Catherine de Medici is sent from her native Italy to marry Henri, the second son of François I. More interested in hunting and his older mistress Diane de Poitiers Henri has little interest in his wife, which makes it difficult for her to do her duty to be fruitful and multiply. Eventually Henri’s older brother dies leaving him heir to France’s throne and becomes king upon his father’s death. Diane continues to wield greater influence over Henri, leaving Catherine in the proverbial dust heap – although Diane does encourage Henri to spend enough time with his wife to conceive the needed heirs. Upon Henri’s death during a joust (no spoilers, that’s known history), Catherine is able to come into her own as regent and fights tooth and nail for her children and to keep the Valois dynasty alive.

That’s pretty much the quick run down – yes there’s a whole lot to it than that but I am not into book reports – read it for yourself.  I found this a quick, entertaining read and I really enjoyed seeing the “other Catherine” as Gortner found her instead of the spell-casting, have-drink-will-poison/slip-a-knife in your back all around baddie as history has led us to believe.  While she did seem a bit too good for her own good at the beginning, once Catherine was *in charge* and fighting for her brood she was definitely a force to be reckoned with and I had a hard time putting the book down.

I appreciated how well the author wrote the events leading up to the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre and the continuing conflicts between the Catholics and the Huguenots as well as the intrigues between the royal family, Guise and Henry of Navarre. This is a complicated period and he handled it quite well without dumbing it down for the reader – thank you. All in all a very engaging read shedding a different light on one of history’s more maligned women. 4/5 stars.

For those interested in further reading I’d suggest Alexandre Dumas’ La Reine Margot (with his delightfully OTT evil Catherine) which I enjoyed a lot despite a rocky start. I believe Dumas continues the Valois story with Chicot the Jester and The Forty-five Guardsmen, and for more of Diane de Poitiers Dumas wrote about a *supposed* daughter of Diane and Henri in The Two Dianas. Real history? No, but jolly good fun.

FTC? If you must, I got it from the library.