Blog Tour & Giveaway: Becoming Marie Antoinette by Juliet Grey

  “This enthralling confection of a novel, the first in a new trilogy, follows the transformation of a coddled Austrian archduchess into the reckless, powerful, beautiful queen Marie Antoinette.

Why must it be me? I wondered. When I am so clearly inadequate to my destiny?

Raised alongside her numerous brothers and sisters by the formidable empress of Austria, ten-year-old Maria Antonia knew that her idyllic existence would one day be sacrificed to her mother’s political ambitions. What she never anticipated was that the day in question would come so soon.

Before she can journey from sunlit picnics with her sisters in Vienna to the glitter, glamour, and gossip of Versailles, Antonia must change everything about herself in order to be accepted as dauphine of France and the wife of the awkward teenage boy who will one day be Louis XVI. Yet nothing can prepare her for the ingenuity and influence it will take to become queen.

Filled with smart history, treacherous rivalries, lavish clothes, and sparkling jewels, Becoming Marie Antoinette will utterly captivate fiction and history lovers alike.”

Two words to describe this first book in a brand new trilogy about Marie Antoinette: deliciously addictive. I honestly could not put it down and could not be more thrilled that there is more to come. While historical fiction about Marie Antoinette is not hard to come by (throw a book in the fiction section and you might hit one), Juliet Grey’s work Becoming Marie Antoinette still comes off fresh and exciting. While all the background we know about Marie Antoinette is still there, there is so much more detail and historical reference that Grey brings into her work. It’s definitely one of the best historical fiction works I have read in years.

The perspective in this first book is a very young ‘Toinette. The first person narrative truly brings you into the life of the young child that Marie Antoinette was as she was transformed into a Queen. It begins in her childhood and follows her life into Versailles as the dauphine of France. She is young, innocent and almost unrecognizable for the figure she will become. It’s a side of Marie Antoinette I had never really truly considered in many ways. And thus far…she’s extremely likeable. It will be intereseting to see how she develops further down the line as she ages and steps into the royal slippers of a Queen of France.

Well-researched and lovingly written with sparkling details-this new trilogy is not one to be missed by any lover of historical fiction or Marie Antoinette centered works. This book ends and leaves you wanting more. It’s almost a tease being so good…now the wait for Book 2 begins.

Don’t want to take my word for it? Make sure to check out all the other stops on this TLC Book Blog Tour for Becoming Marie Antoinette.

Book Giveaway

One lucky reader of Stiletto Storytime will win their very own copy of Becoming Marie Antoinette. Giveaway ends midnight EST August 18, 2011. US/Canada addresses only please. The winner will be chosen by random.org and notified by e-mail address. Good Luck to all and Happy Reading!

To enter simply comment below telling us which historical figure you enjoy reading about most…

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