In a 6th century church in Gaul, sword-wielding nuns confronted battled-trained soldiers for better living conditions in their convent…


After the death of Sister Agnes, everyone in the Holy Cross convent is expecting Sister Clotild to be selected as the new abbess. After all, was a favorite of Sister Agnes and the convent’s founder Queen Radegund. But Bishop Maroveus intervenes in the selection process and chooses Sister Lebover as the next abbess.

Under Sister Lebover’s rule, the nuns under her care are starving and cold while the abbess enjoys the best meals. The once welcoming convent turns into a nightmarish place where nuns prefer to take their own lives before continuing to live there. Sister Clotild decides to ask the king (her uncle) to help the nuns. But the king’s help never arrives.

So, what’s left for the nuns to do after they have asked politely for help? That’s right. Rebel. The church (read: the men in power) already considered them “rebellious and troublesome” so why not act that way and defend what they believe in?


This was a very informative book. I didn’t know a lot about this time in history.

The Rebel Nun was a thrilling, exciting and informational read. At first, I wasn’t sure if it was my style, but as I began to read I could NOT put it down.

I didn’t realize, upon reading it, that some of the book was historically accurate and that Clotild, Basina, and some of the other vital characters were real individuals in the early 500s. I think this makes the story that much more interesting.

There are so many aspects to this book that I loved. Clotild’s competing piousness to her pagan religion and Christianity, her battle of self righteousness and humility, her fight to be a leader and not have self doubt, and her need to protect her sisters while still preserving her own sanity were all themes that drove the book forward. I think that Clotild’s character truly represented a woman who is fighting for independence but for all of the right reasons.

Many of the characters in the book truly interested me such as Covina and Desmona. I feel that the characters were so realistic and relatable and each had their own distinguishable and admirable characteristics.

This story really had it all: action, romance, women’s rights, historical aspects, and themes that outlast time and will always be relevant. I highly recommend this read to anyone who is a history buff- particularly for Medieval times, anyone who enjoys reading books with a religious spin, female readers, and those who like an action-packed story.

The Rebel Nun follows Clotild, a nun with pagan roots and royal blood, as she leads a rebellion against the Medieval Church. During a time when the Church was starting to strip women from power and equal standing, Clotild attempted to return The Holy Cross to the safe haven it once was for her and her Sisters.

I find stories like this so powerful! More and more we talk about how the history we learn in school is written largely from only one perspective. So when I pick up a book like this, that tells the story of a nun rebelling against the Church as it was forsaking women, I rethink how women fit into history.

While I loved the story and subject matter, I did find it to be a slow read at times. By the time I got to the climax of the story it had lost a bit of its impact. I would love to have seen the epilogue developed further and have it tie back into the main story. I became invested in the characters and wanted to know more about their journeys after the rebellion.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book and think it would make an excellent book club pick. The story and author’s notes led to so many great discussion points—I found myself constantly wanting to talk to someone about life for women in Medieval France. I already love historical fiction and this was a new time period for me. It left me wanting to broaden my horizons and seek out more.

I dont see a very large audience for this book. I came across this book looking for titles similar to Revelations by Mary Sharratt. I felt Revelations was a much better work and had a wider appeal than The Revel Nun. So few patrons read historical literary fiction with a religious theme (as opposed to the Christian fiction genre) that I would not buy two such similar books.

I enjoyed this debut about a woman who leads her fellow nun in a rebellion against a venal and cruel leader against the larger backdrop of women’s changing role in the medieval Christian church. The writing is clear and we get a good picture of Clotild’s inner life. The author mentions Pope Joan in her note at the end of the book, and it truly is a perfect read alike.

“The story of our struggle will end only when our kingdom is no longer at the mercy of the patriarchy and the church, the matriarchy flourishes anew, and pagan traditions are again celebrated across the land with impunity.”

The Rebel Nun is a unique and gripping novel, one that explores a rarely-covered sliver of history. Clotild is the bastard daughter of a Merovingian king living as a nun at an abbey called Holy Cross. Throughout her cloistering, the Church has become increasingly male-dominated, with the sisters losing more of their autonomy as the years pass. The outwardly pious Clotild harbors an inner affection for the pagan beliefs of her mother, and her frustration with the Church drives her farther from her holy vows. She eventually leads a rebellion of her fellow nuns, petitioning for the respect and dignity they deserve as not only brides of Christ, but as human beings.

Charlier has done an astounding amount of research, drawing on an extremely limited source biased against her central character. The way she fleshes out a complex family tree and political environment is admirable, and I appreciated her empowering take on 6th century gender politics and religious structures.

[4/5: An interesting work that centers women on the margins of early medieval history, and a great example of historical fiction that will resonate with contemporary audiences.]

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

This book was brilliant! Something different and completely enthralling, and I don’t say that often. I wished it had been a lot longer.

I want to thank NetGalley, the publisher, and author Marj Charlier for providing me with an ARC of the novel The Rebel Nun.

This was such a unique work of historical fiction; I really, really enjoyed it! Any story that tells the tale of women who stand up and speak out, especially during a time period when they were supposed to be incredibly silent, is a story for me. This was a little unknown sliver of history to me and the author did a gorgeous job of bringing it to light. I was captivated until the very end! I was not ready to reach the last page.

Thank you again to those that allowed me to read and review this ARC!

If there's one thing we need now, it's brave stories of women of bygone years who stood up to forces of evil who never got their stories told in their lifetimes--even if they didn't all get the happy endings we wanted them to. I loved this story. Clotild is a nun in a monastery outside of Poitiers in the late 6th century. This is a period of upheaval for France--the Church is wrestling with deepening its roots into French religious culture of the period. You don't need to be a historical theologian to appreciate Clotild's story of bravery as she attempts to free herself and her fellow nuns from the oppressive abbess and her prioress, facing unimaginable treachery and stumbling blocks. Based on a true story of the Monastery of the Cross outside Poitiers, France, I was glad I picked this one up. Historical fiction fans, rejoice!

The Monastery of the Holy Cross was once the most prestigious royal monastery in Gaul (Western Europe) of the early Middle Ages, “populated largely by Frankish women of royal and noble birth…” The monastery started declining after a rebellion of nuns against the rising misogyny and patriarchy of the medieval church. This story is based on the true story of Clotild, the rebel nun.

Poitiers, 588 AD. Sister Clotild of the Holy Cross Monastery is a witness to drastically changing approach toward women, who “were declared unclean, and (..) were prohibited from touching the sacramental objects. Priests could no longer sleep with their wives…”

Clotild is illegitimate daughter of King Charibert and with her curious mind as a child she was allowed to study alongside her half-brothers. She learned the purpose of different herbs from her mother. She was expected to be the next abbess, but that’s not what happens.

Under the new abbess controlled by a bishop, whatever joy the sisters were allowed to have gets eroded. Despite the cold, the bishop cuts the rations of wood and food. Thus, the first plans for escape spark the nighttime conversations.

The routine of prayer and work satisfied Clotild in the way it absorbed the hours of the day. But the cloistered life under the new abbess and the controlling bishop leaves her bereft of purpose. And that’s when she starts questioning the purpose of life. Before she saw purpose in reading and copying old manuscripts, deepening intellectual curiosity with classics and philosophy. That is what she considered a life worth living. Now, there is only gnawing left.

In the 6th century Europe, women’s choices were very limited. Many of them entered the monastery to escape marriages and the danger of childbearing, not for their piety. As a woman, you had three choices: marriage, prostitution, or the cloister.

Clotild is a truly remarkable heroine and fully captured in this story. She enters the cloister willingly to seek protection for her uncertain future. She adapts to the simple life and under the right tutelage finds some joy in daily tasks. But with the new abbess, when the little joy she was allowed to have is squished out of her life and constant hunger reminds her of her existence and when she sees wrong-doing such as thievery, adultery, gluttony. What do you do? Do you just close your eyes and accept the corruption. No, she is an inspirational character who refuses to stand by and watch the values of Christianity crumble to the ground. She stands up for what she believes is right.

I applaud authors who shed light on little known pockets of history. Not only that, but the craft of weaving such poignant story and illuminating with such beautiful prose, I’m full of admiration and grateful for such authors. This gem of historical fiction, penned by a very talented writer is the kind of story that makes this genre very fascinating.

Brilliantly written. The voice of Clotild pulled me into the story from her first words. I was very captivated by her story, wanting to know what happens next, when the tipping point comes, how she handles the rebellion and how it ends. The setting is very real, you can feel the cold walls of the cloister and the simple life they experience with some hunger; and how that affects them. The feelings of disappointment, shame, starvation and isolation are very real as well. But there is still a glimpse of hope that fairness would prevail.

This is one of those moving stories that when the end comes you’re not ready to part from this heroine and this gifted writing.

It took me about two weeks to finish this novel. It wasn’t bad, but it’s not going to force you to stay up late at night just to see how it ends. The Rebel Nun is something different and it was definitely a well-written and well-researched book.

This was a unique and enjoyable historic fiction. I loved that it was based on a historic woman who stood up and spoke out at a time when women, nuns especially, were supposed to be quiet and subservient. Clotild was the daughter of a king and a slave, sent to a convent after her father's death to protect her from his wives and their children. When the bishops decided to star interfering at the convent and take much of the nun's power away from them because they were women, it resulted in the nun's near starvation and a suicide within the convent. Clotild decided that she could not sit by and allow things to unravel as they were, so she gathered together many of her sisters and defied the vows she had taken to strike off in to the world and try to attain justice and better living conditions for the women she shared her life with. This was a good historic fiction, and quite enjoyable. I love a story about a woman who doesn't do what men tell her to, It seemed a little slow at times, but there were enough twists and drama to keep me interested.