The Flower Reader by Elizabeth Loupas

Tags

Mary of Guise, mary queen of scots

It was not easy to search for a murderer when one was a queen’s lady

The Flower Reader is one of those books where the less you know about the story the better, so I’m keeping the plot description very brief and just will just tease instead with a few favorite quotes. Rinette Leslie of Granmuir is a very minor member of Mary of Guise’s household, and as such she’s the perfect choice when the dying regent needs someone to slip a casket of secret letters and other juicy stuff out of the castle and into its super-secret hiding place until it can be turned over to Scotland’s new queen, Mary Stuart.

No one paid any more attention to me. I walked out of the room with the silver casket and the masses of flowers in my arms.

Well, let’s just say things don’t exactly go according to Hoyle, and Rinette’s life is about to take some seriously unexpected twists and turns. Just about everyone is hot to get their hands on the casket and the secrets it contains (loved the Nostradamus twist!), and will go to any lengths to get their hands on them. No surprise, but Rinette finds herself right in the middle of it all dodging unknown assassins in darkened corridors.

You have made an enemy, Mistress Rinette.

The UK cover

And that is all I’m going to tell you – read it for yourself. I was hooked by the first chapter and loved every minute of it. I adored Rinette’s voice, especially her *asides* on the young queen and her court, and the mystery kept me guessing until the end (it will keep you turning the pages). The floromancy twist was unique and a lot of fun (especially the flower she thought of when looking at Darnley :D). I’m one reader who is about as tired of Mary Queen of Scots as I am of the Tudors, but this was a refreshing look at her, and set during her first years as queen before all that Darnley/Bothwell melodrama. My copy came with maps, genealogical charts and a cast of characters (very much appreciated). 5/5 stars. Run, don’t walk, to your nearest bookstore on April 3rd to get your hands on a copy.

Many thanks to the folks at NAL for an early copy, and a finished one at that. I love to quote so that was doubly appreciated.

Vienna Waltz by Teresa Grant

Tags

talleyrand, vienna congress

The year is 1814 and Europe’s leaders have gathered in Vienna to redefine the boundaries from Napoleon’s now defunct empire. As the book opens, Princess Tatiana Kirsanova is found brutally murdered and the suspects are as numerous as her lovers – and that includes Malcolm Rannoch, attaché to the British ambassador – everyone in Vienna is convinced he’s Tatiana’s lover, including his wife Suzanne. Or did Tsar Alexander do Tatiana in? Prince Metternich, the Austrian foreign minister? Might the infamous Talleyrand who has his fingers in every pie have something to do with it? What deep dark secret could Tatiana have stumbled on that someone would want to kill for?

Whew, the possibilities are just endless. This was a fast, fun and very entertaining read that will keep you turning the pages to see what happens next. The cast of characters (historical and fictional) are large and complex and do use the guide the author provides (Dramatis Personae as she calls it). There’s plenty of history, mystery and romance (I’d have liked to see more romance, but beggars can’t be choosers). Suzanne and Malcolm are smart, intelligent, urbane and very very witty (do not mess with Suzanne, whatever you do), and I really appreciated the author including some real moments of interaction with their son, he was very much more than mere window dressing or a plot device. I loved watching their relationship develop and unfold and definitely want to read more, and from what I understand there’s more coming soon and from this blog interview apparently Grant has written other books on this pair, and had to change her name and the pair’s name with the new publisher Kensington. Why do they do that?

4/5 stars and just so Mr. FTC can sleep at night I obtained my copy from my county library. The world is still safe.

The Second Duchess by Elizabeth Loupas

Barbara of Austria is the second duchess of Alfonso II d’Este, Duke of Ferrara – his first duchess, Lucrezia de’ Medici having died mysteriously several years before. Barbara may not be the great beauty that wife #1 was, but she’s got brains and breeding and goes into the marriage with her eyes wide open and accepts her lot in life. Well sort of, because she’s soon hearing unsettling rumors that Lucrezia may have met an untimely end and Barbara decides to investigate for herself, which is no easy task when one’s every move is observed and reported back to one’s husband.  No surprise, but Barbara finds she’s opened a bigger can of worms then she really wanted and she finds herself having a few too many close accidents. Could it be Alfonso himself who did in Lucrezia and now has the same plans for her?  One of his jealous sisters? Or his brother the Cardinal? Or…

…I’m thinking you really don’t want me to tell you, do you? It’s a lot more fun to read it for yourself and see if you can guess. I enjoyed this book a lot, and found it a great change of pace and I’m hoping there will be more from Ms. Loupas in the near future. There are two narrators in this piece, one being Barbara and so as not to spoil the fun I won’t name the other but trust me, you’ll love the twist and the voice of both ladies, and that says a lot coming from one who doesn’t normally care for first person narratives. Barbara’s voice was very much what I would expect from a woman of her class and breeding, no stamping of feet demanding *twu wuv* forever. No hysterical pouts when she doesn’t get her way with her husband. How refreshing.

Ms. Loupas does a great job with her setting, giving the reader a good sense of time and place with realistic characters acting appropriately to their positions. All in all a very engaging read, a great mystery that keeps you guessing and turning the pages until the very end. Recommended.

FTC disclosure – I won a copy off of Librarything.

Poison by Sara Poole

This plot is a bit complicated so I will try to keep this summary short and sweet. Francesca Giordano is daughter to the official poisoner for Rodrigo Borgia (what a job). Her father is mysteriously bumped off, and with her eye on taking over pop’s job she shows off her poisoning skills to Borgia and like that she’s got the gig – and that includes finding a way to bump off Pope Innocent before he can sign an edict expelling the Jewish refugees flooding Rome after being expelled from Spain during the Inquisition).

About halfway through the story switches gears as the Pope finally dies (no spoiler, that’s known history) and the story switches focus to a fight between the forces of good (Borgia who wants to protect the Jews so they can continue to bribe him) and bad (the rabid churchmen who want to incite Rome into slaughtering the Jews) and Francesca finds herself in the thick of things in a nail-biting race to save a child from becoming an unwilling sacrifice at the hands of a madman.

The first person narrative used in this book (admittedly not my favorite), comes off at times as overly chatty, it feels like she’s retelling it to an audience and sometimes the attempts at humor fall a bit flat – at least for me. I really didn’t care much for Francesca, nor could I pick up on why she’s so attractive to all the men lusting after her. In the end, this was an OK book, not bad but certainly not great either. If you like historical mystery/thrillers with a OTT credulity stretching heroine who can leap tall buildings in a single bound (let alone diagnose someone with “influenza” years before the word came into use), you might want to give this a whirl. If you’re like me and expecting a serious novel with new insights into the Borgias I’d recommend you keep searching as you won’t find that here. From the ending as well as the jacket blurbs I am guessing this is going to be an ongoing series – Francesca and the Borgias will return to fight the evil priests of Renaissance Italy. Nicely timed now that Showtime is switching gears, hmmm? 3/5 stars.

FTC, I got it via Amazon Vine.