TLC Book Tours Book Review: Sisters of Versailles

Author: Sally Christie
Title: Sisters of Versailles
Publisher: Atria Books
Publish Date: Sept 1, 2015
Buy: Amazon
Book Blurb: 

A sumptuous and sensual tale of power, romance, family, and betrayal centered around four sisters and one King. Carefully researched and ornately detailed, The Sisters of Versailles is the first book in an exciting new historical fiction trilogy about King Louis XV, France’s most “well-beloved” monarch, and the women who shared his heart and his bed.

Goodness, but sisters are a thing to fear.

Set against the lavish backdrop of the French Court in the early years of the 18th century, The Sisters of Versailles is the extraordinary tale of the five Nesle sisters—Louise, Pauline, Diane, Hortense, and Marie-Anne—four of whom became mistresses to King Louis XV. Their scandalous story is stranger than fiction but true in every shocking, amusing, and heartbreaking detail.

Court intriguers are beginning to sense that young King Louis XV, after seven years of marriage, is tiring of his Polish wife. The race is on to find a mistress for the royal bed as various factions put their best foot—and women—forward. The King’s scheming ministers push Louise, the eldest of the aristocratic Nesle sisters, into the arms of the King. Over the following decade, the four sisters—sweet, naïve Louise; ambitious Pauline; complacent Diane, and cunning Marie Anne—will conspire, betray, suffer, and triumph in a desperate fight for both love and power.

In the tradition of The Other Boleyn Girl, The Sisters of Versailles is a clever, intelligent, and absorbing novel that historical fiction fans will devour. Based on meticulous research on a group of women never before written about in English, Sally Christie’s stunning debut is a complex exploration of power and sisterhood—of the admiration, competition, and even hatred that can coexist within a family when the stakes are high enough.

Review: I love love love this kind of book.  It is the first of three and I'm going to have to read them all. It is hard to believe that 4, count em 4 sisters could fall into the bed of the same man, let alone the king of France, but that is what happened here.

The story is perfect for those that love books like The Other Boleyn Girl. Only imagine that this family has 4 out of 5 sisters that end up in bed with the king. Yikes.

I've read a lot of stories about the French monarchy, almost as many as I've read about the English monarchy, and I've not encountered anything about these sisters.

How the heck did that happen? And if there are books, why did I miss them.

I do think that part of the reason I missed out on these ladies is because of Louis XV's other mistress, Madame du Pompadour.  (If you don't know who she is, what The Girl In The Fireplace episode of Doctor Who) But back to these sisters, they are all very different women with equally different personalities.

I liked Louise and the ditzy Diane, but Pauline and Marie Anne were downright evil ad nasty and Hortense, the only sister not to shack up with the king was way to pious for my liking. If you didn't know that these women and their stories were real this definitely felt like a work of total fiction.

I absolutely loved this book and cant want to read the next book in the Mistresses of Versailles series.

Rating : 5 flowers