byashleylamar's review
2.0
This book is a national bestseller and I expected it to blow me away. I wanted to love it but instead it comes up at the bottom of my reading list this month. It took me over two weeks to finish it and when I finally turned the last page my first thought was, “Well, I’m glad that’s over”. The characters were so flat and there was just no reason to be attached to any of them. Can I spoil something here for you? No? Well I’m going to anyway – everyone dies. Everyone but Laure and her “savage” friend (and the father of her baby) anyway. The thing is that I didn’t care when anyone died. We barely get to know them so it’s not like they are really missed. It’s dry and boring. Don’t bother with it.
ctiner7's review against another edition
4.0
I actually really enjoyed this book. I wish it would have had more in the end. I wanted to know what happened to Laure, but all in all it was a pretty good book. The author did a great job of describing what she imagined, and I was right there standing next to Laure through the entire book. A lot of sad, and I wish she would have ended up with the other man. I really enjoyed the book though.
I won this book on Goodreads First Reads.
I won this book on Goodreads First Reads.
lululovesbooks77's review
1.0
Not my favorite Canadian book. I felt like the author focused too much on the tiny details and I found myself skimming through those pages. I understand that things were rough back in the day. We learned that in history class...I wished she would've concentrated on the story more than just the conditions.
margaretefg's review
3.0
Carefully researched (apparently, since I am no expert on France or Canada in the period). Laurie, the main character, has a tremendous will to survive and a strength she doesn't fully recognize. Lots more time is spent in Old France than the title would suggest, telling us a lot about both Laure and the state of poor women in seventeenth century France. Her experience of misery coupled with freedom in the New World is fascinating...would it have felt like that I wonder?
sneakyawe's review against another edition
4.0
So good, so real, and so incredibly sad.
I don't know much more than basic French, so some words slipped past me, but besides that this book was effortless and beautiful.
It made me realize that there is so much about this world that I don't know, and that I have never given thought to how other places in the world came to be.
I don't know much more than basic French, so some words slipped past me, but besides that this book was effortless and beautiful.
It made me realize that there is so much about this world that I don't know, and that I have never given thought to how other places in the world came to be.
megan_prairierose's review
5.0
I devoured this book! Beautiful writing about a subject I didn't know a lot about. I can't wait to read more books by this author.
melle's review
3.0
I recall reading another novel about the filles du roi a million years ago, and it was definitely more romanticized than this. In a way this one was a bit of a downer, but at the same time, being older now, I also appreciate the stab at historical accuracy.
Absolutely mind-boggling what these women would have had to go through. There aren't a lot of "comparable" adventures in our world anymore.
Absolutely mind-boggling what these women would have had to go through. There aren't a lot of "comparable" adventures in our world anymore.
palliem's review against another edition
2.0
I really wanted to love this because I'm definitely on a historical fiction kick, and the filles de roi were something I didn't know anything about.
The story follows Laure, an "orphan" from France who is sent to New France (Canada) in the late 1600s as a part of the King's plan to populate the new colony. It's a fascinating piece of history, and perhaps the story would have been better in the hands of a better writer.
This book wasn't bad, but it was clearly by someone who was new at the craft of novel writing. Laure was poorly characterized and never grew or changed throughout the story and the first two-thirds of the book contained so much extraneous detail that I lost interest at times. Many of the storylines introduced early in the novel have no tie to the overall arc, which was frustrating. The author spent far too little time on Laure's life in Canada and never really ended the story or wrapped up Laure's storyline, which was an unsatisfactory ending.
The story follows Laure, an "orphan" from France who is sent to New France (Canada) in the late 1600s as a part of the King's plan to populate the new colony. It's a fascinating piece of history, and perhaps the story would have been better in the hands of a better writer.
This book wasn't bad, but it was clearly by someone who was new at the craft of novel writing. Laure was poorly characterized and never grew or changed throughout the story and the first two-thirds of the book contained so much extraneous detail that I lost interest at times. Many of the storylines introduced early in the novel have no tie to the overall arc, which was frustrating. The author spent far too little time on Laure's life in Canada and never really ended the story or wrapped up Laure's storyline, which was an unsatisfactory ending.
spoonerreads's review
3.0
Interesting take on what it would have been like to move here from France in the 1600's.