Book Review: Becoming Marie Antoinette by Juliet Grey

 

Goodreads Summary: This enthralling confection of a novel, the first in a new trilogy, follows the transformation of a coddled Austrian archduchess into the reckless, powerful, beautiful queen Marie Antoinette.
Why must it be me? I wondered. When I am so clearly inadequate to my destiny?

Raised alongside her numerous brothers and sisters by the formidable empress of Austria, ten-year-old Maria Antonia knew that her idyllic existence would one day be sacrificed to her mother's political ambitions. What she never anticipated was that the day in question would come so soon.

Before she can journey from sunlit picnics with her sisters in Vienna to the glitter, glamour, and gossip of Versailles, Antonia must change everything about herself in order to be accepted as dauphine of France and the wife of the awkward teenage boy who will one day be Louis XVI. Yet nothing can prepare her for the ingenuity and influence it will take to become Queen.

Filled with smart history, treacherous rivalries, lavish clothes, and sparkling jewels Becoming Marie Antoinette will utterly captivate fiction and history lovers alike.

Goodreads Rating: 3.80 stars with over 5,900 ratings

Genre Listing: Historical Fiction, Romance, French Revolution

Goodreads Challenge: 16/48 (May or may not decrease my end-of-year goal. We'll see.)

2022 Reading Challenge: #29 Read a book that's been on your TBR for over a year (Find the entire challenge here)

Book Review:

Hello, Readers! I hope everyone is doing well and recovering from it being Monday. I have not recovered from Monday and am debating going to bed around 7pm. I am very sleepy. I'm still not really out of the reading slump I've been in. It is taking me a while to finish books, even if I'm interested in them. Hopefully, I will get out of this rut soon. I discovered that my new house balcony is a delightful place to read. I will definitely be out there a lot this summer. 

Picture of balcony

Anyway, on to the book review. Becoming Marie Antoinette by Juliet Grey has been on my kindle for two to three years. I'm genuinely surprised that I didn't read it sooner. I thought it was a really interesting telling of Marie Antoinette's story. Typically I feel like stories depicting her start when she marries Louis. I was intrigued by her life as an Arch-Duchess. There was so much pressure put on her at such a young age. She was only 14 at the time of her marriage. However, that was so common back then, especially in royalty. I appreciated how Juliet Grey showed their relationship in a very awkward way. I can't imagine it was anything but uncomfortable in real life for the first few years.

I was very confused by the timeline of this book. Let me clarify and say there was nothing wrong with the timeline. I'm just dense and didn't realize it was only a fraction of Marie Antoinette's life or that this book was the first of a trilogy. Apparently, the title was not enough of a clue for me. Becoming Marie Antoinette covers the years before her being Queen. I think she was about 10 when the story starts, and it ends right before her and Luis's succession to the throne. So, now you know, so you don't have to be wondering where the rest of your book is like I did. 

I've been trying hard not to bing series to get more categories on the 2022 Reading Challenge. However, I couldn't help it once I finished this book; I bought the next in the trilogy. I am about twenty pages into the second book. It was an entertaining read, but I also felt it was well researched. I'm not sure what Marie Antoinette took liberties with, but she does provide a bibliography for her sources. It made me a happy little nerd.