"Becoming Josephine" by Heather Webb~Enchanting!

SUMMARY :

A sweeping historical debut about the Creole socialite who transformed herself into an empress

Readers are fascinated with the wives of famous men. In Becoming Josephine, debut novelist Heather Webb follows Rose Tascher as she sails from her Martinique plantation to Paris, eager to enjoy an elegant life at the royal court. Once there, however, Rose’s aristocratic soldier-husband dashes her dreams by abandoning her amid the tumult of the French Revolution. After narrowly escaping death, Rose reinvents herself as Josephine, a beautiful socialite wooed by an awkward suitor—Napoleon Bonaparte.

“A debut as bewitching as its protagonist.” —Erika Robuck, author of Hemingway’s Girl and Call Me Zelda

“Vivid and passionate.” —Susan Spann, author of The Shinobi Mysteries 


PARTICULARS OF THE BOOK :

Published by:  Plume/Penguin Group
Pages:  306
Genre:  Historical Fiction
Author  Heather Webb
Website:  http://www.heatherwebb.net
Purchase this book:  Amazon 
Barnes & Noble
Indiebound


ABOUT THE AUTHOR :

Heather Webb grew up a military brat and naturally became obsessed with travel, culture, and languages. She put her degrees to good use teaching high school French for nearly a decade before turning to full time novel writing and freelance editing.
When not writing, Heather flexes her foodie skills or looks for excuses to head to the other side of the world.
For more information please visit Heather’s website. You can also find her on Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter.


THE BOOKISH DAME REVIEWS :

There are few women of history who are more fascinating than Josephine Bonaparte.  I've often thought of her as the most mysterious and exotic of women, but never knew what it was about her that captured one of the most powerful men of all times.  Heather Webb has gone a long way to answer many of my questions.  Her book, "Becoming Josephine" is the best of any I've read thus far that attempts to portray Josephine as a real woman with depth and character.  This is an extremely worthy book of historical fiction.

While it's not a long book, or it doesn't seem so when you're reading it, this one is fraught with many wonderful details about Josephine and her life in its early and later times.  It builds her persona from her days as a child on Martinique, explaining her roots in religion and the exotic which she brought all the way through her days as the enchanting Empress who won the heart and soul of Napoleon.  She lives in the pages of this novel as we've never seen her before.

I thought the best element of the book was how Ms Webb "aged" Josephine along as a person who was young and searching for the fulfillment of her life, to a woman who had discovered and embraced her destiny.  It's this search for her authentic self that is so charming and persuasive in the novel.  We travel along with her through her times of love, horror, loss and majesty to the end when she can look back on it all.  I loved this broad overview and found it never bogged down by too much in one time frame or relationship in her life.

Heather Webb is a gifted writer who captivates and carries us along with her as she tells her story.  Josephine is a living, breathing person in this novel.  One who will absolutely convince you of her unique spirit and gorgeous allure.

I highly recommend this historical fiction to all HF fans.  It's one you won't forget....

5 stars                        Deborah/TheBookishDame



*This review is brought to you in cooperation with Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tours; however, the review and all opinions are strictly my own.

Please find more reviews, interviews and author comments about this book by visiting http://www.hfvirtualbooktours.com

GIVEAWAY!!! "The Emperor's Conspiracy" by Michelle Diener

 

SUMMARY :

 

From nineteenth-century London’s elegant ballrooms to its darkest slums, a spirited young woman and a nobleman investigating for the Crown unmask a plot by Napoleon to bleed England of its gold.

Chance led to Charlotte Raven’s transformation from chimney sweep to wealthy, educated noblewoman, but she still walks a delicate tightrope between two worlds, unable to turn her back on the ruthless crime lord who was once her childhood protector.

When Lord Edward Durnham is tapped to solve the mystery of England’s rapidly disappearing gold, his search leads him to the stews of London, and Charlotte becomes his intriguing guide to the city’s dark, forbidding underworld. But as her involvement brings Charlotte to the attention of men who have no qualms about who they hurt, and as Edward forges a grudging alliance with the dangerous ghosts of Charlotte’s former life, she faces a choice: to continue living in limbo, or to close the door on the past and risk her heart and her happiness on an unpredictable future.

 

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR :

 

 

 

Michelle Diener has always had a passion for reading and writing. She began writing stories when her parents gave her a typewriter for her twelfth birthday, and she hasn’t stopped since. Born in London and raised in South Africa, she now lives on the west coast of Australia with her husband and two small children.http://www.michellediener.com/

 

 

MICHELLE VISITS WITH THE DAME :

 

Hello, Michelle.  Welcome to A Bookish Libraria!

Thanks for allowing me to ask a few questions to help us get to know you better as a person and an author.  It's always fun to do that for readers! 

1)    First of all, please tell us a special something about what makes you “tick.” When you aren’t writing, what are you doing?

 

Thank you, it's lovely to be here. When I'm not writing, I love being in the kitchen, cooking and baking.  I also have a small herb garden which I'm very proud to say is flourishing.

 

2)    We’re always curious about where a writer chooses to write.  Could you tell us about your favorite place to write?  Describe it in detail…what’s on your desk, what do you see from the window if any…do you have a favorite lucky charm?

 

I either write at my desk, which has quite high windows, so I concentrate on my screen, or I write on my bed, looking out into the garden, or on the patio in my hammock. Although the hammock does get uncomfortable fast. :) No lucky charms, but a good writing friend gave me a beautiful frame with inspirational quotes on it, and a drawing of a pile of books with my name on the spine long before I was published, and I still have that on my desk.

 

3)    Bronte or Austen?  Hemingway or Hawthorne?  Why?

 

Austen. While I think Bronte is wonderful, I like Austen's characters a lot more, and I connect with them better. I read for enjoyment, and I find a lot more enjoyment in Austen than in Bronte. As for Hemingway or Hawthorne, I've only read Hemingway. I'm sure if I'd grown up in the US I'd have read him, but I'm afraid I haven't. And I've only read For Whom the Bell Tolls from Hemingway. But being a writer who loves simplicity and a certain spareness of prose, I love Hemingway's style.

 

4)    In your opinion, what makes a book a great one?

This is a very subjective one. For me personally, I need a plot that has no holes, characters that are real, and a plot or situation which takes my breath away either because of it's complexity, difficult choices or scope. Stir those in with really wonderful writing, and I'm hooked.

 

5)    Which author(s) most influenced your love of books?

 

I'm going to say Enid Blyton. She was my first auto-buy author, at the age of 5. :) I couldn't get enough of her work. Fortunately for me, and all the other fans of The Faraway Tree, The Wishing Chair, The Secret Seven and The Famous Five, she was prolific.

 

6)    Read any good books in the past 6 months?

 

I have, probably too many to mention here. I thoroughly enjoyed Delusion in Death by JD Robb last week. The week before that I read From the Corner of His Eye by Dean Koontz, which I've been meaning to read for ages, and which I loved. 

 

7)    Choose 4 guests from any era for dinner.  Who would they be and what would you choose for a topic of conversation?

 

I'd love to have Leonardo da Vinci, Aristotle, Joan of Arc and Sheherazade and talk about how they see the world. Who wouldn't want to be at that party?

 

8)    There’s a song that goes along with your book, what is it?

 

This is quite a hard one. I have definite songs for my other books, but this one, hmmm . . . Kiss From a Rose by Seal? It has the haunting quality, and the dark edge of this book, I think.

 

9)    If you could cast your book for a movie, who would you choose for your 2 main characters?

 

Michael Fassbender would do very nicely for Edward, and I think Keira Knightly would be a good Charlotte.

 

10)                    Worst habit you have while writing books?

 

Procrastination. I hate it when I do that!

 

11)                    How much research did you do before and during writing?

 

I always do a lot before, and then either come across something I hadn't thought about while writing, and then I go off and find it, or I just use what I already have to double-check my facts as I go.

 

12)                    Psychologists tell us the thing we think we’d most like to grow up to be when we’re ten years old is our avocation.  What did you want to be?

 

A writer. :) I guess I got that right. :)

 

 

Thank you, Michelle.  It's been lovely getting to know you!  I'd already made you out to be an Austen girl!  :]    Your book is wonderful and reflects that timeframe...

 

 

 

                             GIVEAWAY!!!

 

      WE ARE GIVING AWAY A COPY OF

          "THE EMPEROR'S CONSPIRACY"

 

JUST  LEAVE A COMMENT SAYING WHY YOU LOVE HISTORICAL FICTION, AND TWEET ABOUT THIS POST.

 

THIS GIVEAWAY ENDS ON DECEMBER 31st

 

LIMITED TO US ONLY, PLEASE....

 

 

 

THIS TOUR IS BROUGHT TO YOU BY HISTORICAL FICTION VIRTUAL BOOK TOURS!!!

 

 

Please follow this link to find out more about "The Emperor's Conspiracy" and to follow the tour on other blogs:  Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tours

"The Unruly Passions of Eugenie R.: A Novel" by Carole DeSanti~Love and War in France Fell Short...

Cover rating: Oh, my, I love this book cover.  So sensuous and so penitent.  Mysterious, dark background with the bowed head of a woman of "unruly passions" who seems ashamed of herself, as all good women of the time frame of France's 2nd Empire (1860-1871) need be.  Her opulent dress, red-stoned earrings, hair style and full blown rose don't speak to her true sorrow, however.  Something is amiss...  I love the beautiful decorative lace at the bottom of the cover, the font throughout, the tatooish design in the middle of her back, and the separation of the author's name.  The author's name stands out beautifully as it should.  This cover tells the story of the book perfectly.  Rated: A+

The Dame's Full Review:  I wanted so much to love "The Unruly Passions of Eugenie R."  The cover had me from the moment I saw it.  I would have paid top dollar for it just for the cover art alone, and the anticipation of reading what must only have been a wonderful story within.  Good thing I was fortunate enough to receive a netgalley.  Sadly, this book was a surprising disappointment.

Let's say from the out-start that this book is in keeping with such books as "Sister Carrie," "Tess..., " "Ruth," and others about young women who leave the security of hearth and home, are seduced by the wealthy, beautiful young man, find themselves pregnant and destitute and have to turn to debauchery...   In this case, it's simply set in Napoleonic France.  That being said, you can nearly predict how the story will go.

Written in staccato voice, it grated.  The words were relentless.  Descriptive in places, but falling drunkenly about with too much fluff surrounding them.  The essence of Eugenie's story was clouded by the wordiness and vague implications of too many things.  Some vagueness one could understand, but this was like reading a Picasso! (I read Picasso's without much too much difficulty, so this may not be the best example, but you take my meaning.) Further, I happen to be one who loves historical fiction and France in particular.  So, you know if I had a difficult time, we're talking a serious issue. 

I found myself nearly pulling my hair out, wanting a substantive story to pick up. I wanted to fall in love with it, it had all the possibilities.  With so little to go on in early characterization, it was just impossible. A third of the way in (roughly 125 pages), I have to say, I started skimming for something to sink my teeth into.  Then, I realized if I was doing that....I couldn't recommend it to any of my readers.

Nearly every single writer, reader and teacher/professor I've ever encountered has said that the sign of a good book is the ability of an author to engender the interest and passions of the reader around character(s).  A good story with good characters makes a book great, and creates the classics.  What didn't happen for me in "The Unruly Passions of Eugenie R." is a clarity of characterization.  I couldn't find the complete character to know her well enough, to fall in love with her soon enough, to keep me interested enough to keep reading the book. 

What I also found so disappointing in this is that the bones of a good story were there.  It seemed the execution of the book was lacking.  Ms DeSanti is no slouch in the world of books and publishing, obvious to us via her bio. She's not anything if not daunting. 


If you look at the accolades she's received from quite famous authors about "Unruly..." you'll be shocked that I could possibly write a review such as this.  All I can say is "Emperor's New Clothes."
Gulp....  I'll probably never receive another book in my life from Penguin.


 My concern is that someone wasn't honest enough with Ms. DeSanti to give her a good edit. Someone in her group of cronies wasn't brave enough to get real with her.The book could have been brilliant with some help.  Instead, she was cheated from giving her best work I'm betting, and we are left with only high hopes for a next book.  I hope she writes again, in less time, less studied over, and with some great editing. Sometimes ten years or more is too long to birth a book.

"Unruly Passions...." was published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

3 stars for effort and research

Deborah/TheBookishDame


http://caroledesanti.com   Here is a link to her beautiful, artistically created website!  Go there and be dazzled!  You will also find an excerpt of the book.

Carole DeSanti, known for her championing of independent, high-quality voices
in women’s fiction as an editor at Penguin, has been clandestinely writing The
Unruly Passions of Eugénie R. for over a decade. She has been profiled in
Poets & Writers’ Magazine, published in the Women’s Review of Books, and
awarded fellowships at the Five College Women’s Studies Research Center and
Hedgebrook.