TLC Book Tours Review and Giveaway: The Sisters of Versailles by Sally Christie

Title: The Sisters of Versailles
Author: Sally Christie
Format: ARC
Publisher: Atria Books
Publish Date: September 1, 2015
Source: TLC Book Tours

What's the Story?:

From Goodreads.com: "Set against the lavish backdrop of the French Court in the early years of the 18th century, The Sisters of Versailles is the extraordinary tale of the five Nesle sisters: Louise, Pauline, Diane, Hortense, and Marie-Anne, four of whom became mistresses to King Louis XV. Their scandalous story is stranger than fiction but true in every shocking, amusing, and heartbreaking detail.

Court intriguers are beginning to sense that young King Louis XV, after seven years of marriage, is tiring of his Polish wife. The race is on to find a mistress for the royal bed as various factions put their best foot - and women - forward. The King's scheming ministers push Louise, the eldest of the aristocratic Nesle sisters, into the arms of the King. Over the following decade, the four sisters:sweet, naive Louise; ambitious Pauline; complacent Diane, and cunning Marie Anne, will conspire, betray, suffer, and triumph in a desperate fight for both love and power."

My Two Cents:

"The Sisters of Versailles" takes place during the reign of France's King Louis XV. As much as I read about French and French royalty I really don't know too much about this Louis. Usually, it seems that Louis XIV and Louis XVI seem to be favored subjects for historical fiction. This book talks about a set of sisters where four out of the five sisters become mistresses to Louis XV. The book is told through the perspective of all five of the sisters as well as letters that they write back and forth to each other. There also some letters from their aunt who kind of takes care of them. This book is the first in the new trilogy on these five sisters.

I like that this book was able to capture the personalities and the relationships in between all of the sisters so that we can understand their motivations and how they feel about each other. Obviously, because they have relationships with the king, there is a lot of tension with the sisters and a good dose of competitiveness. I did think that some parts of the book could be slimmed down a little bit in order to get this story to go a little bit faster. There were places in the book that got a little too bogged down in details for me.

The beginning and end of the book are told from the perspective of Hortense, the only sister who doesn't become one of the King's mistresses. I thought this was an interesting touch. Overall, I really liked reading about this little nugget of history and I'm interested to see where this trilogy goes.

Giveaway:

I am happy to be able to give away a copy of this book (US/ CAN only, please!). Interested? Just fill out the Rafflecopter form below!


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