![]( "A Royal Likeness")
Paperback: 384 pages
Publisher: Kensington
Release Date: December 28th, 2010
Source: I received a review copy from the publisher.
Almost exactly a year ago, I read and enjoyed The Queen’s Dollmaker. Christine Trent was then a debut author, and soon saw rapid success in the form of multiple great reviews, and coverage in local newspapers. I loved the unique perspective Trent’s plotline brought to the oft-told stories of the French Revolution, one of my favorite periods to read about. A sequel to The Queen’s Dollmaker, A Royal Likeness was equally fun and unique a story.
When we last left Marguerite Ashby, she recently had been adopted by mentor and family friend Claudette Laurent, the main protagonist in The Queen’s Dollmaker. In A Royal Likeness, Marguerite is all grown up and has inherited her aunt Claudette’s renowned doll shop. Similarly to Claudette, Marguerite’s hopes and dreams are diminished when tragedy strikes and her life’s path irrevocably altered. In order to pick herself up and get back on her feet, Marguerite accepts a position as an apprentice to a dear friend of Claudette, one Marie Grosholtz Tussaud, known today far and wide simply as “Madame Tussaud”. A household name made famous by her fascinating wax museums, Marie Tussaud’s work exists today in the form of a museum collection of wonders and global tourism empire. Interestingly (or grotesquely, depending on how you look at it!) Madame Tussaud got her beginnings in waxworks by making death masks of the guillotined victims of the French Revolution.
I was surprised and delighted to encounter one of my absolute favorite historical bad girls, Lady Emma Hamilton later on in the story. Heroine Marguerite herself seemed to always be inadvertently getting into trouble, though I found her misadventures amusing, if not slightly overboard. Madame Tussaud was a character one could not help but love; her down-to-work attitude at a time when so few women were working at all added a spark of go get ‘em girl power I appreciated. As I stated in my review of The Queen’s Dollmaker I’ve come to really enjoy historical fiction that deals with women in artistic industries. We hear about so few female artisans (think about all the noted “great” artists of history and you will come up with very few women!), and reading about both the real and fictitious characters who were brave enough to enter an already-difficult field completely dominated by men is particularly interesting to me.
As per Trent’s usual style, I enjoyed most the fast-paced plot line and her addition of snippets of interesting historical detail. I got a little bit annoyed by some of the romantic elements of the book (a little bit cheesy at times, but never overly sexual) and the fact that bad luck followed Marguerite throughout the story like a curse, almost unrealistically so. Anything something good happened to her, I always expected a catch or pitfall. However, this is not overly distracting and the most seemingly far-fetched plot lines of this book are presented in a way that makes events unfold in an incredibly believable manner. If you’re looking for a cozy feel-good read to curl up with by the fire this holiday season (I did exactly that over Thanksgiving), then this is the perfect book with which to do so!
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