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3.58 AVERAGE

dswilson85's review

4.75
adventurous challenging mysterious tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: No

The strength of this novel is the author's ability to weave a story of fiction around real and interesting events which happened over many centuries.  Other than the obvious (no spoilers here), you really don't know whether given elements of the story are true or not.  The story's setup - maybe the first quarter of the book - was strong enough to pull me though the overly-long Marie Antoinette chapters in the middle, and the unrealistic, frantic final chapters (made for Hollywood).  I will read another book by this author, because his other titles imply a similar genre: historical fiction with a foundation of real-life events.  For this author at least, the formula works well.

shiningwolf's review

4.0
adventurous mysterious tense medium-paced
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: No