I think that Laura Du Ore has great potential as a historical novelist. She does, however, need better editing. In addition to common mistakes like misspellings, typos, and wrong word choices, which I usually pretty much ignore unless it makes the sentence unreadable, perhaps an editor could have advised her on the one thing that I hated about this novel, although on the whole I heartily recommend it and its successors. I have been looking for another book by the author.

The books begin in the 16th century in the reign of Charles IX of France, and his queen, Elisabeth of Austria. If you are familiar with the period, you know a lot of what is coming, but I'll try not to give away any plot. This was a time of civil war between the Catholics and the Protestants (Huguenots); the Bourbons of Navarre were prominent Protestant leaders. Among the French courtiers of the previous generation was Francis I, Duke of Nevers, Count of Nevers and Eu, and Count of Rethel. He and his wife, Marguerite of Bourbon-Vendôme, had five surviving children, but his two sons died not long after he did, before the trilogy opens, and his titles were divided among his three surviving daughters, Henriette of Cleves (or Nevers), Catherine of Cleves (or Nevers), and Marie of Cleves (or Nevers). These three daughters are the Three Graces of the trilogy. Their stories are told beginning with the youngest and ending with the middle, for reasons that will become clear as one reads.

This book concerns Marie of Cleves. Some backstory from before the trilogy opens. I have several death dates for her mother (I suspect one is a typo), but in this book, her mother died when she is nine. She is then raised by the wife of her mother's brother, Jeanne d'Albret, who is Jeanne III, Queen of Navarre, but it was with the stipulation, which her father accepted, that she would henceforth be raised as a Protestant. Jeanne III, despite her intense enmity with Catherine d'Medici, Queen Mother of France, negotiates a marriage between her son and heir, Henri de Bourbon, and Catherine's daughter Marguerite of Valois. In theory, this will help settle the civil war. Jeanne dies suddenly while still in Paris. Marie dutifully marries the man her aunt selected for her, her first cousin Henri I of Bourbon, but they are unhappy.

The story begins with Marie and Henri moving to Paris and staying with one of her sisters, where she becomes a favorite attendant of Queen Marguerite. There is a strong mutual, but platonic attraction between Marie and the King's younger brother Henri, Duc of Anjou. The nobility of France and Navarre have assembled in Paris for the marriage between Henri III, now king of Navarre and the very reluctant Marguerite of Valois. The plot drama begins almost immediately. Henri was an excessively common name, thanks to the use of their titles and the care with which Laura Du Pre creates her characters, I was never confused.

For the most part, I enjoyed this and the other two novels thoroughly. The characters were vivid and the stories well-written. One could hardly ask for a more dramatic period in history. She could easily continue this with books on the later lives of the sisters. There are a few minor continuity problems between the three books, but that is not uncommon in series. I am presently reading a work that so far has three contradictions in the same book, but I am still enjoying it.

One thing I really disliked. It appears that Laura Du Pre has a list of negative things that she wants to say about the Protestants, and she puts them all in Marie's mouth in a series of complaints stuck rather awkwardly in the early part of the narrative. Her writing, otherwise very good, breaks down seriously at these points. One of the first rules of writing is show, don't tell. I think Marie might have been better used as a more liminal character, having, at this point, been Catholic for the first half of her life and Protestant for the second half. Of course, it is quite possible that Marie never recovered from losing her mother and her first religion, and then being sent to be raised among unfamiliar people and given a second religion. The Huguenots, except for Admiral Gaspard de Coligny, who was a friend of Charles IX, are all portrayed as dreadful, dour, cranky men. I'm not sure there was any evidence of women other than Marie. Certainly she never falls into any friendly girl talk or chit-chat with them. I was glad I was sitting down when she spoke of being married to her husband Henri in the presence of old friends in Navarre. She actually had Protestant friends? I would never have guessed -- apparently none are in Paris. One of her complaints, as an example, is that as a Protestant Princess, she is not allowed to attend a Catholic Mass, which she would like to do. My reaction was, if you were a Catholic Princess, you wouldn't be allowed to attend a Protestant service. What's your point, lady? The stories of her two sisters take place later in the very Catholic court of France, so one expects a religious bias as a matter of course.

I think it would have been much better expressed if Marie had seen her sister preparing to go to Mass, and realized that she was carrying their mother's rosary. Suddenly, a tearful Marie is transported back to the happy days when both her parents and her brothers were alive and attended Mass as a family. She suddenly wants to recapture some of that earlier happiness by attending Mass with her sisters, but of course, no-one would understand, and there would be endless gossip if the wife of one of the Protestant leaders went to a Catholic service. I can't reveal my least favorite moment without giving away a lot of the plot, but let's just say it was a much better book later.

Still I think it is worth reading for the good parts, and as an forerunner to the rest of this mostly excellent series. ( )