Kate Heartfield

A sweeping historical epic with a thread of magic, perfect for readers of THE FAMILIARS, THE BINDING, and THE MINIATURIST.

The Embroidered Book

Laura Mei

'You seem to know what I'm going to say before I say it, d'Éon.' 

She shrugs. 'I'm a good listener. I listen to the whispers before the words: the glances, the frowns, the smiles, the sighs.'

Beatrice

Actual rating: 4.5/5

The Embroidered Book is a magical, captivating book re-imagining a key period in European history and focussing on two pretty remarkable sisters.

Charlotte and Antoine are daughters of the Habsburg Empress and they have always known that their lives would be spent in service of their mother’s wishes to strengthen their empire. Still, when they find an embroidered book containing mysterious spells, they spend their childhood growing closer and closer together as they try to unveil its secrets.

Time passes quickly and very soon they will be sent away from home to marry complete strangers: Charlotte will go to Naples to marry a hard and cruel man; while Antoine is destined to France, where she will have to shed all traces of her Austrian origins, including her name. In the lavish mirrored corridors of Versailles, she is renamed Marie Antoinette.

Very soon, the two sisters find that the book and its spells are the only way for them to take control of their lives. But all magic comes at a price and, as sisterly love slowly turns to rivalry, all of Europe may have to pay it in blood.

I really enjoyed this book from start to finish! The late 1700s are a fascinating historical period in their own right and become absolutely irresistible when paired with magic and a focus on women’s lives and experiences.

Charlotte and Antoinette were wonderful characters to read about. They’re complex, flawed women who are trying hard to carve out some space and power for themselves in a world where they are seen as little more than ornaments and whose primary purpose is producing an heir for their powerful husbands. The magic system was fascinating and very clearly explained and coherently maintained throughout. Nothing is free, as every spell requires a sacrifice: the bigger the spell, the higher the sacrifice.

Seeing the two sisters adopt competing approaches to the use of magic was incredibly interesting. While Charlotte joins a secret brotherhood that advocates keeping the use of magic restricted to a select few, Antoinette forms her own inner circle with the goal of ultimately making magic accessible to all. Both approaches have their flaws, and treachery abounds on both sides as certain individuals pursue their own individual power over everything else. Watching it all slowly unfold into the big historical events we all know (and knowing where the road would end for some of the characters) was extremely satisfying, even if painful as I grew attached to these characters more and more.

My only problem with this was that, even though I was mostly glued to the pages, certain sections (especially towards the middle) felt slightly too slow-paced and dragged a bit for me. This isn’t necessarily unexpected in a book as long as this, but it was just a bit too much for my taste. Still, it more than made up for it in the rest! Definitely a must-read for historical fantasy lovers.

For more reviews, visit Book for Thought.

I received an e-arc of this book from the publisher via NetGalley as part of a blog tour organised by Random Things Tours. This did not affect my opinion of the book in any way.

Brimming with romance, betrayal, and enchantment, The Embroidered Book reveals and reimagines a dazzling period of history as you have never seen it before.

Megan Lowe

Lord, this book was hard work! I almost dnfed it, but I was over halfway and forced myself to finish. I never force myself to finish books.
I felt like this want so much a story as a recitation of facts and events. Everything felt like it was being told to me. There were info dumps galore and I didn’t connect to any of the characters. I wonder if that’s because pains were taken to be historically accurate? 
For whatever reason, I really didn’t enjoy this book. I wanted to, but it was a slog.

Kwan Ann Tan

An interesting book, but it is incredibly tricky to balance a very complicated political era with a seemingly complex system of magic that comes with its own politics - which I unfortunately don't think that Heartfield does very well. The pacing was odd, chosen details and inner thoughts of the queens were also odd, and overall, I just couldn't bring myself to finish it sadly 

Seher Mohsin

We all know about Marie Antoinette; how can we not? But personally I’ve never known much about Charlotte, her sister who became Queen of Naples. This book is based on their lives, with just one twist; what if they knew magic.

It’s not enough that they know magic. Each spell requires a sacrifice; something they love, some hope, and a memory. Smaller spells don’t require much, but some make terrible demands of them. And both of them make their sacrifices. They choose time and time again to wield magic and use it to keep their families safe. For a time they also hate one another, and after a while they forgive.

The issue with the book is that Heartfield is bound by history; she can’t change Marie Antoinette or Charlottes fates. She can’t take back the death of their children, their own hurts, but she can let us watch these women try. There is so much potential in them as characters; they could have won.

The Embroidered Book is particularly interesting because of the magic system Heartfield creates; it raises some fascinating questions. What memories could you sacrifice? What hopes? What love? Does magic like this need to be regulated by an order or should the masses be able to use it? What are the far reaching implications of losing your memories one at a time? Charlotte at one point is unaware of an important political matter when she just thought she was getting rid of a memory of her husband. Would you trick someone into sacrificing their memories to help alleviate some pain or poverty? 


The Embroidered Book

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