Tuesday, November 30, 2010

The Confessions of Catherine de Medici, by C. W. Gortner


Wow.  Another great book! I really do like historical fiction novels, they really bring what could've happened to life and leave me wanting to learn more about what really DID happen.

Besides the few parts where the author was a little too detailed on the love scenes, he told this story so well.  I kept thinking, first of all, that it had to have been written by a female, but also that it was so much like Michelle Moran's books.  The style, as well as the theme (royalty) was similar and all so fun to read!

The author's note at the end of this book leads one to believe that Catherine de Medici was not a favored queen, or one with happy memories tied to her story, but he writes it so that one can feel her pain, sympathize with her, but still see how others may not have liked her.  The trials she had to face in life and the decisions she had to make - all of which are similar to any woman of royal descent - make me so glad I live in the world as it is today, and that I'm just some nobody living in a free country.  I never knew much about this time when Rome was full of itself in power, and religion was either you're Catholic, or you're a heretic.  To be a queen and to promote tolerance of those of other faiths, is something I am glad I have the pleasure of reading about, and not living.  What a brave woman she was, to face what she did, to strive for power when she had to fight with everything she had to obtain it.  Amazing.

Next I want to learn about Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots. 

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