Title: Becoming Josephine
Author: Heather Webb
Publisher: Plume
Pages: 320
Language: English
Genre: Historical Fiction
Purchase: Amazon
Readers are
fascinated with the wives of famous men. In Becoming Josephine, debut novelist
Heather Webb follows Rose Tascher as she sails from her Martinique plantation
to Paris, eager to enjoy an elegant life at the royal court. Once there,
however, Rose’s aristocratic soldier-husband dashes her dreams by abandoning
her amid the tumult of the French Revolution. After narrowly escaping death,
Rose reinvents herself as Josephine, a beautiful socialite wooed by an awkward
suitor—Napoleon Bonaparte.
�A debut as
bewitching as its protagonist.” —Erika Robuck, author of Hemingway’s Girl and
Call Me Zelda
�Vivid and
passionate.” —Susan Spann, author of The Shinobi Mysteries
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.
“Webb adds
new frisson to the often fictionalized travails of an unlikely empress…Although
the book covers the same ground as many other treatments of Josephine’s life
and times, Webb’s portrayal of the range of Josephine’s experience—narrow escapes
from bloodshed and disease, dinner-table diplomacy, and her helpless love for
Napoleon, her children and a small dog—is exceptionally concise and colorful. A
worthy fictional primer on Empress Josephine.”–Kirkus
As a former
military brat and traveling addict, it was tricky choosing a landing pad. At
last, I settled in a rural town in New England. For a decade I put my degrees
in French and Cultural Geography to good use teaching and coaching high school
students.
Currently, I
am a historical novelist and work as a freelance editor (For rates, check my
EDITING page.) You may find me lurking at the popular
RomanceUniversity.org where I contribute to their blog with editing
advice, and at the award-winning site, WriterUnboxed.com, where I pose as
Twitter Mistress (@WriterUnboxed). I also kick around a local college teaching
classes called “Write to Publish” and “Crafting Your Novel”.
When I’m
cross-eyed from too much screen time, I flex my foodie skills or geek out on
history and pop culture. My debut historical novel BECOMING JOSEPHINE will be
published by Plume/Penguin on December 31, 2013. (See my BOOKS page for more
details.) I am represented by agent Michelle Brower of Folio Literary
Management. – See more at: http://www.heatherwebbauthor.com/author/#sthash.r3MSVxon.dpuf
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