History from a Woman's Perspective- A Book Blog

The Secret Life of Josephine: Napoleon’s Bird of Paradise  Author: Carolly Erickson Genre: Historical Fiction Publisher: St. Martin’s Press Release Date: 2007 Pages: 356 Source: Personal Collection  Synopsis: The bestselling author of The Hidden Diary of Marie Antoinette and The Last Wife of Henry VIII returns with an enchanting novel about one of the most seductive women in history: Josephine Bonaparte, first wife of Napoleon.       Born on the Caribbean island of Martinique, Josephine had an exotic Creole appeal that would ultimately propel her to reign over an empire as wife of the most powerful man in the world. But her life is a story of ambition and danger, of luck and a ferocious will to survive. Married young to an arrogant French aristocrat who died during the Terror, Josephine also narrowly missed losing her head to the guillotine. But her extraordinary charm, sensuality, and natural cunning helped her become mistress to some of the mo...

Sister, Mother, Warrior Author: Vanessa Riley Genre: Historical Fiction Publisher: William Morrow Release Date: 2022 Pages: 480 Source: Netgalley/Publisher in exchange for an honest review. Synopsis: Acclaimed author of Island Queen Vanessa Riley brings readers a vivid, sweeping novel of the Haitian Revolution based on the true-life stories of two extraordinary women: the first Empress of Haiti, Marie-Claire Bonheur, and Gran Toya, a West African-born warrior who helped lead the rebellion that drove out the French and freed the enslaved people of Haiti .       Gran Toya : Born in West Africa, Abdaraya Toya was one of the legendary minos—women called “Dahomeyan Amazons” by the Europeans—who were specially chosen female warriors consecrated to the King of Dahomey. Betrayed by an enemy, kidnapped, and sold into slavery, Toya wound up in the French colony of Saint Domingue, where she became a force to be reckoned with on its sugar plantations: a healer and an...

Island Queen Author: Vanessa Riley Genre: Historical Fiction Publisher: William Morrow Release Date: 2021 Pages: 586 Source: Netgalley/Publisher in exchange for an honest review. Synopsis : A remarkable, sweeping historical novel based on the incredible true life story of Dorothy Kirwan Thomas, a free Black woman who rose from slavery to become one of the wealthiest and most powerful landowners in the colonial West Indies.       Born into slavery on the tiny Caribbean island of Montserrat, Doll bought her freedom—and that of her sister and her mother—from her Irish planter father and built a legacy of wealth and power as an entrepreneur, merchant, hotelier, and planter that extended from the marketplaces and sugar plantations of Dominica and Barbados to a glittering luxury hotel in Demerara on the South American continent.      Vanessa Riley’s novel brings Doll to vivid life as she rises above the harsh realities of slavery and colo...