About Joanne Renaud
posts by Joanne Renaud:
A Reviews / Recommended Reads#ownvoices / bride / fairy tale / fairy tale retelling / Fantasy / Historical Fantasy / Middle East / YA3 Comments
Dear Catherine Faris King: We should all know the story of Scheherazade, right? It’s the frame story of the Arabian Nights, and famous enough in its own right. Once there was a murderous king, who, after he finds his first wife to be unfaithful, marries dozens of women, murdering every ... more >
Book Reviews / C- ReviewsArtist / cartoons / European-Historical / France / French-Revolution / Georgian / Historical fiction / nurse6 Comments
Dear Ms. Coffman, There’s something uniquely disappointing about reading a bad book from a favorite author. I felt this way recently after reading your historical novel, Veronique, after years of reading your wonderful Gothic romances—Moura and The Alpine Coach are wonderful, but my favorite is The Dark Palazzo, a dreamy, ... more >
Book Reviews / D Reviews17th-century / countess / France / Historical fiction / historical romance26 Comments
Dear Serge and Anne Golon, I have long heard about Angelique, your big romantic bestseller from 1957, when I was a little kid in the ‘80s. Even in the ‘80s, the books from the series always sat moldering on shelves in the used bookstores of my hometown, and they looked ... more >
A Reviews / Recommended Readsancient-Rome / Historical3 Comments
Dear Margaret George: I had the pleasure of being given a copy of your new epic novel, The Confessions of Young Nero. Admittedly I was skeptical about it. As strange as it sounds, I have been a Nero fan as long as I can remember. I always had the feeling ... more >
B ReviewsContemporary / Magical Realism / Time-Travel4 Comments
Dear Ms. Sotto, So, this was an interesting book. It has a high concept. Cellist Andrea in modern San Francisco, when she plays her cello, can somehow create a crack in the space-time continuum and somehow commune with a young man her age, living centuries ago—who turns out to be ... more >
B+ ReviewsGreek / Historical4 Comments
Dear Ms. Bradshaw, Current events and politics have not been terribly pleasant lately, and I’ve been turning to my favorite authors for comfort reads. One of those authors is you, a reliably brilliant and fluid storyteller who can bring antiquity to life the way no one else can. (For those ... more >