Helpful Score: 3
Although this started out well it lost momentum about half-way through. The story became rather boring and pointless. Too bad as it held such promise at the beginning.
Helpful Score: 2
Only a person with outstanding knowledge of music, music history, and 17th century Paris could write a historical saga as entertaining and totally engrossing as Ms. Dunlap's EMILIE'S VOICE. Dunlap, the Director of Development for the Connecticut Opera, holds a PhD in Music History from Yale University. Her many years of teaching, writing about, and working in the world of music and opera have lent their unique voice to this superb debut novel.
By 1675, at the royal court of Versailles a few miles outside of Paris, Louis XIV ruled with a heavy hand. Versailles had become one of his most prized courts to sit, and although he rarely visited the city of Paris itself, the noblemen, courtier's, and men of wit and wisdom that graced the halls of the court of Versailles provided him with constant entertainment.
For Emilie, a young girl on the cusp of adulthood, having the voice of an angel has brought her to the attention of renowned composer Marc-Antoine Charpentier. A childhood friend of Louis XIV, Charpentier takes Emilie under his wing-determined, at all costs, to train her to become the most wonderful of courtiers at Louis' court at Versailles. But danger comes in many forms, and Charpentier's conniving schemes to keep Emilie from the control of rival Jean-Baptiste Lully, the official court composer, creates undue strain upon Emilie. And when a noblewoman hoping to usurp the king's mistress brings Emilie to court before she's ready, everyone involved has something to lose.
EMILIE'S VOICE is a wonderful, richly engaging book of power, betrayal, music, mayhem, and, above all, Emilie's wish to have control of her own life. For a girl who wants only to sing, that desire has brought more trouble than pleasure. It seems that everyone has a hidden agenda for Emilie and her angelic voice-but what of Emilie's own needs and desires?
By 1675, at the royal court of Versailles a few miles outside of Paris, Louis XIV ruled with a heavy hand. Versailles had become one of his most prized courts to sit, and although he rarely visited the city of Paris itself, the noblemen, courtier's, and men of wit and wisdom that graced the halls of the court of Versailles provided him with constant entertainment.
For Emilie, a young girl on the cusp of adulthood, having the voice of an angel has brought her to the attention of renowned composer Marc-Antoine Charpentier. A childhood friend of Louis XIV, Charpentier takes Emilie under his wing-determined, at all costs, to train her to become the most wonderful of courtiers at Louis' court at Versailles. But danger comes in many forms, and Charpentier's conniving schemes to keep Emilie from the control of rival Jean-Baptiste Lully, the official court composer, creates undue strain upon Emilie. And when a noblewoman hoping to usurp the king's mistress brings Emilie to court before she's ready, everyone involved has something to lose.
EMILIE'S VOICE is a wonderful, richly engaging book of power, betrayal, music, mayhem, and, above all, Emilie's wish to have control of her own life. For a girl who wants only to sing, that desire has brought more trouble than pleasure. It seems that everyone has a hidden agenda for Emilie and her angelic voice-but what of Emilie's own needs and desires?
