Review: Becoming Josephine, Heather Webb

*Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book from the France Booktours in return for an honest review*

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.
SEX & VIOLENCE: There is a little of each, though I didn't go into great detail in either category.

Heather Webb grew up a military brat and naturally became obsessed with travel, culture, and languages.
She put her degrees to good use teaching high school French for nearly a decade before turning to full time novel writing and freelance editing. Her debut, BECOMING JOSEPHINE will release December 31, 2013 from Plume/Penguin.
When not writing, Heather flexes her foodie skills or looks for excuses to head to the other side of the world. She loves to chitchat on Twitter with new reader friends or writers (@msheatherwebb) or via her blog, Between the Sheets (www.Heatherwebb.net/blog). Stop on by!

I was asked if I would like to be part of this book tour for Becoming Josephine. Though this book does not forcefully fit in my preferred reading I got triggered by the synopsis anyway. I became curious what Rose would have to do to reinvent herself and how things would turn out. This made me decide to read this book.
The first fifty pages gave a clear idea bout the the feelings Rose has about her life and how things should be. You really get to know her and it becomes clear very fast that with her ideas she will be having a hard time in the world.
With the developments in the story you get easily connected to Rose. She is clearly making decisions that will give her the best chances in her life. It is clear Rose is a strong woman with a big heart. Even though at times I could not agree with her decisions I did understand why she made them and feel that for that period she did make smart moves.
The book was a great introduction into an important part of the French history. Without going into the historical or political facts to much the whole story on the revolution is told with the rise of Napoleon. It does help when you know a bit about this era because some terms are used for the political groups in this period but I do not feel it would be a problem to read this book without that knowledge.

Becoming Josephine
Author: Heather Webb
Publisher: Plume
Pages: 320
Format: eGalley
ISBN-10: 0142180653
ISBN-13: 9780142180655
Plume: eBook | Paperback
B&N | IndieBound | Amazon | Books-a-Million
Release date: December 31, 2013

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