Book Blast: Enchantress of Paris by Marci Jefferson + Giveaway!!

Enchantress of Paris: A Novel of the Sun King’s Court
by Marci Jefferson

Publication Date: August 4, 2015
Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin’s Press
Hardcover & eBook; 336 Pages

Genre: Historical Fiction


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Fraught with conspiracy and passion, the Sun King’s opulent court is brought to vivid life in this captivating tale about a woman whose love was more powerful than magic.


The alignment of the stars at Marie Mancini’s birth warned that although she would be gifted at divination, she was destined to disgrace her family. Ignoring the dark warnings of his sister and astrologers, Cardinal Mazarin brings his niece to the French court, where the forbidden occult arts thrive in secret. In France, Marie learns her uncle has become the power behind the throne by using her sister Olympia to hold the Sun King, Louis XIV, in thrall.

Desperate to avoid her mother’s dying wish that she spend her life in a convent, Marie burns her grimoire, trading Italian superstitions for polite sophistication. But as her star rises, King Louis becomes enchanted by Marie’s charm. Sensing a chance to grasp even greater glory, Cardinal Mazarin pits the sisters against each other, showering Marie with diamonds and silks in exchange for bending King Louis to his will.

Disgusted by Mazarin’s ruthlessness, Marie rebels. She sacrifices everything, but exposing Mazarin’s deepest secret threatens to tear France apart. When even King Louis’s love fails to protect Marie, she must summon her forbidden powers of divination to shield her family, protect France, and help the Sun King fulfill his destiny.

Buy the Book

AMAZON | BARNES & NOBLE | BOOKS-A-MILLION | INDIE BOUND | MACMILLAN

About the Author

Years after graduating from Virginia Commonwealth University, immersing herself in a Quality Assurance nursing career, and then having children, Marci realized she’d neglected her passion for
history and writing. She began traveling, writing along the way, delving into various bits of history that caught her fancy. The plot for GIRL ON THE GOLDEN COIN evolved slowly after a trip to

London, where she first learned about the Stuart royals. Marci is a member of the Historical Novel Society. She resides in the Midwest with her husband, making hair-bows for their daughter, trying not to step on their son’s Legos, and teaching a tiny Pacific Parrotlet to talk.

For more information visit Marci Jefferson’s website. You can also find her on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Goodreads.

 

 

Giveaway Time!!!

To enter to win a signed copy of Enchantress of Paris: A Novel of the Sun King’s Court, please enter via the GLEAM form HERE.

Rules

 

Giveaway ends at 11:59pm EST on August 18th. You must be 18 or older to enter.

 

Giveaway is open internationally.

 

Only one entry per household.

 

All giveaway entrants agree to be honest and not cheat the systems; any suspect of fraud is decided upon by blog/site owner and the sponsor, and entrants may be disqualified at our discretion.

 

 Winner has 48 hours to claim prize or new winner is chosen.

 

 

Good Luck!!

 

 

 

Enchantress of Paris Book Blast Schedule

 

 

Tuesday, August 4

Unabridged Chick

Wednesday, August 5

Unshelfish
Beth’s Book Nook Blog
Curling up by the Fire

Thursday, August 6

Book Lovers Paradise
History From a Woman’s Perspective

Friday, August 7

 100 Pages a Day
Oh, for the Hook of a Book!

Saturday, August 8

Historical Readings & Reviews

Sunday, August 9

Book Nerd

Monday, August 10

Genre Queen

Tuesday, August 11

A Chick Who Reads
To Read, Or Not to Read

Wednesday, August 12

A Literary Vacation
So Many Books, So Little Time

Thursday, August 13

Broken Teepee
CelticLady’s Reviews

Friday, August 14

A Book Geek
The Lit Bitch

Saturday, August 15

The Maiden’s Court

Sunday, August 16

Ageless Pages Reviews

Monday, August 17

Luxury Reading
Boom Baby Reviews

Tuesday, August 18

A Bookish Affair

 

 

 



Cover Reveal! Fall of Poppies: Stories of Love and the Great War + Giveaway!!

There are certain authors that I get particularly excited about when I see they have a new book coming out (I'm sure anyone reading this can relate). Well imagine my excitement when I hear a bunch of my favorite authors are getting together and coming out with a collection of stories all centered around the aftermath of World War I...yes, that noise you heard was my head exploding! I am so excited to share with all of you the cover reveal for Fall of Poppies: Stories of Love and the Great War! Here's all the information you need to find out more about this wonderful collaboration as well as the GORGEOUS cover. I've already pre-ordered my copy and I hope you will consider doing the same if this sounds as marvelous to you as it does to me!

 

 

Fall of Poppies: Stories of Love and the Great War 

 

by Heather Webb, Hazel Gaynor, Beatriz Williams, Jennifer Robson, Jessica Brockmole, Kate Kerrigan, Evangeline Holland, Lauren Willig, Marci Jefferson

 

 

 

William Morrow Trade Paperback; March 1, 2016; $14.99; ISBN: 9780062418548

 

 

Barnes and Noble / Amazon / IndieBound / Books-a-Million

 

 

 

Top voices in historical fiction deliver an intensely moving collection of short stories about loss, longing, and hope in the aftermath of World War I—featuring bestselling authors such as Hazel Gaynor, Jennifer Robson, Beatriz Williams, and Lauren Willig and edited by Heather Webb.

 

 

 

A squadron commander searches for meaning in the tattered photo of a girl he’s never met…

 

 

A Belgian rebel hides from the world, only to find herself nursing the enemy…

 

 

A young airman marries a stranger to save her honor—and prays to survive long enough to love her…The peace treaty signed on November 11, 1918, may herald the end of the Great War but for its survivors, the smoke is only beginning to clear. Picking up the pieces of shattered lives will take courage, resilience, and trust.

 

 

Within crumbled city walls and scarred souls, war’s echoes linger. But when the fighting ceases, renewal begins…and hope takes root in a fall of poppies.

 

 

Excerpt

 

 

 

To whet your apetite, here's an excerpt from "Hour of the Bells", one of the short stories included in Fall of Poppies:

 

Beatrix whisked around the showroom, feather duster in hand. Not a speck of dirt could remain or Joseph would be disappointed. The hour struck noon. A chorus of clocks whirred, their birds popping out from hiding to announce midday. Maidens twirled in their frocks with braids down their backs, woodcutters clacked their axes against pine, and the odd sawmill wheel spun in tune to the melody of a nursery rhyme. Two dozen cuckoos warbled and dinged, each crafted with loving detail by the same pair of hands—those with thick fingers and a steady grip.


Beatrix paused in her cleaning. One clock chimed to its own rhythm, apart from the others.


She could turn them off—the tinkling melodies, the incessant clatter of pendulums, wheels, and cogs, with the levers located near the weights—just as their creator had done before bed each evening, but she could not bring herself to do the same. To silence their music was to silence him, her husband, Joseph. The Great War had already done that; ravaged his gentle nature, stolen his final breath, and silenced him forever.


In a rush, Beatrix scurried from one clock to the next, assessing which needed oiling. With the final stroke of twelve, she found the offending clock. Its walnut face, less ornate than the others, had been her favorite, always. A winter scene displayed a cluster of snow-topped evergreens; rabbits and fawns danced in the drifts when the music began, and a scarlet cardinal dipped its head and opened its beak to the beauty of the music. The animals’ simplicity appealed to her now more than ever. With care, she removed the weights and pendulum, and unscrewed the back of the clock. She was grateful she had watched her husband tend to them so often. She could still see Joseph, blue eyes peering over his spectacles, focused on a figurine as he painted detailing on the linden wood. His patient hands had caressed the figures lovingly, as he had caressed her.


The memory of him sliced her open. She laid her head on the table as black pain stole over her body, pooling in every hidden pocket and filling her up until she could scarcely breathe.


“Give it time,” her friend Adelaide had said, as she set a basket of jam and dried sausages on the table; treasures in these times of rations, yet meager condolence for what Beatrix had lost.


“Time?” Beatrix had laughed, a hollow sound, and moved to the window overlooking the grassy patch of yard. The Vosges mountains rose in the distance, lording over the line between France and Germany along the battle front. Time’s passage never escaped her—not for a moment. The clocks made sure of it. There weren’t enough minutes, enough hours, to erase her loss.


As quickly as the grief came, it fled. Though always powerful, its timing perplexed her. Pain stole through the night, or erupted at unlikely moments, until she feared its onslaught the way others feared death. Death felt easier, somehow.


Beatrix raised her head and pushed herself up from the table to finish her task. Joseph would not want her to mourn, after two long years. He would want to see her strength, her resilience, especially for their son. She pretended Adrien was away at school, though he had enlisted, too. His enlistment had been her fault. A vision of her son cutting barbed wire, sleeping in trenches, and pointing a gun at another man reignited the pain and it began to pool again. She suppressed the horrid thoughts quickly, and locked them away in a corner of her mind.


With a light touch she cleaned the clock’s bellows and dials, and anointed its oil bath with a few glistening drops. Once satisfied with her work, she hung the clock in its rightful place above the phonograph, where a disk waited patiently on the spool. She spun the disk once and watched the printed words on its center blur. Adrien had played Quand Madelon over and over, belting out the patriotic lyrics in time with the music. To him, it was a show of his support for his country. To Beatrix it had been a siren, a warning her only son would soon join the fight. His father’s death was the final push he had needed. The lure of patrimoine, of country, throbbed inside of him as it did in other men. They talked of war as women spoke of tea sets and linens, yearned for it as women yearned for children. Now, the war had seduced her Adrien. She stopped the spinning disk and plucked it from its wheel, the urge to destroy it pulsing in her hands.


She must try to be more optimistic. Surely God would not take all she had left.

 

*Reprint Courtesy of HarperCollins Publishers*

Giveaway Time!!

 

To celebrate the upcoming release of Fall of Poppies and today's cover reveal, HarperCollins is giving away copies of After the War is Over (by Jennifer Robson), A Memory of Violets (by Hazel Gaynor) and Land of Dreams (by Kate Kerrigan)! To enter fill out the rafflecopter form HERE.

 

Good luck!