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This is a fun little thriller that takes place during the L'affaire des poisons, a time during the reign of French King Louis XIV when a number of prominent members of the aristocracy were charged with witchcraft and poisoning. In this book, an assassination plot against Queen Maria Terese by the King's mistress, the Marquise de Montespan, unfolds. The 11-year-old and I read this to complement our history lesson on 17th century France and to learn more about the Age of the Sun King (King Louis X
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French author Annie Pietri crafts an interesting historical novel of the court of Louis XIV. At fourteen, young Marian serves the King's favorite and mistress, Athenais, a beautiful marquise. The Marquise revels in her favor at court, but is filled with paranoia and greed. She keeps Marian close, employing her natural talents as a perfumer creating fragrances to meet her wishes. The danger of the marquise's greed becomes known to Marian and she realizes that the queen and the young dauphin are i
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