Nevertheless, I thought it was worth putting up a post (partly because I’m sure several of you will laugh to think of me reading this). I’m also now fully aware that it should be read from a historical romance perspective: not a field of which I have much experience. I know now that this series has a cult status in France and I can see from various reviews (and comments below) that there are many people across the world who are passionately attached to it and its heroine, and who are distressed by those who fail to perceive its magic. However I told myself not to worry too much: without the wooden acting, the soft focus and the bouffant hair, the book might be more palatable.īefore proceeding further, I have to make some disclaimers. Of course the cover has given my friends great amusement and Heloise was kind enough, between fits of laughter, to send me a link to a trailer for the 1964 film directed by Bernard Borderie. To cut a very long story short, the second volume in the series arrived instead of the first (and trust me, that cover is much worse than this) but by that point I’d committed myself, so I got hold of the first book just so I could say that I’d given it a go.

Naturally such a comparison caught my attention and, despite slight misgivings, I went ahead and ordered it.

I’d never heard of the series but reviews were glowing, promising wonderful characters and breathless adventure and one reviewer even suggested that readers looking for something similar should try the Lymond Chronicles. Angélique was recommended automatically, either by Goodreads or Amazon, with a considerably more innocuous cover.

Angélique and the king anne golon