Book Review: The Embroidered Book by Kate Heartfield

Pros: fascinating period, clever interweaving of magic into history, interesting characters and events

Cons:

After finding their murdered governess’s book of magic, archduchesses Maria Carolina (Charlotte) and Maria Antonia (Marie Antoinette) start teaching themselves spells. They hope this forbidden skill will help them in their upcoming political marriages to King Ferdinand I of Naples and the Dauphin of France respectively. One joins forces with a magical society that wants to control the use of magic, while the other is forced to hide her skill and work with rogues. Dreaming of how they’ll change the world for the better, politics, magic, and the whims of fate propel the sisters into the arms of revolution and a world very different from what they’d hoped to create.

Carefully following the events of history from 1767 to 1798, the author weaves magic into the story, using it to often explain natural disasters, political upheaval, and personal triumphs and defeats in the womens’ lives.

Magic requires 5 sacrifices, including a personal treasure, a memory, and an emotion (the love of a pet, for example). These sacrifices slowly leach the life and vivacity from the girls and the other practitioners around them. Magic itself varies between simple frivolous spells and truly dangerous spells.

It’s sad seeing how circumstances gradually change the sisters’ relationship with each other. Each one tries to do the best for their country, their family, and themselves, but that ultimately causes discord between them.

The author is kinder to Marie Antoinette and her actions and motivations than history has been. I didn’t know much about Naples or Charlotte’s reign, so I found her part of the story utterly fascinating. It’s clear the author did a lot of research on the people and time.

If you like alternate history and fantasy, this is an enjoyable read.

Shout-Out: The Embroidered Book by Kate Heartfield

‘Power is not something you are given. Power is something you take. When you are a woman, it is a little more difficult, that’s all’

1768. Charlotte, daughter of the Habsburg Empress, arrives in Naples to marry a man she has never met. Her sister Antoine is sent to France, and in the mirrored corridors of Versailles they rename her Marie Antoinette.

The sisters are alone, but they are not powerless. When they were only children, they discovered a book of spells – spells that work, with dark and unpredictable consequences.

In a time of vicious court politics, of discovery and dizzying change, they use the book to take control of their lives.

But every spell requires a sacrifice. And as love between the sisters turns to rivalry, they will send Europe spiralling into revolution.

Brimming with romance, betrayal, and enchantment, The Embroidered Book reimagines a dazzling period of history as you have never seen it before.