HISTORICAL FICTION

Crimson Velvet Heart

Carmel Bird

Transit Lounge, $34.99

Crimson Velvet Heart is Carmel Bird’s 12th book, an historical fiction set in late 17th - early 18th-century France. We flit in and out of the decadent court of the Sun King, Louis XIV, but Bird’s focus is not so much on him as on his grandson’s bride.

It begins in 1685 with the dramatic birth of a child by Anne Marie, the Duchess of Turin and a niece of this King of France (herself a mere child at only 16). Yet, the planned fireworks and cannons have to be cancelled, for she has failed in her task of manufacturing a male heir.

Her daughter, however, will grow up to wield a certain power of her own. Indeed, right after her baptism, Marie-Adelaide of Savoy was already being gossiped about by the nobles of the

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