Saving the Marquise's Granddaughter Review and Giveaway

Purchase your copy of Saving the Marquise’s Granddaughter here.

About the Book

In a land fraught with religious strife, they must break the barriers between status and faith to forge a fresh future in a new world… After her Huguenot father is arrested, aristocrat Suzanne Richelieu escapes Versailles. Handsome German peasant, Johan Rousch, risks his life to bring her to the safety of his family’s farm in the Palatinate duchy, but when Suzanne’s brother and the French army arrive with a warning that they plan to burn the area, she and Johan are forced to flee. With no money or options, both become indentured servants in exchange for safe passage to Philadelphia. Suzanne falls gravely ill aboard ship and marries Johan, only to survive with no memory of the wedding—a reality made worse when Johan spots the “priest” who married them working as a surveyor and later in Quaker cleric garb. Are their wedding vows valid? When Suzanne’s former fiancé arrives in port, planning to abduct her, Johan must save her again—but can he do so before Suzanne is lost to him forever?

About the Author

Carrie Fancett Pagels is a multi-published award-winning author of Christian historical romance.  Twenty-five years as a psychologist didn’t “cure” her overactive imagination! She resides with her family in the Historic Triangle of Virginia, which is perfect for her love of history. Carrie loves to read, bake, bead, and travel – but not all at the same time!

 

Guest Post from Carrie Fancett Pagels

Hi, I’m Carrie Fancett Pagels, so excited to see this particular book “baby”, Saving the Marquise’s Granddaughter, finally being “born!” I started working on this over eight years ago!

Would you believe it was a genealogical search that began this story? We had a lot of research on my father’s side of the family but not on my mother’s. Sites like Ancestry.com were getting big. One of my mother’s cousins posted the genealogy that he’d found, on one of the genealogy sharing sites and I got that information but only back to where I found two Rousch cousins marrying. I honestly didn’t want to go on after that, as it appeared they were first cousins – yikes! But after praying about it, and knowing my mom was curious, too, I went forward.

While I am interested in genealogy, as a former psychologist, I’m more interested in people’s stories.  So when I discovered that the two cousins were the grandchildren of Johan Adam Rousch, who had been acknowledged because nine of his ten sons had fought in the American Revolution, I wanted to know more about him and his family and ancestors.  Since there were books already written about him, I went up to the University of Virginia Rare Books Library and read what people had to say about the real life Johan. He sounded fascinating. He was an immigrant from the Palatinate of Germany and lived in the western part of Virginia, after immigrating via Pennsylvania.



 I had joined the American Christian Fiction Writers (ACFW) group and had been working on a novel set in the Charleston, South Carolina area, where I’d previously lived. I got so interested in Johan and his story that I began to write. But I couldn’t wrap my mind around Susanna, his real life wife who likely also came from the Palatinate, possibly on the same ship. No matter how I tried to work on her, through various writing classes I took, I couldn’t make her “real” because she just wasn’t speaking to me. I tried and I have the old scenes to prove it!



When I write, I pray. I asked God to show me scriptures for each scene, which were included on my rough drafts (they are not there in the final novel.) I did some research, at the library, and a massive tome about the Hundred Years War was recommended to me and one on European History from that time frame. By learning of some of the reasons the Palatinate was persecuted, such as the French punishing them for taking in Protestants, I began to imagine a different sort of heroine for my story. Of course, although the story was inspired by Johan and Susanna, this book is fictional. That freed me up for God to inspire me to make this story about faith. A core tenet of the book is that we must find our own faith – we cannot “borrow” it from someone else!





 Since I was still practicing as a psychologist, as I developed Suzanne’s character I included traits that would be common in someone is the situation she was in. She’s living in an aristocratic French family, with parents who are actually of the Huguenot faith. If they are discovered there can be drastic consequences, including death. So a young lady like that may become more obsessive and compulsive as a way of dealing with that anxiety.



 I hope those who read this story will be inspired by the message of overcoming and of finding one’s own path to faith in the Lord!!!

Blog Stops

May 24:  D’S QUILTS & BOOKS

May 25: Blossoms and Blessings

May 26: The Power of Words

May 26: Just Commonly (Spotlight)

May 27: A Greater Yes

May 27: Cassandra M’s Place (spotlight)

May 28: Christian Bookaholic

May 29: Bigreadersite

May 29: Mary Hake

May 30: Reading Is My SuperPower

May 31: inklings and notions

June 1: Singing Librarian Books

June 2: Karen’s Krayons

June 3: Rhonda’s Doings

June 4: Southern Chelle

June 5: Debbie’s Dusty Deliberation

June 6: Simple Harvest Reads

Giveaway

 To celebrate her tour, Carrie is giving away a Kindle Fire 7, one signed copy of Saving the Marquise’s Granddaughter along with Postcard & bookmark and Fleur de Lis Earrings. Click the link to enter:

https://promosimple.com/ps/9a1a

My thoughts: This is an interesting story about a time in history that I didn't know a lot about, the Huguenots persecution in France and how some of them were forced to seek refuge in other countries, so they could practice religious freedom. I like that the characters in this story are based on actual people.
While there were times that it seemed like the story bounced around a bit, I still found it to be an interesting read and enjoyed getting to know the characters as they went on an adventure to the Americas.
I received this book from the author in exchange for my honest review.
In addition to the giveaway above for the Kindle Fire, Carrie is also giving away a copy of the ebook on my blog. All you have to do is comment below to be entered into the giveaway!