Fans of Regency romances and stories of strong Black women will find Haiti’s Queen Marie-Louise irresistible.
Haiti's only queen gets the royal treatment in this novel of race, revolution, and female resistance.
Like Netflix’s glittering take on the Bridgerton novels, this provocative story spotlights Black aristocrats navigating the class system and color lines during the Regency era. Riley, who also wrote about indomitable women and the Haitian Revolution in Sister Mother Warrior (2022), applies her talent for creating compelling, history-inspired characters to the story of Marie-Louise Christophe, crowned queen of Haiti in 1810 following the Haitian Revolution. For 10 years, she and her husband, King Henry I, rule the Northern Hemisphere’s only free Black nation until their kingdom is overthrown and Henry commits suicide. Marie-Louise and her two daughters take the family jewels and flee to England, where they hope to live in comfort as royal refugees. Against the backdrop of Haiti’s tumultuous history and the growing global disgust with slavery, Riley unfurls Marie-Louise's story in a languid and captivating style as the exiled queen reclaims her family’s vast fortune, tirelessly protects her daughters, and champions her husband's legacy. In flashback chapters set in Haiti, Riley contrasts Henry’s obsession with power and wealth with Marie-Louise's sensible focus on doing what's best for the Haitian people. In exile in England and on the European continent, Riley’s engaging characters pull us into the world of privileged royals, their stately homes, breathtaking wealth, and, deliciously, their romances and illicit affairs. Acutely aware of the challenges facing a Black queen, Riley deftly builds a portrait of a proud woman who commits her life to showing the world “that it was possible to be royal, Black, and have a happily-ever-after life.”
Fans of Regency romances and stories of strong Black women will find Haiti’s Queen Marie-Louise irresistible.Pub Date: July 11, 2023
ISBN: 9780063270992
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 9, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A pleasant if not entirely convincing tribute to the power of art.
A French art historian’s English-language fiction debut combines the story of a loving relationship between a grandfather and granddaughter with an enlightening discussion of art.
One day, when 10-year-old Mona removes the necklace given to her by her now-dead grandmother, she experiences a frightening, hour-long bout of blindness. Her parents take her to the doctor, who gives her a variety of tests and also advises that she see a psychiatrist. Her grandfather Henry tells her parents that he will take care of that assignment, but instead, he takes Mona on weekly visits to either the Louvre, the Musée d’Orsay, or the Centre Pompidou, where each week they study a single work of art, gazing at it deeply and then discussing its impact and history and the biography of its maker. For the reader’s benefit, Schlesser also describes each of the works in scrupulous detail. As the year goes on, Mona faces the usual challenges of elementary school life and the experiences of being an only child, and slowly begins to understand the causes of her temporary blindness. Primarily an amble through a few dozen of Schlesser’s favorite works of art—some well known and others less so, from Botticelli and da Vinci through Basquiat and Bourgeois—the novel would probably benefit from being read at a leisurely pace. While the dialogue between Henry and the preternaturally patient and precocious Mona sometimes strains credulity, readers who don’t have easy access to the museums of Paris may enjoy this vicarious trip in the company of a guide who focuses equally on that which can be seen and the context that can’t be. Come for the novel, stay for the introductory art history course.
A pleasant if not entirely convincing tribute to the power of art.Pub Date: Aug. 26, 2025
ISBN: 9798889661115
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Europa Editions
Review Posted Online: June 7, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
An affecting portrait of a prickly woman.
A lifetime’s worth of letters combine to portray a singular character.
Sybil Van Antwerp, a cantankerous but exceedingly well-mannered septuagenarian, is the titular correspondent in Evans’ debut novel. Sybil has retired from a beloved job as chief clerk to a judge with whom she had previously been in private legal practice. She is the divorced mother of two living adult children and one who died when he was 8. She is a reader of novels, a gardener, and a keen observer of human nature. But the most distinguishing thing about Sybil is her lifelong practice of letter writing. As advancing vision problems threaten Sybil’s carefully constructed way of life—in which letters take the place of personal contact and engagement—she must reckon with unaddressed issues from her past that threaten the house of cards (letters, really) she has built around herself. Sybil’s relationships are gradually revealed in the series of letters sent to and received from, among others, her brother, sister-in-law, children, former work associates, and, intriguingly, literary icons including Joan Didion and Larry McMurtry. Perhaps most affecting is the series of missives Sybil writes but never mails to a shadowy figure from her past. Thoughtful musings on the value and immortal quality of letters and the written word populate one of Sybil’s notes to a young correspondent while other messages are laugh-out-loud funny, tinged with her characteristic blunt tartness. Evans has created a brusque and quirky yet endearing main character with no shortage of opinions and advice for others but who fails to excavate the knotty difficulties of her own life. As Sybil grows into a delayed self-awareness, her letters serve as a chronicle of fitful growth.
An affecting portrait of a prickly woman.Pub Date: May 6, 2025
ISBN: 9780593798430
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Feb. 15, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
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