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A review by salreads
The Blue by Nancy Bilyeau
4.0
What a story! This was a glorious and entertaining read which got me so fired up about history again..
Genevieve, from a Huguenot Family settled in London, is a talented painter - but women don’t paint in 18th Century England and she is thwarted in her ambitions..When a rather roguish but charming Sir Gabriel Courtenay presents her with the opportunity to work in the Derby porcelain factories and promises to further her ambitions..Genevieve is tempted. But there is a catch..The Factory is secretly working on creating ‘blue’ and Genevieve must find out the secret. This story takes Genevieve on some dangerous journeys and across the channel to the court of Madame Pompadour…
There was so much I loved about this. Firstly this is a really wonderful and entertaining story which twists and turns and is seriously difficult to put down. The history is absolutely fascinating and I found myself going down so many rabbit holes looking at the history of porcelain, Madame Pompadour, the creation of the colour blue..and I checked out each one of the characters to see which were purely fictional and which historical. Nancy has done such an incredible job of weaving in history, historical figures and places into an entertaining narrative…
And then there is Genevieve. What a great woman to spend time with. Sparky, brave, a bit irreverential, ambitious, savvy..prone to a bit of misadventure and poor decision making. This book buzzes with tension and adventure, fizzes with sexual chemistry and has a wonderful helping of humour mixed up in all the glorious history.
Definitely a book I would recommend! In fact I started telling my Dad, a lifelong historian, about it and he said he had already read and enjoyed it and was delighted to find out that Genevieve had returned!!
Genevieve, from a Huguenot Family settled in London, is a talented painter - but women don’t paint in 18th Century England and she is thwarted in her ambitions..When a rather roguish but charming Sir Gabriel Courtenay presents her with the opportunity to work in the Derby porcelain factories and promises to further her ambitions..Genevieve is tempted. But there is a catch..The Factory is secretly working on creating ‘blue’ and Genevieve must find out the secret. This story takes Genevieve on some dangerous journeys and across the channel to the court of Madame Pompadour…
There was so much I loved about this. Firstly this is a really wonderful and entertaining story which twists and turns and is seriously difficult to put down. The history is absolutely fascinating and I found myself going down so many rabbit holes looking at the history of porcelain, Madame Pompadour, the creation of the colour blue..and I checked out each one of the characters to see which were purely fictional and which historical. Nancy has done such an incredible job of weaving in history, historical figures and places into an entertaining narrative…
And then there is Genevieve. What a great woman to spend time with. Sparky, brave, a bit irreverential, ambitious, savvy..prone to a bit of misadventure and poor decision making. This book buzzes with tension and adventure, fizzes with sexual chemistry and has a wonderful helping of humour mixed up in all the glorious history.
Definitely a book I would recommend! In fact I started telling my Dad, a lifelong historian, about it and he said he had already read and enjoyed it and was delighted to find out that Genevieve had returned!!