I first learned of Marguerite de Valois (Princess Margot) upon watching the 1994 French film, La Reine Margot. The subject matter and her character fascinated me and ever since I've been intrigued to learn more about her. When I was given the opportunity to read and review Medicis Daughter, I couldn't wait to say yes.

Perinot is a talented historical author. She takes characters already known to us and makes them even more real. Princess Margot's mother, Catherine de Medici, a woman both maligned and admired in history, quite lives up to her reputation of Madame la Serpente in this depiction. I have heard arguments on both sides regarding her true nature, but the fact remains that she would have had to have been a formidable woman to navigate the treacherous times she lived in. That she pretty much used her daughters as pawns while worshiping her sons, namely Henri, was the difficult part of this book. How women of royalty could stand to live the way they were forced to live is beyond my comprehension. I guess my 21st century self can't wrap my head around having no choices in your own life. This being said, Margot really learned to hold her own. Perinot has depicted Margo as a strong and resilient woman who weathered the storm and finally came into her own when she showed her mother she had no control over her any longer. It was a triumphant moment and I cheered at the end.

There are so many remarkable women in the history of the world and I know I can always count on Sophie Perinot to tell a compelling story while staying true to historical detail. I can't wait to read what she publishes next. If you haven't read this one, you really simply must!
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I would not have wanted Catherine De Medici for a mother. Marguerite De Valois had no choice in the matter, and this novel is just beginning of her story. She lived through the French wars of religion, which were probably instigated by her own family, and survived betrayal, an unwanted marriage, scandal, and mass murder.
This novel has left me with a desire to find out more about the characters within, mainly Marguerite and her husband Henri of Navarre (the future King Henry IV of France). I can't think of any higher recommendation for a book............unless I mention that it did keep me up way past my bedtime for a couple of nights. ( )

A fictionalized account of Regine Margot de Valois from her childhood until she helped her husband Henri Navarre escape after the Saint Batholomew's Day Massacre.

I found this much easier reading & more enjoyable than the previous book I read about her & her mother Catherine de Medici. It made Margot come alive...

I had read two fictionalized accounts of Catherine de Medici, but wow were they ever romanticized, they made her out to be a good, but misunderstood woman rather than the scheming, duplicitous, megalomaniac of a harridan that she actually was, and those never really discussed Margot.

This was well written and it held my interest. ( )

Having read Dumas' "la reine margot", I was looking forward to Sophie's interpretation of marguerite de Valois, and I was not disappointed. It is a remarkably fluent story of Margueriets life from her debut at the French Court until her marriage and the massacre on St Bartholomew's Day.

Much has been said of Marguerite, especially in relation to her mother, Catherine de Medici, but here Sophie casts her in a more favourable light. The story flows and held my interest from start to finish. ( )

This romantic adventure covers the strife-riven period of French history from 1564 to 1572, near the end of the Valois lineage and the rise of the Bourbons. The central character is Princess Marguerite (Margot), whose father is dead and whose brother Charles is now king of France. Only three years older than she, Charles, like everyone else in the household, is guided and ruled by their mother, Queen Catherine de Médicis (yes, those Médicis of Florence).
Ignored by her mother through most of her childhood, Margot is anxious to join her court and gain her favor. When she finally does arrive at court, around age eleven, she finds it a dangerous stew of plots and jealousies, revenge and murder. An uneasy peace between the country’s Catholic majority, to which the aristocracy belongs, and the Protestant Huguenots threatens to dissolve.
Margot falls in love with the handsome young Duc de Guise, but her family is determined she have a royal marriage. She is little more than a pawn on the political chessboard of Europe, but if she refuses to play, it could cost her her life and that of the Duc. The outbreak of war with the Huguenots tosses the fate of her family and her love into the air, and it lands in a most unexpected place. By the time her family finally finds her a suitable and willing marriage partner, it’s clear that political considerations, not love, are uppermost. Age nineteen, and with a reviled husband, she displays considerable (and rather suddenly acquired) political acumen.
Marguerite de Valois is a historical character well known in France for an eventful, sometimes scandalous life, much of which takes place after this book’s conclusion. Margot matures during novel, but none of the other characters much change, despite additional years, challenges, and demands on them. They remain rather two-dimensional in Perinot’s treatment, and I would especially like to have seen more probing of the character of Queen Catherine, for example. Authors of historical fiction often must go beyond surface events and motives to explore their characters’ actions. Hilary Mantel’s award-winning novels—turned into memorable theatricals—about Thomas Cromwell are a perfect example, as is a recent treatment of Catherine of Aragon. Occasionally Perinot’s dialog seems too modern, but despite these quibbles (and a few startling grammatical errors—where was the editor?), it is an exciting read about a period I knew too little of.
The reader would have been well served if the book included a family tree of the Valois clan and their cousins who appear in this story, a list of the principal characters (having three main characters named Henri didn’t make it easy to follow, though Perinot handled this reasonably well), and perhaps a map. ( )