Cover Reveal: RIBBONS OF SCARLET: A Novel of the French Revolution's Women

Several of my friends co-authored this new novel on the women of the French Revolution. I can't wait to read it! Coming in October, but available for pre-order today.

Six bestselling and award-winning authors bring to life a breathtaking epic novel illuminating the hopes, desires, and destinies of princesses and peasants, harlots and wives, fanatics and philosophers—six unforgettable women whose paths cross during one of the most tumultuous and transformative events in history: the French Revolution.

RIBBONS OF SCARLET: A Novel of the French Revolution, releases October 1^st, 2019! Check out the amazing cover below and pre-order your copy today!

About RIBBONS OF SCARLET: A Novel of the French Revolution (Coming October 1, 2019)

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.

✭✭✭ PRE-ORDER YOUR COPY OF RIBBONS OF SCARLET TODAY✭✭✭
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About Kate Quinn:

Kate Quinn is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of historical fiction. A native of southern California, she attended Boston University where she earned a Bachelor's and Master's degree in Classical Voice. She has written four novels in the Empress of Rome Saga, and two books in the Italian Renaissance, before turning to the 20th century with "The Alice Network" and "The Huntress." All have been translated into multiple languages. Kate and her husband now live in San Diego with two rescue dogs named Caesar and Calpurnia, and her interests include opera, action movies, cooking, and the Boston Red Sox.

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About Stephanie Dray:

Stephanie Dray is a New York Times, Wall Street Journal & USA Today bestselling author of historical women's fiction. Her award-winning work has been translated into eight languages and tops lists for the most anticipated reads of the year. She lives near the nation's capital with her husband, cats, and history books.
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Dray & Kamoie Website http://draykamoie.com/

  

About Laura Kamoie:

A New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and USA Today bestselling author of historical fiction, Laura Kamoie has always been fascinated by the people, stories, and physical presence of the past, which led her to a lifetime of historical and archaeological study and training. She holds a doctoral degree in early American history from The College of William and Mary, published two non-fiction books on early America, and most recently held the position of Associate Professor of History at the U.S. Naval Academy before transitioning to a full-time career writing genre fiction. She is the author of AMERICA'S FIRST DAUGHTER and MY DEAR HAMILTON, co-authored with Stephanie Dray, allowing her the exciting opportunity to combine her love of history with her passion for storytelling. Laura lives among the colonial charm of Annapolis, Maryland with her husband and two daughters. www.LauraKamoie.com

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About Sophie Perinot:

Sophie Perinot is an award-winning, multi-published author of female-centered historical fiction, who holds both a Bachelors in History and a law degree. With two previous books set in France—during the 13th and 16th centuries—Sophie has a passion for French history that began more than thirty years ago when she first explored the storied châteaux of the Loire Valley.  She lives in the Washington DC metropolitan area with her husband, children and a small menagerie of pets.

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About Heather Webb:

Heather Webb is the award-winning and international bestselling author of six historical novels set in France, including the upcoming Meet Me in Monaco, set to the backdrop of Grace Kelly’s wedding releasing in summer 2019, and Ribbons of Scarlet, a novel of the French Revolution’s women in Oct 2019. In 2015, Rodin’s Lover was selected as a Goodreads Top Pick, and in 2017, Last Christmas in Paris became a Globe & Mail bestseller and also won the 2018 Women’s Fiction Writers Association STAR Award. Her works have received national starred reviews, and have been sold in over a dozen countries worldwide. When not writing, you may find Heather collecting cookbooks or looking for excuses to travel. She lives in New England with her family and one feisty rabbit.

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About E. Knight:

E. KNIGHT is a USA Today bestselling author of rip-your-heart-out historical women’s fiction that crosses the landscapes of Europe. Her love of history began as a young girl when she traipsed the halls of Versailles and ran through the fields in Southern France. She can still remember standing before the great golden palace, and imagining what life must have been like. She is the owner of the acclaimed blog History Undressed. Eliza lives in Maryland atop a small mountain with a knight, three princesses and two very naughty newfies. Visit Eliza at www.eknightauthor.com/eknight, or her historical blog, History Undressed, www.historyundressed.com. You can follow her on Twitter: @EKHistoricalFic, Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/EKnightAuthor, and Instagram @ElizaKnightFiction.

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Review and Giveaway: THE PHANTOM'S APPRENTICE by Heather Webb

Experience the magic of music--and the music of magic!--in Heather Webb's latest novel, THE PHANTOM'S APPRENTICE (Sonnet Press). With the finesse and skill of a master conjuror, Webb transmutes the familiar substance of the Phantom of the Opera tradition into a haunting tale of love, loss, and rebirth. Combining newly-imagined elements of magic and hidden family secrets with a substrate that draws from both Gaston Leroux's original 1910 novel and Andrew Lloyd Webber's famed 1986 Broadway musical, Webb reinvigorates familiar Phantom tradition with an edgy novelty that will appeal to devoted Phantom fans and unschooled initiates alike.

Webb's version focuses on the transformational journey of protagonist Christine Daaé, victim of circumstance and obedient pawn in the hands of powerful men, to full agency in determining her own fate. The orphaned daughter of an itinerant musician, Christine wins a coveted spot in the chorus of the Nouvel Opéra in Paris through the kindness of a benefactor's friend. At the Opéra, the beautiful, gifted singer snares the attention of the mysterious "Opera Ghost," who trains her voice and, through means that range from coercion to murder, positions her to displace the reigning diva. As Christine's emotions waver between gratefulness and fear towards this demanding ghost so devoted to her advancement, she becomes reacquainted with her childhood sweetheart, the Vicomte de Chagny. Raoul revives not only Christine's dormant heart but her interest in illusions, which she had set aside following her father's death. As Christine rededicates herself to mastering illusion in the hope of performing magic onstage, she uncovers secrets that involve her deceased parents in the ghost's shady past. Determined to slip the Phantom's obsessive grasp once and for all, she sets into motion an elaborate plan to flee the opera house. Only by outwitting and outperforming her accomplished adversary--a Master Conjuror himself--can Christine hope to fulfill her dreams and embrace a new life with Raoul.

Webb's deft weaving of innovative material within the framework of a familiar, revered narrative speaks to her skills as a storyteller. The tale moves at a brisk pace, with Christine's confidence and courage growing in equal measure. Interconnected backstories, slowly revealed, enrich the plot and deepen character development. Webb's firm grip on the culture of Belle Époque Paris, developed during the writing of her earlier novel RODIN'S LOVER (2015), displays itself in her luscious descriptions of the opulent Palais Garnier and its glamorous visitors, as well as in her portrayals of the daily grind of its performer's rehearsals and aspirations. Of particular strength is the novel's immersion in the spiritualist movement of the time. Eager to believe the spirits of her dead parents ever with her, even as she learns the tricks conjurors use to dupe the bereaved, Christine becomes the unwilling link between the conjuror and the scientist bent on exposing him. Her individual story of loss and enlightenment enacts on a personal level the struggles of a society caught in the death throes of superstition.

A thoroughly entertaining foray into a glamorous world of magic and music, where dreams bloom with thrill and transience of illusion, THE PHANTOM'S APPRENTICE proves there is more to the story of Christine and the Phantom than meets the eye.

Amazon | Barnes and Noble | IndieBound | Kobo 

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During the Blog Tour Heather is giving away two paperback copies of The Phantom’s Apprentice! Enter via the Gleam form below.

Giveaway Rules

– Giveaway ends at 11:59pm EST on February 26th. You must be 18 or older to enter.
– Giveaway is open to US & Canada residents only.
– Only one entry per household.
– All giveaway entrants agree to be honest and not cheat the systems; any suspicion of fraud is decided upon by blog/site owner and the sponsor, and entrants may be disqualified at their discretion.
– Winner has 48 hours to claim prize or new winner is chosen.

The Phantom's Apprentice

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HEATHER WEBB is the author of historical novels BECOMING JOSEPHINE, RODIN'S LOVER, the anthology FALL OF POPPIES, and LAST CHRISTMAS IN PARIS, which have been featured in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Cosmopolitan, Elle, and France Magazine and have received national starred reviews. To date, her novels have sold in ten countries. Heather is also a professional freelance editor, foodie, and travel fiend. For more information, please visit Heather’s website. You can also find her on Facebook, Twitter, and Goodreads.

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Blog Tour Schedule

Monday, February 5
Review at The Maiden’s Court

Tuesday, February 6
Review at The Lit Bitch
Feature at A Bookaholic Swede

Wednesday, February 7
Review at Just One More Chapter
Review at History From a Woman’s Perspective

Thursday, February 8
Review at A Bookish Affair

Friday, February 9
Review at Trisha Jenn Reads

Saturday, February 10
Review at Bookish

Monday, February 12
Review at Creating Herstory

Tuesday, February 13
Review at Linda’s Book Obsession

Wednesday, February 14
Review at Clarissa Reads it All

Thursday, February 15
Review at 100 Pages a Day

Friday, February 16
Review at Baer Books

Monday, February 19
Review at Cup of Sensibility
Review at Let Them Read Books
Review at Bookworms Anonymous

Tuesday, February 20
Feature at Passages to the Past

Wednesday, February 21
Review at Writing the Renaissance

Monday, February 26
Interview at Jorie Loves a Story

Review: LAST CHRISTMAS IN PARIS by Hazel Gaynor and Heather Webb

If, as Audrey Hepburn reminds us, "Paris is always a good idea," then Paris at Christmas is an even better one! Hazel Gaynor and Heather Webb take full advantage of the possibilities in LAST CHRISTMAS IN PARIS: A Novel of World War I, out today from William Morrow. In this co-written epistolary novel, Londoners Evelyn Elliott and Tom Harding, separated by the hardships and horrors of the Great War, hold fast to their dream of reuniting in Paris to celebrate Christmas at war's end. As their comfortable world crumbles around them, the pair searches valiantly for meaning in the chaos--meaning that comes, necessarily and irrevocably, to include the other. Their letters, begun as a cordial exchange between friends, document the deepening of the couple's attachment as it shapes and informs their personal journeys of self-discovery.

The strength of LAST CHRISTMAS IN PARIS lies in the distinctiveness of its voices. In crafting the novel as a team, each author adopted one protagonist as her own. Gaynor wrote as Evie, a young society girl who yearns to do more for the war effort than pour tea and knit socks. Webb wrote as Tom, Evie's brother's best friend, a dreamy academic more than happy to leave the oversight of the family newspaper to others. This strategy results in two voices that sound genuinely different and remain engagingly fresh the length of the novel. The letters read as true responses one to the next, the heartfelt testimony of characters striving to make sense of upheaval. Sprinkled among them are telegrams, reproduced on a gray background suggestive of crinkled paper--a design detail that visually contributes to the communications' aura of authenticity. Occassional letters between the protagonists and secondary characters round the correspondence into a convincing, compelling narrative, one that smoothly and successfully blends the creative input of two gifted storytellers into a harmonious whole.

Evie and Tom, rather stereotypical upper-crust British twenty-somethings at the outset of the novel, quickly belie conventional depiction. Dashing, patriotic Tom, eager to defeat the Germans and return home by Christmas, winds up shattered and suffering, his mental health compromised by trauma. As he becomes dangerously withdrawn, sheltered Evie finds her voice as a newspaper columnist, documenting the war from a woman's perspective. Convinced journalism must serve truth, she exposes the lies and misinformation behind official propaganda. This subtle role reversal adds an intriguing angle to the dynamics of the love relationship. Each character, supported and challenged by the other, breaks free of old habits and ways of thinking to forge a new role in a suddenly unfamiliar world. The love story resonates on the broader level of a society forced to rethink itself as it rises from the ruins of the past to confront an uncertain future.

Yet despite its larger resonances, the authors never stray far from the novel's central question: Will Evie and Tom weather separation and hardship to enjoy the happiness they realize can be found only in the other? Obstacles and misunderstandings abound, keeping the reader on tenterhooks until the last satisfying page. Like the birds Evie sketches on her letters to Tom, LAST CHRISTMAS IN PARIS sings and soars as it unabashedly affirms the power of love to dispel the shadows of a dark and threatening world.

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Read a sample of LAST CHRISTMAS IN PARIS here.
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LAST CHRISTMAS IN PARIS is best-selling author Hazel Gaynor's fifth published novel and Heather Webb's third. Click on their names to visit their websites and learn more about the authors and their books.

 

Review: FALL OF POPPIES: Stories of Love and the Great War (William Morrow)

Riding high on the current wave of interest in the Great War, FALL OF POPPIES (William Morrow, March 1) offers lovers of historical fiction a poignant array of stories from some of the genre’s most popular writers. The nine-story collection explores the panoply of emotions that gripped the war-weary world on Armistice Day, dramatizing the effect of the end of conflict on those who survived to see it. Like the blood-red ceramic poppies planted in the moat of the Tower of London to commemorate the war’s fallen soldiers, each story pays tribute, through the evocative, emotional power of fiction, to the soldiers and civilians that experienced the relief, joy, grief, and hope that swept over Europe and America on that long-awaited day.

FALL OF POPPIES includes stories by Jessica Brockmole, Hazel Gaynor, Evangeline Holland, Marci Jefferson, Kate Kerrigan, Jennifer Robson, Heather Webb, Beatriz Williams, and Lauren Willig. Each story exhibits the sound, vivid writing expected of established authors. Linked only by Armistice Day as a point of reference, the collection presents a broad range of characters, settings, and conflicts. The selections move from an Allied hospital in Belgium to a coffee plantation in Kenya to the nightclubs of Paris to a museum in Dublin. Novice pilots, generous sculptors, vengeful mothers, and conscientious objectors all search to make sense of their disrupted lives and disordered worlds. The fallen are mourned as new births are celebrated; aspirations die through tragic mistakes even as happy coincidence opens unimagined futures; destruction and upheaval force change and forge opportunity. It is hope that unites and animates these characters on their disparate paths: the hope of finding their missing, of hugging their beloved, of living another messy, uncertain, yet glorious day. Victim and victor alike struggle to build a future from the ruins of the past, a future all the stronger and more beautiful for the suffering endured along the way.

Readers will appreciate the individual stories for varied reasons, be it unforgettable characters (Webb’s devastated mother, Brockmole’s selfless pilot, Gaynor’s dedicated midwife), unique voice (William’s idealistic airman, Holland’s cautious cabaret dancer), heartrending conflict (Kerrigan’s ill-fated Irish/English romance, Willig’s disastrous misunderstanding), or distinctive historical content (Robson’s masks for the maimed, Jefferson’s underground nurses). Fans of particular authors will be more than satisfied by their favorites’ contributions and grateful for the introduction to the other authors’ work. An engaging, electrifying read, FALL OF POPPIES channels broader questions of love and loss through the prism of the Great War and demonstrates with convincing aplomb why historical fiction enjoys its current appeal.

Cover Reveal and Giveaway: FALL OF POPPIES (William Morrow, March 2016)

I'm excited to announce a forthcoming collection of short stories, three of which were written by friends of mine--Heather Webb (RODIN'S LOVER), Marci Jefferson (ENCHANTRESS OF PARIS), and Jessica Brockmole (LETTERS FROM SKYE). The nine short stories that comprise FALL OF POPPIES paint a haunting picture of loss, longing, and hope in the aftermath of World War I.

Fall of Poppies: Stories of Love and the Great War

by Heather Webb, Hazel Gaynor, Beatriz Williams, Jennifer Robson, Jessica Brockmole, Kate Kerrigan, Evangeline Holland, Lauren Willig, Marci Jefferson

William Morrow Trade Paperback; March 1, 2016; $14.99; ISBN: 9780062418548

Barnes & Noble / Amazon / IndieBound / Books-a-Million

Top voices in historical fiction deliver an intensely moving collection of short stories about loss, longing, and hope in the aftermath of World War I—featuring bestselling authors such as Hazel Gaynor, Jennifer Robson, Beatriz Williams, and Lauren Willig and edited by Heather Webb.

A squadron commander searches for meaning in the tattered photo of a girl he’s never met…

A Belgian rebel hides from the world, only to find herself nursing the enemy…

A young airman marries a stranger to save her honor—and prays to survive long enough to love her…The peace treaty signed on November 11, 1918, may herald the end of the Great War but for its survivors, the smoke is only beginning to clear. Picking up the pieces of shattered lives will take courage, resilience, and trust.

Within crumbled city walls and scarred souls, war’s echoes linger. But when the fighting ceases, renewal begins…and hope takes root in a fall of poppies.

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Here is an excerpt from Heather Webb's story, "Hour of the Bells":

Beatrix whisked around the showroom, feather duster in hand. Not a speck of dirt could remain or Joseph would be disappointed. The hour struck noon. A chorus of clocks whirred, their birds popping out from hiding to announce midday. Maidens twirled in their frocks with braids down their backs, woodcutters clacked their axes against pine, and the odd sawmill wheel spun in tune to the melody of a nursery rhyme. Two dozen cuckoos warbled and dinged, each crafted with loving detail by the same pair of hands—those with thick fingers and a steady grip.

Beatrix paused in her cleaning. One clock chimed to its own rhythm, apart from the others.

She could turn them off—the tinkling melodies, the incessant clatter of pendulums, wheels, and cogs, with the levers located near the weights—just as their creator had done before bed each evening, but she could not bring herself to do the same. To silence their music was to silence him, her husband, Joseph. The Great War had already done that; ravaged his gentle nature, stolen his final breath, and silenced him forever.

In a rush, Beatrix scurried from one clock to the next, assessing which needed oiling. With the final stroke of twelve, she found the offending clock. Its walnut face, less ornate than the others, had been her favorite, always. A winter scene displayed a cluster of snow-topped evergreens; rabbits and fawns danced in the drifts when the music began, and a scarlet cardinal dipped its head and opened its beak to the beauty of the music. The animals’ simplicity appealed to her now more than ever. With care, she removed the weights and pendulum, and unscrewed the back of the clock. She was grateful she had watched her husband tend to them so often. She could still see Joseph, blue eyes peering over his spectacles, focused on a figurine as he painted detailing on the linden wood. His patient hands had caressed the figures lovingly, as he had caressed her.

The memory of him sliced her open. She laid her head on the table as black pain stole over her body, pooling in every hidden pocket and filling her up until she could scarcely breathe.

“Give it time,” her friend Adelaide had said, as she set a basket of jam and dried sausages on the table; treasures in these times of rations, yet meager condolence for what Beatrix had lost.

“Time?” Beatrix had laughed, a hollow sound, and moved to the window overlooking the grassy patch of yard. The Vosges mountains rose in the distance, lording over the line between France and Germany along the battle front. Time’s passage never escaped her—not for a moment. The clocks made sure of it. There weren’t enough minutes, enough hours, to erase her loss.

         As quickly as the grief came, it fled. Though always powerful, its timing perplexed her. Pain stole through the night, or erupted at unlikely moments, until she feared its onslaught the way others feared death. Death felt easier, somehow.

Beatrix raised her head and pushed herself up from the table to finish her task. Joseph would not want her to mourn, after two long years. He would want to see her strength, her resilience, especially for their son. She pretended Adrien was away at school, though he had enlisted, too. His enlistment had been her fault. A vision of her son cutting barbed wire, sleeping in trenches, and pointing a gun at another man reignited the pain and it began to pool again. She suppressed the horrid thoughts quickly, and locked them away in a corner of her mind.

With a light touch she cleaned the clock’s bellows and dials, and anointed its oil bath with a few glistening drops. Once satisfied with her work, she hung the clock in its rightful place above the phonograph, where a disk waited patiently on the spool. She spun the disk once and watched the printed words on its center blur. Adrien had played Quand Madelon over and over, belting out the patriotic lyrics in time with the music. To him, it was a show of his support for his country. To Beatrix it had been a siren, a warning her only son would soon join the fight. His father’s death was the final push he had needed. The lure of patrimoine, of country, throbbed inside of him as it did in other men. They talked of war as women spoke of tea sets and linens, yearned for it as women yearned for children. Now, the war had seduced her Adrien. She stopped the spinning disk and plucked it from its wheel, the urge to destroy it pulsing in her hands.

She must try to be more optimistic. Surely God would not take all she had left.
Reprinted Courtesy of HarperCollins Publishers

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To celebrate the publication of FALL OF POPPIES, HarperCollins is giving away print copies of AFTER THE WAR IS OVER, A MEMORY OF VIOLETS, and LAND OF DREAMS. Follow this link to enter the drawing.

a Rafflecopter giveaway
Good luck! FALL OF POPPIES is available for pre-order as of today.

Review and Giveaway: RODIN'S LOVER by Heather Webb

Written with a passion and conviction worthy of the sculptor herself, Heather Webb's new novel RODIN'S LOVER (Plume, January 2015) explores the tumultuous life, troubled psyche, and splendid achievements of Camille Claudel, student, protégée and rival of artist Auguste Rodin. Born in an era that expected bourgeoise women to reflect their husbands' glory, Camille determines instead to amplify her own. Gifted with the skills, vision and tenacity necessary to succeed as an artist, she confronts head-on the prejudices and condescension of the male artistic establishment, showing pieces in Salon exhibitions and even earning a civic commission. But Camille's success does not come without price--like a file on fine marble, the constant strife wears away at her mental and emotional stability, exacerbating paranoid and schizophrenic tendencies. Her romantic relationship with Rodin becomes both a crucible of creativity and the catalyst of the tortured artist's ultimate undoing.

Camille at work

Webb's Camille is as entrancing and rough-hewn as one of her statues. The novel opens with her tussling with her beloved brother, shirking lessons to gather clay in the woods, and vowing to a raven, under a full moon, to pursue her dreams. Once in Paris, she devours the sights, sounds and smells of the city with ravenous delight and watches, with endearing curiosity, a male model undress before the class on the first day of art school. She toys with the suitors her mother insists she meet, charming them into abandoning the hunt. She loses herself for hours in her quest to coax beauty from unformed lumps of earth and resistant rock. She pursues the best models and the finest teachers, her belief in herself and her devotion to her calling never wavering. Yet for all her passion and joie de vivre, Camille has an abrasive side, one that Webb never shirks from depicting. The seeds of Camille's mental illness sprout early, nourished by the critical waters of her mother's rejection. Ever fearful of abandonment, Camille refuses to allow others close, especially women. She rebuffs overtures of friendship and systematically destroys the few attachments that manage to take hold. Webb is careful to associate Camille's increasing alienation with descriptions of the physical symptoms that assail her (metallic tastes, vision problems, hallucinations, and an insidious Voice that ever murmurs suspicious suggestions in her ear), inspiring sympathy for rather than annoyance with the character. The reader experiences the unravelling of the artist's promise and very self in real time and marvels that Camille accomplishes all she does, given the panoply of internal and external obstacles arrayed against her.

Webb's Rodin pales in comparison to the vibrant, tormented Camille. Waging his own battle against the establishment, he yearns for acceptance by the state yet refuses to sculpt in the style that would earn him ready praise. His collaboration and liaison with Camille becomes the source of inspiration and passion he needs to lift his work to a level of genius that even the advocates of decency and civic virtue can't ignore. But just as Rodin can't shake his need for approval--though he might declare otherwise--he cannot abandon Rose, his lover of twenty years, despite his impassioned avowals of love for Camille. He supports Camille in every way he can, training her, introducing her to critics, buying supplies and renting studio space, treating her to holidays and dinners, yet he refuses to commit himself fully to her. Rodin's bourgeois hesitancy leads the reader to wonder whether Camille's accusations that Rodin steals her ideas and profits from her work are simply the ravings of a disturbed mind. In any case, Webb's depiction of the artists' affair reflects the nagging question of whether Camille would have achieved success without Rodin's help back onto the artist himself. Wedded to his tired housekeeper and bourgeois values, Rodin might never have surpassed the limits of circumstance if not coaxed beyond them by the passion and courage of Camille.

In this, her second novel, Heather Webb tackles weighty subjects: mental illness, envy, oppression, illicit love. That she does so in a way that preserves Camille's integrity and prevents her from becoming an object of pity testifies to Webb's skill as a writer. This novel of passion and power in Belle Époque France both satisfies and inspires, illuminating an artist who spent the last thirty years of her life in an asylum and still, to this day, lingers in the shadow of man. Thanks to Webb, that shadow has become all the shorter.

Tender yet resolute, soulful but never dark, RODIN'S LOVER pulses with the sensuous tempo of a lover's waltz. Deeper and defter than Webb's debut, it promises even richer work to come.

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Heather Webb is the author of historical novels BECOMING JOSEPHINE (Plume, 2013) and RODIN'S LOVER (Plume, 2015), a freelance editor, and blogger. You may also find her contributing to award-winning writing sites including Writer Unboxed and Romance University. When not writing, Heather flexes her foodie skills and looks for excuses to head to the other side of the world. Visit her website and her blog. Follow her on Facebook and Twitter.

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This review is part of the RODIN'S LOVER book tour organized by France Book Tours. Please visit the France Book Tours website for additional information and to read other reviews of Heather's book. France Book Tours has organized a giveaway of two copies of the novel, open to readers in the USA and Canada. Fill out the form at the France Book Tours website and enter today!

Bags Full of Reading Goodness

Several weeks ago, I made a general plea to my Facebook author friends. I was interested in putting together a basket of autographed books for my son's school auction. I asked that anyone interested in helping donate a signed copy of her book in return for some publicity on the blog. I was astounded and humbled by the response. Eleven authors sent me one or more copies of their book(s); two others offered, but unfortunately, I was not able to receive their books in time. This generous response from the writing community allowed me to put together two baskets, each valued at approximately $185. I divided the books into two lots and packaged them in bookish totes from Barnes & Noble along with fancy bookmarks.

Here is a list of authors who donated their books. If you are looking for holiday gifts or excellent additions to your own library, please consider purchasing something from this list. I have read most of the books myself; many I've reviewed here on the blog and additional reviews will be forthcoming. They are all excellent reads.

Helene Wecker, THE GOLEM AND THE JINNI
Ann Weisberger, THE PROMISE and THE PERSONAL HISTORY OF RACHEL DUPREE
Maryanne O'Hara, CASCADE
Patricia Bracewell, SHADOW ON THE CROWN
Heather Webb, BECOMING JOSEPHINE
Anna Elliott, KITTY BENNET'S DIARY
Susan Spann, CLAWS OF THE CAT and BLADE OF THE SAMURAI
Julie K. Rose, OLEANNA
LJ Cohen, DERELICT, THE BETWEEN, and FUTURE TENSE
Marci Jefferson, GIRL ON THE GOLD COIN
MK Tod, UNRAVELLED
Lucy Pick, PILGRIMAGE
Laura Bradbury, MY GRAPE ESCAPE and MY GRAPE VILLAGE

I am very grateful to my author friends and thrilled that new readers will soon experience their wonderful books. These bags are sure to start a bidding war at the auction! I wish I could bid on them myself.

Thanks again to all involved!