My friend Heather Webb’s book design is being revealed today! The novel is BECOMING JOSEPHINE and, appropriately, Josephine and her famous husband Napoleon are featured on the cover. You may remember my post about the popularity of cochineal used to darken lips through the centuries…well just look at Josephine’s juicy red lips here to see it in action!
Becoming Josephine
Heather Webb’s debut is a novel about Napoleon’s empress, a woman in search of eternal love and stability, and ultimately her search for self. It releases December 31, 2013 from Plume/Penguin. Stop by Heather’s blog Between the Sheets and leave a comment for a chance to win a $20 gift card to Barnes & Noble or a $20 gift card to Amazon. Pre-order her novel (present a receipt) and win a Josephine hand mirror with a velvet bag.
I think I’ll have to invite Heather Webb for an interview at release!
MORE ABOUT THE BOOK
Rose Tascher sails from her Martinique plantation to Paris to trade her Creole black magic culture for love and adventure. She arrives exultant to follow her dreams of attending Court with Alexandre, her elegant aristocrat and soldier husband. But Alexandre dashes her hopes and abandons her amid the tumult of the French Revolution.
Through her savoir faire, Rose secures her footing in high society, reveling in handsome men and glitzy balls—until the heads of her friends begin to roll.
After narrowly escaping death in the blood-drenched cells of Les Carmes prison, she reinvents herself as Josephine, a socialite of status and power. Yet her youth is fading, and Josephine must choose between a precarious independence and the love of an awkward suitor. Little does she know, he would become the most powerful man of his century- Napoleon Bonaparte.
BECOMING JOSEPHINE is a novel of one woman’s journey to find eternal love and stability, and ultimately to find herself.
ADVANCE PRAISE
Becoming Josephine has already been featured in a Wall Street Journal piece on the popularity of historical fiction featuring the wives of famous men.
“Heather Webb’s epic novel captivates from its opening in a turbulent plantation society in the Caribbean, to the dramatic rise of one of France’s most fascinating women: Josephine Bonaparte. Perfectly balancing history and story, character and setting, detail and pathos, Becoming Josephine marks a debut as bewitching as its protagonist.” –Erika Robuck, author of Hemingway’s Girl
“With vivid characters and rich historical detail, Heather Webb has portrayed in Josephine a true heroine of great heart, admirable strength, and inspiring courage whose quest is that of women everywhere: to find, and claim, oneself.” –Sherry Jones, bestselling author of The Jewel of the Medina
“Josephine’s warmth and complexity comes to vibrant life in this fascinating novel rich with vivid historical detail.”—Teresa Grant, Author of THE PARIS AFFAIR
“Vivid and passionate, Becoming Josephine captures the fiery spirit of the woman who stole Napoleon’s heart and enchanted an empire. –Susan Spann, author of The Shinobi Mysteries
“A fast-paced, riveting journey, Becoming Josephine captures the volatile mood of one of the most intense periods of history—libertine France, Caribbean slave revolts, the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars—from the point of a view of one of its key witnesses, Josephine Bonaparte.” –Dana Gynther, author of Crossing on the Paris
“Spellbinding . . . Heather Webb’s novel takes us behind the mask of the Josephine we thought we knew.” –Christy English, author of How to Tame a Willful Wife and To Be Queen
“Enchanting prose takes the reader on an unforgettable journey . . . Captivating young Rose springs from the lush beauty of her family’s sugar plantation in Martinique to shine in the eighteenth century elegance of Parisian salon society. When France is torn by revolution, not even the blood-bathed terror of imprisonment can break her spirit.” –Marci Jefferson, author of Girl on the Gold Coin, Thomas Dunne Books, 2014
FIND IT HERE:
My pleasure, Heather! And congrats!
Thank you, Marci! And your cochineal post is fascinating! I’m so not up on these things, but I LOVE discovering them. Thank you! <3