Friday, November 17, 2017

Iris Johansen’s STORM WINDS - Masterful Sequel to Wind Dancer... a Keeper!

Johansen weaves a complex tale with many threads and many interesting characters. She does it so well you will be captivated. And one thing I really respect is that from novel to novel, her heroes and heroines are different with unique personalities and attributes.

Set in late 18th century France, it begins a few years before the dawn of the French Revolution as Jean Marc Andreas, heir to the Andreas shipping and banking business based in Marseilles, meets Juliette de Clement, a courageous but lonely 14-year-old girl whose mother is a courtesan at the court of Marie Antoinette. Juliette takes care of Jean Marc, who is 10 years her senior, when he is injured. Their time together at the inn is not forgotten by either of them.

When Jean Marc has the chance to send his ward, Catherine Vasaro, to an abbey for an aristocrat's education, he asks the queen to send Juliette with her. Juliette thinks it is so she can watch over the sensitive and fragile Catherine, but Jean Marc has other plans in mind. At the abbey, the girls come to be great friends and Juliette pursues her love of painting.

Years later, as France's Reign of Terror begins, the revolutionaries attack the abbey, massacring and raping nuns and students. The two young women escape with their lives as one of the revolutionary leaders, Francois Etchelet, comes to their rescue and delivers them to Jean Marc's Paris home. Juliette, wanted for murder, asks for Jean Marc's protection in exchange for which she will use her connections with the queen, who is now imprisoned in the Temple, to recover his family's once-prized possession, the golden statue of Pegasus—the Wind Dancer—last owned by the royal family and now missing.

As Jean Marc and Juliette search for the Wind Dancer, they face treachery, danger and a city in the grip of the Revolution.

This is a well-told tale of a tumultuous time in the history of France. I loved Jean Marc, Francois, Juliette and Catherine. Great characters all. Amazing details and careful attention to history make this a very worthy historical romance. Highly recommended.

The Wind Dancer Trilogy

Wind Dancer
Storm Winds
Reap The Wind

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