The Mark of the King

Back Cover

After the death of her client, midwife Julianne Chevalier is imprisoned and branded, marking her as a criminal beyond redemption.  Hoping to reunite with her brother, a soldier, she trades her life sentence for exile to the fledgling French colony of Louisiana.  The price of her transport, however, is a forced marriage to a fellow convict.

New Orleans is nothing like Julianne expects.  The settlement is steeped in mud and mosquitoes, and there is no news of her brother, Benjamin.  When tragedy strikes, she turns to military officer Marc-Paul Girard for help, but does he know more about her brother than he will admit?

With her dreams shattered, Julianne must find her way in this dangerous land, where only grace - and love - can overcome the stigma of the king's mark on her shoulder.

Review

My goodness, was this one an incredible tale!  The Mark of the King brings readers back in time to early 1700s where North America was very slowly being colonized by various European countries.  One of the ways of colonization that was used, was (force) marrying men and women prisoners (!!!), shipping them off to the New World, and plunking them into a small, starving village to make a life for themselves all the while trying to stay safe from warring Native tribes.  Sounds rather dream-worthy, eh?  In reading this story, I couldn't help but shake my head in disbelief that this was all TRUE and had actually happened!  

In addition to the eye-opening history lesson, The Mark of the King had a fascinating plot that had me turning the pages as fast as I could.  The author surprised me with her various twists and turns and kept me thoroughly intrigued with Julianne's story.  It was an amazing historical piece of fiction and I will definitely be checking out other books by the author!

Book has been provided courtesy of Baker Publishing Group and Graf-Martin Communications, Inc.