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.

Social Media

Please use the hashtag #ribbonsofscarlet and tag @tlcbooktours and @williammorrowbooks.

Purchase Links

HarperCollins | Amazon | Barnes & Noble

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

TLC Book Tours Book Review: Last Christmas In Paris

About Last Christmas in Paris

• Paperback: 400 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks (October 3, 2017)

New York Times bestselling author Hazel Gaynor has joined with Heather Webb to create this unforgettably romantic novel of the Great War.

August 1914. England is at war. As Evie Elliott watches her brother, Will, and his best friend, Thomas Harding, depart for the front, she believes—as everyone does—that it will be over by Christmas, when the trio plan to celebrate the holiday among the romantic cafes of Paris.

But as history tells us, it all happened so differently…

Evie and Thomas experience a very different war. Frustrated by life as a privileged young lady, Evie longs to play a greater part in the conflict—but how?—and as Thomas struggles with the unimaginable realities of war he also faces personal battles back home where War Office regulations on press reporting cause trouble at his father’s newspaper business. Through their letters, Evie and Thomas share their greatest hopes and fears—and grow ever fonder from afar. Can love flourish amid the horror of the First World War, or will fate intervene?

Christmas 1968. With failing health, Thomas returns to Paris—a cherished packet of letters in hand—determined to lay to rest the ghosts of his past. But one final letter is waiting for him…

Purchase Links

HarperCollins | Amazon | Barnes & Noble

Review:  Some books are destined to be tear-jerkers. I knew this was one in just the first few pages. By the time I hit page 100, tears were freely flowing.

I love stories that stir my emotions and I can always count on Hazel Gaynor to be a writer of one. I haven't read any of Heather Webb's work, but after this book, I am sure to do so.

Don't let the book title fool you though. This isn't a Christmas story, though a Christmas trip to Paris, that was supposed to happen before war broke out weaves its way into the fabric of the letters. The holiday itself is the subject of many of the letters sent between Evie and Tom.

The letters written by Evie and Tom are wonderfully emotional. The other letters between friends and family just add to the brilliance of this story. These are characters that you care for and your heart aches for when bad things happen to them, and during wartime, you know that it is bound to happen.  No, you more than care for them, you love them.

My heart hurt for both of them so many times through this book. Each suffers different kinds of losses throughout the war, a brother, a father.

Thomas and Evie correspond continuously throughout the war and their relationship changes and as the war changes them. Evie is falling in love with Tom, though she never really gets around to telling him properly.

Through these letters you get the day to day observations on the home front as well as the front lines. You see the war from both points of view, and as Evie takes up her pen, you see it through the column she writes for Tom's family's newspaper.

There is a small part of the story told in Tom's point of view in 1968. He is making his "Last Christmas in Paris" shortly after Evie has died. In his last trip to Paris, you also get a sweet reveal to the mystery of Evie's brother's love affair, before he was killed in combat.

The ending of the book is bittersweet.  I cried like a child at the end.

This was quite possibly the most beautiful book I've read this year. This is one for my keeper shelf.

Rating 5 flowers

About Hazel Gaynor

HAZEL GAYNOR is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of A Memory of Violets and The Girl Who Came Home, for which she received the 2015 RNA Historical Novel of the Year award. Her third novel The Girl from the Savoy was an Irish Times and Globe & Mail Canada bestseller, and was shortlisted for the BGE Irish Book Awards Popular Fiction Book of the Year.

Hazel was selected by US Library Journal as one of ‘Ten Big Breakout Authors’ for 2015 and her work has been translated into several languages.

Originally from Yorkshire, England, Hazel now lives in Ireland.

Find out more about Hazel at her website, and connect with her on Facebook and Twitter.

About Heather Webb

HEATHER WEBB writes historical fiction for Penguin, including her novels Becoming Josephine and Rodin's Lover.

As a former military brat, Heather naturally grew up obsessed with travel, culture, and languages. She put her degrees to good use teaching high school French for nearly a decade before channeling these passions into fiction. When not writing, she flexes her foodie skills or looks for excuses to head to the other side of the world.

Heather is a member of the Historical Novel Society and the Women's Fiction Writers Association.

Find out more about Heather at her website, and connect with her on Facebook and Twitter.