C.M P. (selkie) reviewed on 12/28/2006 + 418 more book reviews

It might have been better for Norah Lofts to have kept to writing English history rather than made any attempt at French history. This novel cannot compare with her earlier works [about Anne Boleyn] such as The Concubine or The Kings Pleasure. She has taken a very ugly rumor from contemporary English newspapers, not to mention having invented her own, & woven them into a barely mediocre novel.
In no source whatsoever have I read mention of a fourth illegitimate child born unto Hortense. And then the ending, in which Lofts writes of Hortense realizing that Napoleon always comes first insteadwhat rubbish!
If the author had perhaps proofread her own work, she might have realized that the ending contradicted several incidences earlier in the book. Such as Hortenses constant concern for her lover, then the Emperor, then Eugine. But unfortunately, she had not taken that precaution & the result is a totally ludicrous work, unworthy of the author.

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