories about my ancestor, who I was shocked to learn had a “French sounding last name.” While I researched her and her Huguenot ancestors, I ran across the people of the Valois dynasty. I really never left their era, so you're looking at my refusal to leave. The Three Graces Trilogy continues with eldest sister, Henriette and will conclude with middle sister Catherine's story. Why did I choose that order? You really will have to read to to find out for yourself. I'm available 24/7 at www.lauradupre.com. Stop by there for a free short story and make sure you'll be the first to hear about new releases and special discounts.
- GenresHistorical Fiction
258 pages, Paperback
Published June 24, 2017
2 people are currently reading
45 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
January 22, 2018
An extremely brief glimpse into the Wars of Religion and the Valois court of Charles IX, from the point of view of the often-sidelined Marie, Princess de Conde.
I enjoyed the fresh perspective, and du Pre has a decent novella on her hands, but there were a few things that let it down for me.
✖️Format and grammar — this may simply be a result of the formatting on kindle, and nothing to do on the author’s part. In a few places throughout the text, there were extra full-stops where they shouldn’t have been, and a few places that had extra speech-marks inserted in the middle of dialogue, or places where they were missing altogether, and following on on the same line rather than being indented and placed on the line down below. It wasn’t often that this occurred, but the few times that it did, it was quite distracting and detracted from the story a little enough to be annoying. Also, there were a few lines of dialogue where the sentence structure was confusing and weirdly worded.
✖️Use of modern phrases — this is always a pet-peeve of mine in historical fiction, but there were only two that stood out to me. I highly doubt that in the 16th century, an aristocratic French lady would tell someone that she would ‘give her pointers’. Maybe I’m being harsh, but it was unrealistic enough that it just jarred.
✖️Overly-sympathetic and unrealistic portrayals of characters - whether or not you believe that Catherine de Medici was really as evil as the vicious rumours say she was, there’s no doubting that she was an incredibly complex woman. But du Pre would have you believe that she is an extremely kindhearted and caring woman. I believe her Catherine even sheds a tear or two while comforting Marie in an embrace, and helps her manoeuvre herself into a position closer to her son Henri of Anjou. I’m sorry, but I have to call bull there. Nothing that I have ever read about Catherine makes that portrayal of her realistic - even if she wasn’t the evil villain her enemies claimed she was. Where is the complicated woman, who has many layers and is actually a human being, rather than this saint we are supposed to accept? I kept wondering what Catherine’s game was, and when she was going to show her hand and drop her facade, but apparently not. Perhaps du Pre was trying to rehabilitate her character, but I think that she was way too heavy-handed and out-of-character to be successful.
The same can be said for the portrayal of Catherine’s son, Henri of Anjou, as a courtly, chivalrous romantic who writes endless letters and poetry to Marie, professing his love. Anjou was so much more complicated and morally grey than du Pre presents - the ‘good’ to the Prince of Conde’s ‘bad’ - and I viewed his character with extreme scepticism the entire time. (Possibly due to prior knowledge of him in real life.)
Du Pre’s bio at the end of the novella states that she has experience as a historical researcher, but there’s creative license, and then there’s just plain inaccuracy.
✖️A ‘confusion of Catherines’ — I have no idea what the collective term for a group of Catherines is, but here in the context of ‘Almost a Queen’, I’ve gone with ‘a confusion’. In the era in which du Pre is writing, so many people often have the same name, and you have to clarify to your readers who the bloody hell you’re talking about, otherwise it gets confusing. For instance, there are four Henrys in the novella - Henry, Prince of Conde - Marie’s husband; Henry of Navarre (later Henry IV of France); Henry, Duke of Guise; and Henry, Duke of Anjou. If that doesn’t spin your head, I don’t know what does. For the sake of clarity, an author needs to distinguish between them all in some way that isn’t confusing to readers. Du Pre does this successfully with her collection of Henrys - Conde is ‘Conde’, or ‘Henry’; the future French king is known as ‘Navarre’; the Duke of Guise is simply ‘Guise’; and the Duke of Anjou is ‘Henri’ or ‘Anjou’. Unfortunately, du Pre doesn’t do this with the few Catherines that appear throughout the novel - namely, Marie’s sister and Catherine de Medici. Both are referred to as ‘Catherine’, and there’s nothing to distinguish them at all. I could be halfway through reading a dialogue between Marie and a ‘Catherine’ only to discover that the friendly woman I thought was her sister is actually Catherine de Medici, the Queen Mother. There’s a big difference between the two. It was annoying and confusing, and every time I saw the name ‘Catherine’, I began to sigh and inwardly ask myself just which bloody Catherine was being referred to.
Despite the length of this giant review (probably longer than the novella itself, to be honest), and all the negative stuff I highlighted, it wasn’t a bad book. It was just what I was looking for - short, entertaining, and written in an engaging manner. Unfortunately though, it just needed a little bit of extra work to make it a great read instead of just a ‘good’ one.
I enjoyed the fresh perspective, and du Pre has a decent novella on her hands, but there were a few things that let it down for me.
✖️Format and grammar — this may simply be a result of the formatting on kindle, and nothing to do on the author’s part. In a few places throughout the text, there were extra full-stops where they shouldn’t have been, and a few places that had extra speech-marks inserted in the middle of dialogue, or places where they were missing altogether, and following on on the same line rather than being indented and placed on the line down below. It wasn’t often that this occurred, but the few times that it did, it was quite distracting and detracted from the story a little enough to be annoying. Also, there were a few lines of dialogue where the sentence structure was confusing and weirdly worded.
✖️Use of modern phrases — this is always a pet-peeve of mine in historical fiction, but there were only two that stood out to me. I highly doubt that in the 16th century, an aristocratic French lady would tell someone that she would ‘give her pointers’. Maybe I’m being harsh, but it was unrealistic enough that it just jarred.
✖️Overly-sympathetic and unrealistic portrayals of characters - whether or not you believe that Catherine de Medici was really as evil as the vicious rumours say she was, there’s no doubting that she was an incredibly complex woman. But du Pre would have you believe that she is an extremely kindhearted and caring woman. I believe her Catherine even sheds a tear or two while comforting Marie in an embrace, and helps her manoeuvre herself into a position closer to her son Henri of Anjou. I’m sorry, but I have to call bull there. Nothing that I have ever read about Catherine makes that portrayal of her realistic - even if she wasn’t the evil villain her enemies claimed she was. Where is the complicated woman, who has many layers and is actually a human being, rather than this saint we are supposed to accept? I kept wondering what Catherine’s game was, and when she was going to show her hand and drop her facade, but apparently not. Perhaps du Pre was trying to rehabilitate her character, but I think that she was way too heavy-handed and out-of-character to be successful.
The same can be said for the portrayal of Catherine’s son, Henri of Anjou, as a courtly, chivalrous romantic who writes endless letters and poetry to Marie, professing his love. Anjou was so much more complicated and morally grey than du Pre presents - the ‘good’ to the Prince of Conde’s ‘bad’ - and I viewed his character with extreme scepticism the entire time. (Possibly due to prior knowledge of him in real life.)
Du Pre’s bio at the end of the novella states that she has experience as a historical researcher, but there’s creative license, and then there’s just plain inaccuracy.
✖️A ‘confusion of Catherines’ — I have no idea what the collective term for a group of Catherines is, but here in the context of ‘Almost a Queen’, I’ve gone with ‘a confusion’. In the era in which du Pre is writing, so many people often have the same name, and you have to clarify to your readers who the bloody hell you’re talking about, otherwise it gets confusing. For instance, there are four Henrys in the novella - Henry, Prince of Conde - Marie’s husband; Henry of Navarre (later Henry IV of France); Henry, Duke of Guise; and Henry, Duke of Anjou. If that doesn’t spin your head, I don’t know what does. For the sake of clarity, an author needs to distinguish between them all in some way that isn’t confusing to readers. Du Pre does this successfully with her collection of Henrys - Conde is ‘Conde’, or ‘Henry’; the future French king is known as ‘Navarre’; the Duke of Guise is simply ‘Guise’; and the Duke of Anjou is ‘Henri’ or ‘Anjou’. Unfortunately, du Pre doesn’t do this with the few Catherines that appear throughout the novel - namely, Marie’s sister and Catherine de Medici. Both are referred to as ‘Catherine’, and there’s nothing to distinguish them at all. I could be halfway through reading a dialogue between Marie and a ‘Catherine’ only to discover that the friendly woman I thought was her sister is actually Catherine de Medici, the Queen Mother. There’s a big difference between the two. It was annoying and confusing, and every time I saw the name ‘Catherine’, I began to sigh and inwardly ask myself just which bloody Catherine was being referred to.
Despite the length of this giant review (probably longer than the novella itself, to be honest), and all the negative stuff I highlighted, it wasn’t a bad book. It was just what I was looking for - short, entertaining, and written in an engaging manner. Unfortunately though, it just needed a little bit of extra work to make it a great read instead of just a ‘good’ one.
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December 7, 2017
I received this free eBook through Bookbub in exchange for a fair review.
This historical fiction, that takes place during the end of the 16th century in Catherine de Medici’s court in France, has a lot of historical details told by a neutral view point, unlike biased historical fictions, that portray Catherine like a saint, I had read before this one. Not only I learned a lot about the European history from the book, that reads a lot like a romance novel and focuses on married Marie’s platonic romance with the Duc of D’Anjou, the future king of France, but after finishing it, I was left with wanting to read more books about this period.
This historical fiction, that takes place during the end of the 16th century in Catherine de Medici’s court in France, has a lot of historical details told by a neutral view point, unlike biased historical fictions, that portray Catherine like a saint, I had read before this one. Not only I learned a lot about the European history from the book, that reads a lot like a romance novel and focuses on married Marie’s platonic romance with the Duc of D’Anjou, the future king of France, but after finishing it, I was left with wanting to read more books about this period.
July 19, 2018
If you are interested in Historical Fiction I highly recommend this book. The story is engaging and I couldn't put it down. I'm currently reading the second book in the three part series about sisters who are in close proximity to the French royal family during the time of Catherine de Medici, the Queen Mother.
February 7, 2018
Easy read and was interesting. . It wasn’t always clear what the reader was trying to portray but eventually you figured it out. The more history you know in general the easier it was to understand parts.
August 21, 2018
I enjoyed this trilogy. I've always enjoyed historical fiction.
July 29, 2019
Really enjoyed the story of the 3 sisters! First one is about the youngest sister who she is married to,what her life is about. You really feel like you are there with them. On to book 2!
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews