FYI, the link Jayne gave is a complete bust in the Mac OS version of Firefox, so I warn fellow Mac users to fire up Safari for that one!

According to Wikipedia, Anne Golon was born in 1921. Wow.

Yes, that was the site I was referring to. No new info since the early 2000s (besides the announcement of the death of the President of the Fan club).

I was poking around the site after I posted the link and saw one section that said “under construction” as of Nov 2004. Not promising….

She's not getting any younger either, so I'm kind of afraid to hold my breath for book 14.

Uh-huh. You’d think something would have been published or in the works by now.

She’s not getting any younger either, so I’m kind of afraid to hold my breath for book 14.

I just read a bunch of Patricia Oliver books and was dismayed to find out that she died (according to an Amazon review, can’t find confirmation anywhere) and didn’t write a number of books that seemed planned for her loosely connected series. Some of the books I liked a lot, one I loved until almost the end when she ruined it, but I’d still have liked to read about at least one character. Sigh.

Too bad they never translated the rest of the series into English. I read that there were supposed to be more books (already written), but that was years ago and the web sites are out of date now.

Here’s a link to the official website for the books. It looks like those last books published in French still haven’t been translated and the last books written still haven’t been published.

Too bad they never translated the rest of the series into English. I read that there were supposed to be more books (already written), but that was years ago and the web sites are out of date now.

Word of warning though for the unwary, while there’s a main couple throughout the many books which cover 20 odd years, it’s not a classic romance with boy meets girl, boy marries girl, they live happily ever after… rather the opposite.

I’ve been a bit afraid to re-read them because of that. I loved them as a teen and early twen, though. :)

As for the overdescription, did you get the impression that it was it done seriously or in an attempt to mimic the style an Alexander Dumas novel? He was paid by the word count so you can definitely tell that he padded out his book as much as possible, especially reading it in French. It actually adds to the charm of his books how he intentionally uses very flowery and over-descriptive language – I'm not sure if this comes across in translation, though.

I did wonder if Russo was trying to mimic Dumas and even pulled out one of my copies of “The Three Musketeers.” Perhaps the overflowery style of Dumas was lost in the translation I have, but I didn’t get the same feel when I compared this book to TTM. This book felt more like a first time author’s mistake of including too much detail where it simply wasn’t needed and only served to slow the story down. Or an attempt to slip in every, single historical detail she’d read just because she felt they were too cool to leave out. But whatever it was, it went over and above “bringing the setting to life.”

I may have to check out this book from the library for my mother-in-law. She LOVED the Angelique series; one of the biggest regrets of her life, she says, was lending the series to a friend, who never returned it then moved away!

With friends like those….of course an online search of a USB for OOP copies of the series could be something you do for her next birthday/holiday present!

The series is so rich in detail and comes alive so quickly that I’m surprised that more people haven’t heard of it or read it. I wonder if it would come across as too old fashioned now? There was another series similar to it though set in 14th C France called “Catherine” that I collected a couple of the books for though never got a chance to read them. Hmmm, wonder if they’re still in the attic with the Marquise of the Angels?

I want to hear about what they do differently (the walk, the talk, what?), because that's what sells me or not on the quality of their masquerade. I can't just “buy it” because the narration tells me that everyone else is buying it; I need to know more than that. And I'm well aware that's a quirk of mine, from having studied cross-gendered performance FAR too long.

Well, beyond binding her breasts and gluing a fake mustache to her upper lip, she did remember to walk with a swagger (and mentions how freeing it is to walk without petticoats and a corset) and somehow secured an appropriately shaped pincushion near her genital area to help remind her how to walk.

I wonder if the reason some books set in less overdone periods seem to be overwritten or too full of detail is because we compare them to Regency romances, where the details are often understated or unexplained because the writer assumes that most readers are familiar with the period? I can see how it would be easy to get carried away with detail and description when you aren't one of dozens of writers covering the same manners, fashions, etc.

And this is exactly what I was thinking as I read the book. If I hadn’t have read the “Angelique” novels years ago and already learned these tidbits of information, I would not have gotten so glassy eyed quite so quickly. Nevertheless, it would have happened eventually simply due to the sheer volume of it and the overdescription of everything else.

Orbs always makes me think of globes, which makes me thing of breasts. Once I’ve read “breasts” for “eyes,” things get silly very quickly.

I do applaud the French setting, however; yay for something outside Regency England! I ♥ it! I wonder if the reason some books set in less overdone periods seem to be overwritten or too full of detail is because we compare them to Regency romances, where the details are often understated or unexplained because the writer assumes that most readers are familiar with the period? I can see how it would be easy to get carried away with detail and description when you aren’t one of dozens of writers covering the same manners, fashions, etc.

I love this time period, though, and it's so hard to find decent non-Regency historical romances these days

Which is why, when the book was offered to us for review, I knew I had to try it despite not being a fan of “chicks in pants.” It took me back to my days of reading the “Angelique” books (and I noted the name given to Jeanne’s younger sister’s best friend!).

I love this time period, though, and it’s so hard to find decent non-Regency historical romances these days… *anxiously debates whether to read this or not!*