Impressively well-researched historical fiction conveyed with dramatic verve.
In this third installment of a series, Anne of Brittany and her husband, Louis XII, the king of France, struggle to agree on a future husband for their daughter, a choice with high political stakes.
Initially, the decision regarding the marital future of Princess Claude of France is amicably made in the early 16th century by her parents. Both Anne and Louis select Charles of Luxembourg, not quite 2 years old, to one day marry their infant daughter. Their reasons for picking Charles, while different, are borne out of political strategy, lucidly depicted in this historical novel by Gaston (Anne and Louis: Passion and Politics in Early Renaissance France, 2018, etc.). Anne pushes the idea, knowing Charles is destined for great power: He’s the son of Philip of Burgundy, archduke of Austria and heir to the Holy Roman Empire, and Joanna of Castile, the daughter of Ferdinand, the king of Spain. Since Charles will one day become the Holy Roman emperor and Claude the duchess of Brittany, he surely would prevent the French usurpation of Brittany, preserving its sovereignty, a cause close to Anne’s heart. And Louis hopes that Ferdinand will support his interests in Italy. But Louis harbors a “secret desire” for Claude to wed Francis d’Angoulême, the son of a dead cousin, in order to maintain the throne within his own bloodline. Even after brokering the arrangement with Philip and Joanna, he furtively authorizes the composition of a new will that ensures the future matrimony of Claude and Francis, risking the astonished ire of Anne. In this engrossing volume of the Anne of Brittany series, the author deftly re-creates the complex political landscape of Europe, an entangled skein of agreements and acrimonies. Her mastery of the historical period is superb, and her portrayal of the social nuances of the day, painstakingly authentic. In addition, the relationship between Anne and Louis—romantically strong but politically disharmonious—is brought to vivid life (Louis’ “mind wandered to Anne. Would she remain loyal to him, should she find out one day that he had promised Claude to Francis? He could bear a rupture with Ferdinand, the Borgias, the Venetians, or the Florentines, but he couldn’t bear the thought of one with his wife”). This is a delightful blend of historical rigor and dramatic entertainment delivered in easily companionable prose.
Impressively well-researched historical fiction conveyed with dramatic verve.Pub Date: Dec. 12, 2019
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 401
Publisher: Renaissance Editions
Review Posted Online: Nov. 12, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Forget about solving all these crimes; the signal triumph here is (spoiler) the heroine’s survival.
Another sweltering month in Charlotte, another boatload of mysteries past and present for overworked, overstressed forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan.
A week after the night she chases but fails to catch a mysterious trespasser outside her town house, some unknown party texts Tempe four images of a corpse that looks as if it’s been chewed by wild hogs, because it has been. Showboat Medical Examiner Margot Heavner makes it clear that, breaking with her department’s earlier practice (The Bone Collection, 2016, etc.), she has no intention of calling in Tempe as a consultant and promptly identifies the faceless body herself as that of a young Asian man. Nettled by several errors in Heavner’s analysis, and even more by her willingness to share the gory details at a press conference, Tempe launches her own investigation, which is not so much off the books as against the books. Heavner isn’t exactly mollified when Tempe, aided by retired police detective Skinny Slidell and a host of experts, puts a name to the dead man. But the hints of other crimes Tempe’s identification uncovers, particularly crimes against children, spur her on to redouble her efforts despite the new M.E.’s splenetic outbursts. Before he died, it seems, Felix Vodyanov was linked to a passenger ferry that sank in 1994, an even earlier U.S. government project to research biological agents that could control human behavior, the hinky spiritual retreat Sparkling Waters, the dark web site DeepUnder, and the disappearances of at least four schoolchildren, two of whom have also turned up dead. And why on earth was Vodyanov carrying Tempe’s own contact information? The mounting evidence of ever more and ever worse skulduggery will pull Tempe deeper and deeper down what even she sees as a rabbit hole before she confronts a ringleader implicated in “Drugs. Fraud. Breaking and entering. Arson. Kidnapping. How does attempted murder sound?”
Forget about solving all these crimes; the signal triumph here is (spoiler) the heroine’s survival.Pub Date: March 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9821-3888-2
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Scribner
Review Posted Online: Dec. 22, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2020
With frank language and patient plotting, this gangly teen crush grows into a confident adult love affair.
Eleven years ago, he broke her heart. But he doesn’t know why she never forgave him.
Toggling between past and present, two love stories unfold simultaneously. In the first, Macy Sorensen meets and falls in love with the boy next door, Elliot Petropoulos, in the closet of her dad’s vacation home, where they hide out to discuss their favorite books. In the second, Macy is working as a doctor and engaged to a single father, and she hasn’t spoken to Elliot since their breakup. But a chance encounter forces her to confront the truth: what happened to make Macy stop speaking to Elliot? Ultimately, they’re separated not by time or physical remoteness but by emotional distance—Elliot and Macy always kept their relationship casual because they went to different schools. And as a teen, Macy has more to worry about than which girl Elliot is taking to the prom. After losing her mother at a young age, Macy is navigating her teenage years without a female role model, relying on the time-stamped notes her mother left in her father’s care for guidance. In the present day, Macy’s father is dead as well. She throws herself into her work and rarely comes up for air, not even to plan her upcoming wedding. Since Macy is still living with her fiance while grappling with her feelings for Elliot, the flashbacks offer steamy moments, tender revelations, and sweetly awkward confessions while Macy makes peace with her past and decides her future.
With frank language and patient plotting, this gangly teen crush grows into a confident adult love affair.Pub Date: April 10, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-5011-2801-1
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Gallery Books/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2018
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