Blog Tour and Book #Review: Becoming Marie Antoinette by Juliet Grey

About the Book:

This enthralling confection of a novel, the first in a new trilogy, follows the transformation of a coddled Austrian archduchess into the reckless, powerful, beautiful queen Marie Antoinette.

Why must it be me? I wondered. When I am so clearly inadequate to my destiny?

Raised alongside her numerous brothers and sisters by the formidable empress of Austria, ten-year-old Maria Antonia knew that her idyllic existence would one day be sacrificed to her mother’s political ambitions. What she never anticipated was that the day in question would come so soon.

Before she can journey from sunlit picnics with her sisters in Vienna to the glitter, glamour, and gossip of Versailles, Antonia must change everything about herself in order to be accepted as dauphine of France and the wife of the awkward teenage boy who will one day be Louis XVI. Yet nothing can prepare her for the ingenuity and influence it will take to become queen.

Filled with smart history, treacherous rivalries, lavish clothes, and sparkling jewels,Becoming Marie Antoinette will utterly captivate fiction and history lovers alike.

About the Author:


Juliet Grey has extensively researched European royal history and is a particular devotee of Marie Antoinette.  She and her husband divide their time between New York City and southern Vermont.


My Opinion:


So many "facts" have come down through history about Marie Antoinette. But as her life is researched by contemporary authors much of what is known about her has been proven to be false. This first book of a trilogy starts with a young Austrian archduchess, before she became Marie Antoinette. It tells the tale of all the political machinations that went on to secure an alliance between France and Austria through the marriage of two young people - regardless of their feelings.


But don't think that for one minute that this is a dry, boring book because it is not! It starts with a young, carefree girl and shows how her mother and the ambassador from France molded her into what they felt would be an appropriate dauphine of France.  It was not an easy process for Maria Antonia was not one for lessons - she was quick witted but not interested in the history of her new country. She was pretty but a late bloomer into womanhood. They even put braces on her teeth - and that description about turned my stomach!


What this poor child went through in the name of politics is just appalling. But makes for a fascinating story. Ms. Grey writes with a passion for her subject and with a love for a child who was basically thrown to the wolves. The French thought she was not good enough for their dauphin and he did not want to be married at all. She was 14 when she left all she knew to go marry a man she had never met. She was not even allowed to keep her pet dog!


I found myself immersed in the life of this young girl; I could hardly put the book down. Ms. Grey's style is one that draws you into time and place and even though I knew what was going to happen I was still turning the pages as if I didn't. THAT is good writing. I can't wait for the next installment. I hope I am honored with a review copy.


Oh, and isn't that cover to die for?


You can see the rest of the Tour stops HERE.


Becoming Marie Antoinette is available at Amazon.com

















One lucky reader will get to explore the early life of Marie Antoinette. I have one copy of Becoming Marie Antoinette to give away.


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Disclosure:  I received a copy of Becoming Marie Antoinette gratis from TLC Book Tours.. Any opinions expressed are my honest opinions and were not impacted by my receipt of the free book. I received no monetary compensation for this post.