The Courtesan

Title: The Courtesan 

Author: Susan Carroll

Rating: <3 <3 <3 <3

Summary: Skilled in passion, artful in deception, and driven by betrayal, she is the glittering center of the royal court–but the most desired woman of Renaissance France will draw the wrath of a dangerous adversary.

Paris, 1575. The consort of some of Europe’s most influential men, Gabrielle Cheney is determined to secure her future by winning the heart of Henry, the Huguenot king of Navarre. As his mistress, Gabrielle hopes she might one day become the power behind the French throne. But her plans are jeopardized by Captain Nicolas Rémy, a devoted warrior whose love Gabrielle desires–and fears–above all. She will also incur the malevolence of the Dark Queen, Catherine de’ Medici, whose spies and witch-hunters are legion, and who will summon the black arts to maintain her authority. With the lives of those she loves in peril, Gabrielle must rebel against her queen to fulfill a glorious destiny she has sacrificed everything to gain.

Alive with vivid period detail and characters as vibrant as they are memorable, The Courtesan is a sweeping historical tale of dangerous intrigues, deep treachery, and one woman’s unshakable resolve to honor her heart.

Review: Gabrielle Cheney has established herself as both a woman a court, and in the arms of the men of Paris, and she is even dabbling in becoming the mistress of the Huguenot Navarre king.  However, one thing always takes Gabrielle's mind away from her conquest of power, the memory of her love the young captain Remy; who perished in the Huguenot masequere or so she believes until she receives the shock of her life, and then the tug of war begins between two very strong personalities. This part of the novel bothered me. The tug of war between Gabrielle and Remy; normally I can understand tug of war between two lovers, but the nobility in Remy's character to which he expects her character to live up to; and the attack that Gabrielle suffered were a bit over done. I suppose with these two at each other's throat's that is the point but opposite's had to attract in this book with Gabrielle's selfishness at other points because I could not stand it.  I have a feeling this will be my least favorite book of the series, with amulet's, crazy bipolar friend's and Nostradamus sightings.