About book Transformar-se Em Maria Antonieta (2012)
3 STARS"Why must it be me? I wondered. When I am so clearly inadequate to my destiny?Raised alongside her numerous brothers and sisters by the formidable empress of Austria, ten-year-old Maria Antonia knew that her idyllic existence would one day be sacrificed to her mother's political ambitions. What she never anticipated was that the day in question would come so soon.Before she can journey from sunlit picnics with her sisters in Vienna to the glitter, glamour, and gossip of Versailles, Antonia must change everything about herself in order to be accepted as dauphine of France and the wife of the awkward teenage boy who will one day be Louis XVI. Yet nothing can prepare her for the ingenuity and influence it will take to become queen.Filled with smart history, treacherous rivalries, lavish clothes, and sparkling jewels, Becoming Marie Antoinette will utterly captivate fiction and history lovers alike." (From Amazon) It moved a bit slow but provides a lot of description. It was interesting to see everything through MA's point of view so it feels more personal. I am interested in the 2nd book to find out more about Louis Auguste. This is definitely under the genre of historical fiction. I love reading historical fiction on occasion because I find that I actually learn something about history in a more effortless way than if I were to pick up a history text. Marie Antoinette has always lived under a shroud of being such a mean-spirited character yet in this first novel of Juliet Grey's I learned that Antoinette started out as a sensitive and sensible young girl. It has me thinking about what played out in her life to have brought her to such a despicable end. I think I will have to read the next 2 books of the trilogy to find out... Way to go Juliet Grey, you've managed to get me hooked!Oh and p.s. One thing that really makes me cringe about this period in history is the way females are represented simply as machines to churn out males. So sad.
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This review has a minor plot SPOILER in it.This was an okay book. I don't have a lot of background knowledge of Marie Antoinette, though I thought the author was taking some liberties with history. What annoyed me most came near the end when a reference was made to Marie having been inoculated for small pox years before. Considering the smallpox vaccine would not be available for at least another decade after the time of the remark, I became very irritated. It's one thing for an author in historical fiction to take some small liberties for a major plot-point, but to take large liberties for a minor plot-point highly annoys me. I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone who has decent knowledge of Marie Antoinette's background.
—Lay
Loved this!! A telling of the years of Marie Antoinette from the age of 10 until she and her husband became king and Queen. I cannot imagine my girls at 14 going through the things she did to marry. I did not know she wore braces ( the process hasnt changed must hers were just Gold) she had to learn a whole new way of living and thinking. If you think you know the story you dont until you read this. At 14 she was trying to navigate the court of France having been betrothed at 10. The prose is very discriptive I can picture the Palace in Austria and the chaos of Versaille.
—fairytale
Read this after visiting Versailles - great story!
—tacochaco77
