Rodrigo Maceda Del R Maceda Del R itibaren Buenos Aires, Ekvador
Engaging book told from the perspective of an 8 year old girl. This book will have a profound impact. You will be heartbroken as the story unfolds. It's thought provoking, heavy, emotional book. At first when reading it, I thought it would be your predictable abuse story.....the one where the child is abused and someone comes along and saves her from her fate. I was not at all expecting the twist this one took. Wow. Not at all predictable. It's hard to read from an emotional perspective, but a good book.
Poitou, 1648. Angélique is the daughter of a minor baron, and a very poor one at that. After spending her younger years as a bit of a tomboy, she is eventually married to the fearsome Comte de Peyrac (he dabbles a bit in alchemy and other mysterious doings). It doesn't take long for Angélique to find a man of gold underneath the dross and it's true love forever - that is until some evil baddies plot against Joffrey and… Well, I can't go much further without spoiling, but our heroine finds herself in a battle for her life, as well as the lives as her two sons and she eventually sinks as low as she can get. Can she drag herself out of the underworld and herself back up again? To what lengths she will go to get her greatest desire, a place at Versailles in the Court of Louis XIV? Perhaps that casket with a deadly secret hidden so long ago just might come in handy right about now? Wow, what a ride! Angélique's life is a never ending roller coaster of ups and downs (although many of them do get to be a bit too OTT at times), and the Golons do a nice job of working their characters in with known historical events and people. Despite the rather lurid covers this book has, and yes our intrepid heroine does have a number of lovers, the sex is very understated and left pretty much to the reader's imagination. These books were written before the days of being very PC, and there are some plot turns (especially in book two) that might disturb some of today's more *sensitive* readers. These books are very hard to find at a reasonable price, but do persevere, you never know when you'll have that lucky find at the used book store or hit the jackpot at the swap sites. These books were originally written in French and translated into English. Some editions have been broken up with different titles, so it can be tricky to make sure you have a complete one. The edition I read had about 800 pages, so if you've something that is in the 400 range, you are missing a book between this and the next in the series, Angélique and the King. If you need help sorting them out, there's a very useful website here, http://www.worldofangelique.com/
I've read about 40 pages and have not fallen in love with this one. I haven't finished her short stories, either. But Nancy Pearl says you should read the first 50 pages before you bail. So I'll keep going a...little..bit...longer.