Tanzanite's Castle Full of Books

I found this book while trolling around ebay one day and since there doesn’t seem to be much historical fiction about France’s Francois I, I thought I would give it a try (and how could I resist the girl with the great 70’s hair on the cover!). Well, if I was looking for a book about Francois I, I was disappointed – the title and the blurb on the back are rather misleading since Francois plays a small role in the plot and doesn’t even show up until the last half of the book.


That the book wasn’t really about what I expected it to be isn’t necessarily a bad thing, Written in 1969, it is the story of a young girl named Gentian who is sold by her grandmother to a traveller named Peron who happens to serve the wealthy Duke du Veaux. It seems the aging Duke is twice widowed and goes through mistresses fairly quickly, charitably keeping his favorites in his household even after he no longer desires their services. He is also a cousin to the king. Peron finds Gentian incredibly beautiful and figures his employer will be pleased with her.

Initially horrified, Gentian quickly settles into her new life and before long, she is the Duke’s favorite and his duchess in all but name. When word comes that the king will be coming for a visit, Gentian takes control of the household as the duke has allowed the staff to become lazy and wasteful. Resentment and jealousy follow and a plot to poison Gentian goes horribly wrong. Various troubles plague Gentian as she tries to put together some sort of life for herself and to decide where her heart really belongs.

This was a short (less than 200 pages) and easy read with an emphasis on Gentian’s romantic struggles with the duke, the king and Peron. Since the book isn’t very long there’s not much of an opportunity to really develop the characters and the author mostly tells us what we need to know about their personalities and motivations and period detail is virtually non-existent except for some dress descriptions.  There is a sequel, The Wolf and the Unicorn, but I think I"ll skip it. I’m glad I only paid $1 for this one.



In case the FTC asks: bought it used