The Sisters of Versailles: A Novel (The Mistresses of Versailles Trilogy #1) by Sally Christie

Final Rating: 2.5/5

 A naughty romp into the 18th century, that certainly gets your attention.

  I could say this novel was like an unexpected lewd train wreck but I think decadent carriage wreck is more fitting. It has current tastes and sensibilities and all the melodrama that can be easily transferred to the silver or small screen. I’m not so sure I was prepared for that but The Sisters of Versailles (The Mistresses of Versailles Trilogy #1) may be well-marketed for the current trend of little known historical events combining with jolting and salacious to create guilty pleasure entertainment for the interested. If you are interested, this book has its moments and it certainly gets your attention as we follow the narrations of five sisters and four bawdy misadventures inside the palace of Versailles and the early reign of Louis XV. These journal-like narrations are broken up with correspondence from each sister and can be a little repetitive and irksome but only last a page or so before the story continues with another sister’s view or private thoughts.

  Although The Sisters of Versailles brings the little known tale of the Nesle sisters to a modern audience, definitely creates five distinct personalities, gets your undivided attention and is imaginative with a hidden fable theme; this novel unfortunately has: anachronisms galore, title addressing and etiquette errors, very distracting era and setting identity issues (this book for some reason read set in 19th-21st century England instead of 18th-century France), contains some of the most cringe-worthy pet names of characters you may ever read (Twinkles anyone?) and has some very unexpected (modern sounding) raunchy dialogue and imagery (you may never look at a carrot the same way ever again or want to touch one). Negatives aside, this book may not be for everyone but is something quite distinctive, imaginative and I’m sure this novel and jolting new series will find its audience who love to indulge in fast paced guilty pleasure decadence with a very lite frothing of history to look forward to.

* I would like to thank Atria Books and Edelweiss for the opportunity to read The Sisters of Versailles (The Mistresses of Versailles Trilogy #1)

Title Release Date: September 1, 2015


*Also in this series (expected release dates 2016 and 2017) *titles of novels may change before then or coverart:

The Rivals of Versailles (The Mistresses of Versailles Trilogy #2)

by Sally Christie

 

The Enemies of Versailles (The Mistresses of Versailles Trilogy #3)

by Sally Christie