How good was this book? I finished it in a little under two days. That's quite the accomplishment considering I spent the better part of one of those days hungover. Roller derbies and breweries make for an exciting Saturday....anyway....

As far as British monarchs go, I know little about the ones that come between Elizabeth I and Victoria. The period of civil wars and the Restoration has always intrigued me and I am slowly learning more. This novel of Frances Stuart was a fantastic story about the lives of the royal and noble families after the Restoration. Lady Castlemaine is my next subject of research. Jefferson's Lady Castlemaine reminded me of Lepida from Kate Quinn's [b:Mistress of Rome|6581303|Mistress of Rome (The Empress of Rome, #1)|Kate Quinn|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1401205299s/6581303.jpg|6774744] (only not quite as nasty).

Jefferson did an excellent job making the reader feel Frances' agony and pain throughout the novel. At some point Frances tells Charles she doesn't want to be another Anne Boleyn. After the miscarriage of her daughter, Frances thinks "How could I fail her before she took her first breath?" As a mother, that thought brought an onslaught of tears. .

I won this book as part of a Goodreads give away. I intitally wasn't going to enter as the time period was out of my normal wheelhouse but after finishing this book, I am so glad I entered. I would have never picked up this book if I hadn't won a copy. The autograph and the bookmark that came with the book were added bonuses. I love when books come with book marks!

Full review here.

 

A really lovely debut novel, with a heroine I'd have to hate were she not so fabulous. 

 

Courtier Frances Stuart is so super gorgeous more than one monarch propositions her, but she's known for putting them off (sort of). 

 

Badly done, Frances would have been a flaky flip-flopper who sleeps around and slut shames, but in Jefferson's hands, our heroine is multidimensional and real.  She wants to have sex with a hot guy and she's anxious about the state of her soul.  She wants to be an inspiration and she wants to be ordinary.  She feels loyalty and jealousy, doubt and confidence, and she manages to be both sexy and restrained in a way that felt real to me.

 

In an interview with a book blogger, Jefferson said she "became obsessed with the desire to do for the Stuarts what Philippa Gregory had done for the Tudors".  In my opinion, the sexytimes here were far less gratuitous than in the few Gregory novels I've read.  I can't attest to the historical accuracy in this one -- not my era -- but as one who is Tudor'ed out, I wouldn't mind a new dynasty getting some play.

I read this back in December and decided to hold off posting my review until closer to the publication date.

 

This is a fascinating fictionalized look at Frances Stuart's life. I did not know much about Frances before reading this book so I did some research on her and it made me eager to read this. Frances' face was used as a model for Britannia on British coins and medals. King Charles II of England fell in love with Frances while she was a lady-in-waiting to his wife.

While this is a fictionalized view of Frances Stuart's life, the author does base it on history. There are some unknowns about Frances and I feel like the author did a good job at filling in those unknowns and then explaining to readers her reasoning based on certain sources and known historical facts. I loved how she portrayed everyone in this book. I felt so connected with Frances and couldn't help but cheer her on throughout the book.

I would highly recommend this book to historical fiction fans and particularly to people wanting to know more about Frances Stuart. I look forward to reading more from Marci Jefferson.

 

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me the chance to read this book.

 

I have finished this book and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I will be posting my review of it closer to the publication date (probably next month). I still have this book on my brain because when my sister did something that annoyed me I flicked my hand at her and told her "Be out of my sight."

I didn't have much knowledge about Frances Stuart before reading this book so I did a little research on her and was fascinated by it. This has been intriguing so far, some parts have even been juicy. There was so much adultry back then and so far that has been pretty prevalent in this book. I am looking forward to reading more about Frances (I am especially looking forward to reading about her and Charles II).