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Set against the magnificent decadence of the 17th century court of the Sun King, Mistress of the Sun begins when an eccentric young Louise falls in love with a wild white stallion and uses ancient magic to tame him. This one desperate action of her youth shadows her throughout her life, changing it in ways she could never imagine.
Unmarriageable, and too poor to join a convent, she enters the court of the Sun King as a maid-of-honor, where the King is captivated by her athleticism and her striking grace. As their love unfolds, Louise bears Louis four children, is made a duchess, and reigns unrivaled as his official mistress until dangerous intrigue threatens her position at court and in Louis's heart.
A riveting love story with a captivating mystery at its heart, Mistress of the Sun resurrects a fascinating female figure from the shadows of history, and illuminates both the power of true and perfect love and the rash actions we take to capture and tame it.
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Creators
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Publisher
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Release date
June 3, 2008 -
Formats
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OverDrive Listen audiobook
- ISBN: 9780743578141
- File size: 455583 KB
- Duration: 15:49:07
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Languages
- English
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Reviews
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March 3, 2008
As she did for Napoleon's wife (The Many Lives & Secret Sorrows of Josephine B.
), Gulland skillfully blends fact and fiction to imagine the life of Louise de la Vallière (1644–1710), mistress to Louis XIV, France's Sun King. Louise loses her father early and spends her childhood in a convent run by her aunt, Sister Angelique. When Louise's mother, Françoise, marries a marquis, she takes Louise home, where, by chance, she meets King Louis. As she secures a position at court about 100 pages in, the plot finally begins to bubble with intrigue: the king has married for political reasons, but, as a young and pious man, he has not kept a mistress before Louise. Their secret love eventually comes to light, but not without exacting a price. A supernatural element threaded throughout adds color to Gulland's vivid period imaginings. -
Not only is Diana Leblanc comfortable with French pronunciations, she lingers over sensory details and differentiates classes with nuanced accents as she welcomes us into the world of Louise de la Vallire, the adored mistress of the Sun King, Louis XIV. Known to us and those of her era as "Petite," she had a childhood of wild rambles in the woods of her father's country estate. When she uses "bone magic" to tame a wild stallion and the horse kills her father, she's fearful about having sinned. After capturing the heart of Louis XIV, Petite's passionate and pious natures again collide in a court that is thrilling, or chilling, depending on the politics of the moment. Leblanc brings strength to the court's shifting alliances and Petite's internal struggles. S.W. (c) AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine
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