Confessions of Marie Antoinette by Juliet Grey
Book 3 in Marie Antoinette Trilogy
ARC, Paperback, 466 pages
Ballantine Books
September 24, 2013
★★★★☆
Genre: Historical Fiction
Source: Received from publisher for review for HFBRT tour
“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.”
The final installment of Grey’s trilogy of Marie Antoinette covers the final portion of the queen’s life, the downfall of the monarchy. I find this phase of Marie Antoinette’s life to be full of all the real drama she faced – not just the petty stuff, but the time when everything become very real for her. MA goes from being entirely ensconced in her dream world of plays, fripperies, and dances to the gritty world of the people in their revolution. Decisions become a matter of life and death – and each decision has to be weighed out. This is some pretty heavy stuff and is the more serious in tone of the three novels. Despite the tendency of the events toward the macabre, Grey does a great job of continuing to evolve the character of Marie Antoinette and Co. Like other novels where you know from the start that the ending is going to be anything but happy, the author puts you into the mind of Marie Antoinette and makes you believe that there is a chance that the outcome could be different.
Out of the three MA novels I think I liked this one the least (despite my giving them the same star rating) and I can’t exactly place the reason. It might be because of the heavier tone.
There was one thing that I didn’t really like in the style of the novel and that was the usage of another narrator, a member of the revolutionaries, in addition to Marie Antoinette. From what I remember from the first two novels, Marie Antoinette was the sole narrator, so I didn’t really like the addition of this new narrator that I didn’t have a history with already. I understand the inclusion of this narrator – with the first person narration of MA you miss out on what is really happening on the street during the Revolution – but I think I would have liked the flow better without this second narrator.
Overall, as a whole, this series does a great job in my opinion of representing the complete Marie Antoinette and her evolution of character.
Author Juliet Grey also has written the prior books in the series Becoming Marie Antoinette and Days of Splendor Days of Sorrow. You can visit Grey’s website for additional information about the book. If you would like to preview the story before reading it, why not try out this excerpt of the book?
My reviews of other books by this author:
Reviews of this book by other bloggers:
Here are some choices for purchasing the book: Amazon, B&N, RJ Julia (my fav indie bookstore).
You can follow along with the rest of the blog tour by visiting the HFVBT website or on Twitter with the following hashtag: #ConfessionsOfMATour.
I also have a giveaway of one copy of Confessions of Marie Antoinette up for grabs to a US resident as part of the tour. Giveaway is open until October 27th. Submit your entries through Rafflecopter below. Good luck!
Copyright © 2013 by The Maiden’s Court
It is hard to read about a real character that you know is going to meet a terrible ending. But I still would enjoy reading this novel.
ReplyDeleteIt certainly can be - especially if it is a sympathetic character.
DeleteI didn't like the inclusion of a second narrator in this one -- I understand the why for it, but it took me away from MA and broke up the emotional tension for me. Still, I thought it was a very solid conclusion to a great trilogy.
ReplyDeleteI agree with everything you said!
DeleteThank you for your review of this book. I look forward to reading it.
ReplyDeleteThis book looks very interesting to me. Thank you for the giveaway
ReplyDeleteThis book sounds perfect for me
ReplyDeleteThanks for the giveaway!
ReplyDeleteReally enjoyed the first two books in the series - can't wait to read this one!
ReplyDeleteI've ordered the first two and would love to win a copy of the third. Thank you for sharing that you like this installment the least; other reviews I've seen said the opposite, so it's nice to see balancing viewpoints.
ReplyDeleteI still rated them all the same - it wasn't that I liked it significantly less - just not as much as the others. Still very good novel tho.
DeleteThis is on my TBR, but I still need to read the first two. I actually didn't realize there was a 2nd one. Guess I'd better get going on it!
ReplyDeleteI had no idea this was a trilogy...I guess I need to add these onto my nook! Thanks for the review and a chance to win a copy!
ReplyDeleteOh no! Yes it is a trilogy - 1) Becoming Marie Antoinette, 2) Days of Splendor, Days of Sorrow, 3) Confessions of Marie Antoinette.
Delete