StoryGraph Saturday is a weekly thing where I randomly choose a book from my To Read pile on StoryGraph and show it off to both remind myself that it’s there and to show it to you in case you might find it interesting, too.

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The Embroidered Book
by Kate Heartfield
672 pages
Historical Fantasy

From The StoryGraph:

Brimming with romance, betrayal, and the hidden power of women, The Embroidered Book reveals and reimagines a dazzling period of history as you have never seen it before. ‘Power is not something you are given. Power is something you take. When you are a woman, it is a little more difficult, that’s all’

1768. Charlotte arrives in Naples to marry a man she has never met. Two years later, her sister Antoine is sent to France to marry another stranger. In the mirrored corridors of Versailles, they rename her Marie Antoinette.

But the sisters are not powerless. When they were only children, they discovered a book of spells – spells that seem to work, with dark and unpredictable consequences.

In a world of vicious court politics, of discovery, and dizzying change, they use the book to take control of their lives.

But every spell requires a sacrifice. And as love between the sisters turns to rivalry, they will send Europe spiraling into revolution.

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I can’t remember where I heard about this book, but it sounds fascinating. I haven’t read much about eighteenth-century history so I don’t know very much about these women (aside from a bit about Marie Antoinette, or at least how popular culture has gotten her wrong) and would not be able to tell if Heartfield gets the history right or not, but the book sounds amazing. I will track down a copy one of these days. Perhaps in the Fall.