BOOK REVIEW: "The French Mistress" by Susan Holloway Scott

King Charles II of England was known as the "Merry Monarch" for a reason.  Famous for taking beautiful and exciting mistresses, King Charles II had plenty of women and plenty of bastard children to show for his fun and carefree lifestyle.  He had dallied with glamorous highborn women of the court and actresses from the theatres in London.  King Charles also dallied with a French woman.  Louise de Keroualle, a baby-faced and pretty young French girl was sent to the English court to become mistress to King Charles II, but also to spy on him as a "loyal daughter of France".  What had originally started as an infatuation for the English king and a job for her French king turned into a beautiful relationship and love story between the English king and his French mistress.  In "The French Mistress" by Susan Holloway Scott, readers are treated to the love story between King Charles II and Louise de Keroualle amidst various other mistresses, political feuding, a rivalry between England and France, and a Protestant versus Catholic religious crisis.

"The French Mistress" begins with the pretty and innocent Louise de Keroualle, a daughter of a poor French nobleman being sent to the French court to serve as a maid of honour to Henriette-Anne, Duchess d' Orleans and sister of King Charles II.  Madame, as Henriette-Anne was known loves the innocence, sweetness and caring of her young maid of honour and Louise becomes devoted to her poor Madame who is in an unhappy marriage with her husband, the Duc d' Orleans.  The two women become bound to one another with Louise accompanying Madame when she makes her return to her  homeland of England to visit her brother King Charles II and also to broker a secret peace treaty between England and France.  King Charles II, famous for his mistresses becomes enamored with the pretty, young, and innocent Louise and Louise becomes smitten with the exciting and full of life king.  After the unfortunate and suspicious death of Madame, Louise is eventually sent to England by King Louis XIV as a present for King Charles II, but more to spy on the English king.  In England, Louise holds her innocence masterfully and instead becomes a devoted friend and precious jewel to King Charles II until eventually becoming his mistress and giving him a son.  Louise also becomes Duchess of Portsmouth and has power and prestige in England even though she is fully French.  Louise is unpopular with the English people for being French and also for being Catholic in a majorly Protestant country.  While political, religious, and family conflicts surround them and more mistresses are flaunted in front of Louise, she never loses the love and adoration of King Charles II and he never loses her love and devotion.  Louise was more than just another mistress for the merry monarch, she was his baby-faced French mistress who loved him so and he in turn loved her.

"The French Mistress" is an amazing look at Restoration England and the dynamic King Charles II.  Readers also get to view the glittering French court under the dazzling "Sun King", King Louis XIV.  Politics, religion, and even rivalries between mistresses are a good part of this novel, but it is the loving relationship between King Charles II and Louise de Keroualle that is the most fascinating.  Louise is a likable heroine with her kind nature and initially innocent ways.  This young girl managed to hold her virtue in the lusty French court and also managed to hold King Charles at bay until she truly became of value to him as a person before she became his mistress. 

If you are interested in reading an interesting and well-written novel on the Restoration period in England and meeting King Charles II and his merry mistresses then novels by Susan Holloway Scott are for you.  She depicts King Charles II deliciously and really pays tribute to the time period.

To purchase "The French Mistress":

http://www.amazon.com/French-Mistress-Duchess-Portsmouth-Charles/dp/0451226941

For more information on Susan Holloway Scott:

http://http://www.susanhollowayscott.com/index.htm