Monday, December 7, 2009

Darkness to Light














In The Shadow of the Sun King and A Prisoner of Versailles are both written by Golden Keyes Parsons and occur during the period of time when it was dangerous to be a Protestant in France. The Edict of Nantes was supposed to protect them, but more and more the Dragoons are given free reign to destroy, pillage and kill. Children are rounded up and taken to good, Catholic schools to be educated in the proper faith.

The Clavell family is Huguenot and refuses to change their faith despite the growing danger. They believe their distance, lineage and ties to the court will continue to protect them until the dragoons show up at their estate, looking for their sons and burning their books. The royal court is beautiful and deadly. Madeleine Calvell knows this all too well. She grew up there, and had a special friendship with the king. Can that relationship save her family now or will her past with the king be their undoing?

It doesn't take much time on my blog to know I love this time period and these books were so delicious I devoured them. :o) lol The setting was magnificent, and none of the people were one dimensional. I almost expected the villain in this tale to be wholly black and cardboard because of the religious persecution going on ~ but people are just more complicated than that. The author obviously not only researched the history of the time period, but is a faithful student of human nature as well.

I bought both books at the same time and read them straight through. The romance and the adventure stories in this series are so wonderful that I suggest the same thing for other readers. I wouldn't want anyone biting fingernails while waiting for the next book to arrive. {wink} Or am I the only one who does that? lol

There is no cliffhanger at the end of the first book, just loose ends and a desire for more of the story and... well I won't give that part away. lol

These are a couple of the books I enjoyed in my feast. I apologize for my famine from posting new blogs. I've been trying to catch up on my writing, housework, and I haven't been sleeping well, which means I'm oversleeping/napping in the morning and have less time to do everything.

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Let me ask you this ~ When you read a book, how much attention do you pay to who publishes it? Is it as important as the author/cover?


8 comments:

  1. I have the first book in the series and I'm looking forward to reading it..thanks for your little review..sounds like it's a good series. :)

    The only time I really pay attention to the publisher is when I see an author I don't know and I want to make sure I don't end up with a book full of foul language and such.

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  2. Thanks for sharing, Lee! Even though these are not books I would pick up to read...I love the covers...beautiful!

    I don't really pay attention to the publisher unless it's by an author I've never read, but I don't let the publisher stop me if the book blurb sounds interesting enough. I'm not going to BUY a book w/o knowing a little more about it, but I may try to get it on one of the swap sites, just to see if I like it.

    Merry Christmas!
    ~ Lori

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  3. I hope you like the book, Angie. I know I didn't do as in depth of a review on this one - but I didn't want to give away too much and ruin the surprises from one novel to the next. :o)

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  4. Lori ~ I know, you don't share my love for this era. I love you anyway. :o) I do think the covers are gorgeous, especially the second one.

    I'm a lot like you with the publisher idea. I never paid attention to it until I started writing. A blurb and reviews makes more of an impression on me (and the cover of course). There are so many small publishers out there it is too hard to keep track anyway. I think it's easier to judge the books on their own merits.

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  5. Hi Lee! I just won book 1 but I haven't had the chance to read it yet! I might have to wait now until I can pick up book 2 somewhere! I'm glad to hear they're both really great!

    As for who publishes books I really don't care as long as the book sounds good! Covers are more important to me LOL!

    Great review Lee!

    Merry Christmas!

    xoxo~ Renee

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  6. Congrats, Renee! You don't have to wait just because I said so, some people are more... patient than I am and it wouldn't bother them at all to wait until the next book. I knew there were two books and though there wasn't a cliffhanger, there was a certain thread... and I just hoped beyond hope the author was picking it up in the second book.

    She actually finished all the threads and delivered an even richer book in the second one (in my opinion) ~ though I think they really are almost two halves of the same book. Maybe I just liked it better because everything was settled. lol

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  7. please enter me into your contest,

    Merry Christmas

    mamat2730(at)charter(dot)net

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  8. Edna, the contest winner was announced Nov 30th. The date and winner were posted in the same post as the contest. Nicey won. I'm sorry you missed it, but there will be more coming in the future ~ I have a special one planned in the future for Francine Rivers fans. You're the first to hear about it. So keep watching for more info in the next few weeks.

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