Book Review: MEDICIS DAUGHTER: A NOVEL OF MARGUERITE DE VALOIS by Sophie Perinot

Marguerite de Valois princess of France is the daughter of the notorious Italian poisoner Queen Catherine de Medici. Ruled by her vigilantly religious mother Margot is ordered to the French court. A child no more, Margot finds the French court full of deceit and intrigue with her family the full center of it.

It was a natural thing at the French court to flirt and have secret liaisons with lovers. But Margot being a blood royal was excluded from the affairs of the heart. She was to be like every other royal princess and be bargained off for the political advantage of her family. She knew her duty to her family but could not stop herself from falling in love with her kingly brothers BFF the Duke of Guise. Starting out as a puppy love affair it rapidly progressed to an affair. Her mother would lock her up in a convent for the rest of her life if she ever found out the truth of her late night meetings with the Duke.

In love with the Duke of Guise, Margot starts to slide and her vicious mother and brother discover her liaisons. Brutally punished for her transgressions her mother decides the only way to stop the courts gossip was to marry her off to her cousin for the most political gain. Her new husband Henri of Navarre is the leader of the heretic Huguenot’s. Margot will become Queen of Navarre but married to a heretic.

Religious tensions are running super high at the time of the wedding because France is a catholic country. Marrying a catholic princess of France to a heretic caused quite a stir. Margot’s disgruntled lover the Duke of Guise was at the head of it all. All this tension is leading up to one of France’s darkest days, the St. Bartholomew’s massacre. Torn between a promise to her new husband and her vicious family Margot will have to look deep within her heart to find a way to survive the massacre her family has inflicted on the Huguenots.

5/5 incredibly vicious in the best of ways possible. I love Sophie Perinot’s novels. She always delivers on the darker sides of history.

R ~ Rating for sexual references and violence
FTC ~ This novel was sent to me for review. I received no compensation for this review.

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Médicis Daughter: A Novel of Marguerite de Valois
The Sister Queens
~Lizzie~