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Tuesday, June 10, 2014

Tarot Cards, Guillotines, & Napoleon: Becoming Josephine by Heather Webb


My review: In Becoming Josephine, Heather Webb's marvelous debut has spun the tangled web of a lively and intriguing Josephine, carrying the reader through her early life in Martinique to her near-death escapes during the French Revolution's Terror, and finally to her tumultuous years married to the mercurial Napoleon Bonaparte. (A man I never in a million years would have wanted to be married to.) This is a fast-paced read that immerses readers in the decadent smells of the Caribbean's sugar plantations, the dank prisons of Paris, and the Enlightenment salons replete with philosophes debating the ideas of the fledgling republic. Throughout it all, Josephine learns what it is to trust her own daring and stand on her own two feet.


Synopsis: Rose Tascher sails from her Martinique plantation to Paris to trade her Creole black magic culture for love and adventure. She arrives exultant to follow her dreams of attending Court with Alexandre, her elegant aristocrat and soldier husband. But Alexandre dashes her hopes and abandons her amid the tumult of the French Revolution.

Through her savoir faire, Rose secures her footing in high society, reveling in handsome men and glitzy balls—until the heads of her friends begin to roll.

After narrowly escaping death in the blood-drenched cells of Les Carmes prison, she reinvents herself as Josephine, a socialite of status and power. Yet her youth is fading, and Josephine must choose between a precarious independence and the love of an awkward suitor. Little does she know, he would become the most powerful man of his century- Napoleon Bonaparte.

BECOMING JOSEPHINE is a novel of one woman’s journey to find eternal love and stability, and ultimately to find herself. 


About the Author: Heather Webb grew up a military brat and naturally became obsessed with travel, culture, and languages. She put her degrees to good use teaching high school French for nearly a decade before turning to full time novel writing and freelance editing. Her debut, BECOMING JOSEPHINE, released January 2014 from Plume/Penguin. Her forthcoming novel, RODIN'S LOVER, will release in winter of 2015.