Book Review: The Flower Reader by Elizabeth Loupas

Snapshot: A young woman, Rinette Leslie, who practices floromancy tries to solve the murder of her husband in the early days of Mary, Queen of Scots court. She is also holding a casket of secrets that Mary's mother entrusted to her to deliver to the young queen. Many nobles want that casket first.

I always saw flowers in people's faces and eyes and the flowers told me what was inside the person, what they had done, what they would do

My take: I like a good murder mystery so add in the court of Mary, Queen of Scots and I'm there! First, I loved that this story was set in the early days of Mary, Queen of Scots reign. Here, she is a young, spoiled and moody woman ruling over a country that is foreign to her. Various nobles offer "help". Rinette Leslie was a ward in Mary of Guise's court. As Mary Guise was dying, she entrusted her with a mission to deliver a casket of papers to her daughter. Rinette takes control of her own future (escaping and marrying) before attempting to complete Mary of Guise's dying wish. Except then her husband is murdered. Rinette again takes control of her future by staying at court and holding the casket. This gives her the power to avoid forced marriage and to find her husband's killer. I liked her moxy although she did not seem politically savy enough to survive at court. She takes one step forward and two steps back throughout the book - coinciding with her being in Mary's good graces or completely out of favor.

"You are all like children." Much as I disliked and distrusted the court, I felt resentful at being outside the charmed circle of favorites

Elizabeth Tudor, Catherine de Medici, the Earls - they all wanted the casket. How far would they go to get it? Rinette continues to pursue justice even when her late husband proved to be rather ambitious. I admit rather liking that, imperfect men don't deserve to be murdered either and it was believable for the time period. The ending was convoluted and one male character was written in a way that came across as too good to be true.

End Verdict: I also liked the story for the atmosphere of a young Mary's court. Mary behaved in way that makes you want to smack her upside the head, consistent with what I know about her. She is easily believable as the younger version of a woman who will self destruct. I stayed up late to finish the book because I was eager to see how it ended.

Book Review: Finding Emilie by Laurel Corona

Snapshot: A fictionalized tale of Emilie du Chatelet's youngest daughter living to adulthood in French society in the 1700s, her life complicated by her mother's death and reputation.

"Were you both born dead or did you smother yourselves willingly to have people approve of you?"

My take: I picked up this book because of Emilie du Chatelet although not about her. An intellectual when women were to be homemakers, she lived an interesting and scandalous life. She had a long list of accomplishments including (translating Newton from Latin to French with her own commentary) and had relationships with (younger) men who were not her husband including Voltaire. She had a daughter in her 40s, whose father was not her husband, and she died shortly after giving birth. In this book, the daughter is Lili and survives. The book structure tells Lili's story alternating with part Emilie's life. Lili lives with a woman she refers to as "Maman" and her daughter Delphine. The girls are close in age but are very different and yet best friends. Lili loves to write and Delphine loves to draw. Delphine loves clothes and Lili loves science. They are coming of age in a society where marriage is expected and society rarely allows them to have any input on the matter. What is an intellectual girl to do in a time when manners, society and religion define life for a woman?

"I promise you I will keep a watchful eye to ensure she is not made irresponsible or irreverent by exposure to modern thinking"

"You must ask yourself whom your words may offend, and take pains not to do so. Women considered charming rarely reveal their thoughts. That is because their real pleasure comes from making the men with whom they are conversing sound intelligent even when they are not."

It was a brutal time to be a woman and security was a huge gift and the end goal.

The book had strong female voices. It contrasted the young Lili's struggle when faced with marrying and older man and leaving behind her interests with Emilie's decision to pursue her interests and engage with a younger man. When is it okay to be selfish? When do you decide to be happy over all else? Emilie threw out all other's opinions and risked it all to pursue what made her happy (her husband was apparently very understanding). Lili struggled with religion, family and society - she wanted to pursue her own interests and understand the world, not just be told that God created it. Emilie struggled to her ideas be taken seriously and accounted for as her ideas.

The book had its flaws. A couple characters seemed to fit too well. Maman seemed pretty modern and I missed how she had money to live as she did. Some of the male characters were not developed. The ending was very neat. Lilli was more likeable than Emilie but Emilie's life is hard to reduce to one book, yet alone a book alternating views.

End verdict: I eagerly kept reading to see what finally would become of Lili. A sign that I really liked the book.

Favorite Quote:

"Unreasonable hopes will make you miserable, but reasonable ones can shape your life, if you have the courage to listen to them" Lili absorbing her mother's message.