The Forbidden Rose

The Forbidden Rose (2010) Joanna Bourne

Set during the French Revolution

Marguerite de Fleurignac is on the run. The Jacobeans have burned her home and tried to kill her. But she has far greater worries than the loss of her home–if her secrets are learned, many lives could be threatened.

William Doyle–going by the name Guillaume LeBreton–is searching for the Marquis de Fleurignac, the French nobelman who created a list of British men who were assassinated. He was sent because he’s the best.

And pragmatic.

“It’s easier to come back and kill somebody than to come back and unkill him. And if I think up some new questions later on, he’s not going to be talkative if he’s dead.”

Adrian, also called Hawker, is traveling with Doyle, supposedly learning the trade of spying. But his alliances aren’t quite clear yet.

“I will give you my expert opinion. You can loot a place or you can burn it to the ground. It’s a mistake trying to do both at once.”

Which makes this as much Adrian’s book as Doyle and Maggie’s. Which is fascinating, because Adrian is by far my favorite character in the previous book.

Knowing things was like picking up diamonds and rubies off the street. Made him feel rich.

But there are also lots of little tidbits strewn through the book.

She had learned stillness at Versailles, in the hardest school on earth. One does not fidget in the presence of a king. Hungry, thirsty, exhausted, with pins sticking into one’s bodice, with feet that ached, hour after hour, one does not wriggle.

I’m pretty sure that’s something most people don’t think about, when they dream of being a courtier in Court.

But Maggie/Marguerite is a delight.

“I am not a virgin,” she said. There was enough light to see him smile.
“That’s a coincidence. Neither am I.”
“What you are is a great treasure-house of sarcasm.”

She endured (him) putting the back of his hand on her forehead. “You don’t have a fever,” he said. “
Thank you. Perhaps you will spare me an accounting of the diseases I do not have. Leprosy. Gout. The pox. I find it does not cheer me up at all.”

I believe she comes by that recognition of sarcasm quite honestly.
Rating: 8.5/10

Published by Berkley

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