TLC Book Tours Book Review: Ribbons of Scarlet

About Ribbons of Scarlet

• Paperback: 560 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks (October 1, 2019)

“The French Revolution comes alive through the eyes of six diverse and complex women, in the skilled hands of these amazing authors.”--Martha Hall Kelly, New York Times bestselling author of Lilac Girls

A breathtaking, epic novel illuminating the hopes, desires, and destinies of princesses and peasants, harlots and wives, fanatics and philosophers—seven unforgettable women whose paths cross during one of the most tumultuous and transformative events in history: the French Revolution.

Ribbons of Scarlet is a timely story of the power of women to start a revolution—and change the world.

In late eighteenth-century France, women do not have a place in politics. But as the tide of revolution rises, women from gilded salons to the streets of Paris decide otherwise—upending a world order that has long oppressed them.

Blue-blooded Sophie de Grouchy believes in democracy, education, and equal rights for women, and marries the only man in Paris who agrees. Emboldened to fight the injustices of King Louis XVI, Sophie aims to prove that an educated populace can govern itself--but one of her students, fruit-seller Louise Audu, is hungrier for bread and vengeance than learning. When the Bastille falls and Louise leads a women’s march to Versailles, the monarchy is forced to bend, but not without a fight. The king’s pious sister Princess Elisabeth takes a stand to defend her brother, spirit her family to safety, and restore the old order, even at the risk of her head.

But when fanatics use the newspapers to twist the revolution’s ideals into a new tyranny, even the women who toppled the monarchy are threatened by the guillotine. Putting her faith in the pen, brilliant political wife Manon Roland tries to write a way out of France’s blood-soaked Reign of Terror while pike-bearing Pauline Leon and steely Charlotte Corday embrace violence as the only way to save the nation. With justice corrupted by revenge, all the women must make impossible choices to survive--unless unlikely heroine and courtesan’s daughter Emilie de Sainte-Amaranthe can sway the man who controls France’s fate: the fearsome Robespierre.

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Review:  If ever there is a must read book for 2019, this book has to be it, especially if you are a fan of historical fiction. I've been waiting on this one for quite a while and it was definitely worth the wait. 

Just look at the names of the authors that are involved in this story. That alone should give this book a top spot on your TBR pile, but more than that, the story is compelling.

Its a story of the French Revolution told from many points of view, which is exactly what makes this a compelling read. That these points of view tie together is even more impressive.  The characters in each story appear again as the revolution moves forward.

Sophie and her husband Condorcet are figures you will come to love and their courtship, while strange may have Condorcet reminding them a little of Big Bang Theory's Sheldon Cooper. He's a brilliant mind, but he's not exactly the more romantic man out there, or for that matter the most handsome.

I found their story to be the one I most connected with. I liked them. Their were others that I didn't like as much. I hated Pauline, maybe it is because of the political climate of the world and the US in particular that made me not like her so much. I understood and felt for their plight, but the hatred and how they turned on so many people made me wonder how France is still standing as a nation today.

As for the figure I most sympathized with, that was Princess Elisabeth. Truthfully, the more I read about the revolution, the more I felt sorry for the King and his family. The divine right of kings aside this royal family had no luck at all.

By the end of the book especially the last parts with Emilie Sainte Amaranthe's story, which is totally heartbreaking as well as the epilogue with Sophie...well, I have to say I was crying

These authors are all supremely talented, in that they created such wonderful stories that put together make this a phenomenal book.

Rating: 5 flowers