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!!!
My Review:
"Saving the Marquise’s Granddaughter" by Carrie Fancett Pagels is not a happily ever after type of story, though it does end on a happy note. I had a hard time liking this story at first, maybe because I didn't really know what the story was about. I don't always read the book's description before reading a book. I do have to say that I really liked the second half of the book.This story is about being persecuted for one's faith and finding that you had to have your own and not borrowed faith from others. The story is fiction but based on fact, I never knew that Catholics weren't always accepted.
The story is also a love story and this part of the book kept me guessing how it would go.
This story makes readers appreciate their freedoms more and makes this reader want to hug each loved one and show love more often. You never know when they will be gone and the chance is gone forever.
My thoughts are probably completely different than other reviews but that above statement is my response to this story.
This story has characters that you love and characters you want to see something bad happen to ( yes I can wish that because it isn't true ) and let's be honest, we all have characters in books we don't like.
I am giving "Saving the Marquise’s Granddaughter" by Carrie Fancett Pagels four stars.
I was given a copy by the author and Celebrate Lit for an honest review in this book tour.
Special Giveaway: Carrie is giving one commenter an ebook copy of "Saving the Marquise’s Granddaughter"
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
Purchase your copy of Saving the Marquise’s Granddaughter here.
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
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