Marvelous
by Molly Greeley
Pub Date: 28 Feb 2023

"Enchanting. Molly Greeley has pulled off a piece of magic to tell a dazzling love story about the outcast's ache to be cared for and belong. This book broke my heart and put it back together again."--Allison Epstein, author of A Tip for the Hangman

A mesmerizing novel set in the French royal court of Catherine de’ Medici during the Renaissance, which recreates the touching and surprising true story behind the Beauty and the Beast legend, from the acclaimed author of The Clergyman’s Wife and The Heiress.

1547: Pedro Gonzales, a young boy living on the island of Tenerife, understands that he is different from the other children in his village. He is mercilessly ridiculed for the hair covering his body from head to toe. When he is kidnapped off the beach near his home, he finds himself delivered by a slave broker into the dangerous and glamorous world of France’s royal court. There “Monsieur Sauvage,” as he is known, learns French, literature, and sword fighting, becoming an attendant to the French King Henri II and a particular favorite of his queen, the formidable Catherine de’ Medici. Queen Catherine considers herself a collector of unusual people and is fascinated by Pedro…and determined to find him a bride.

Catherine Raffelin is a beautiful seventeen-year-old girl whose merchant father has fallen on hard times and offers up his daughter to Queen Catherine. The queen will pay his debts, and his daughter will marry Monsieur Sauvage.

Catherine meets Pedro for the first time on their wedding day. Barely recovered from the shock of her father’s betrayal, she soon finds herself christened “Madame Sauvage” by the royal courtiers, and must learn to navigate this strange new world, and the unusual man who is now her husband.

Gorgeously written, heartbreaking and hopeful, Marvelous is the portrait of a marriage, the story of a remarkable, resilient family, and an unforgettable reimaging of one of the world’s most beloved fairy tales

The description as a historical fiction meets fairytale retelling is spot on. I loved all of it. I found myself looking up images of the individuals mentioned to see their real life inspiration. Had it been in paperback I would have liked to have seen maps and maybe a few photos in the back.

This was a really interesting historical fiction. I had no idea that the story of Beauty and the Beast was possibly inspired by real people, Pedro Gonzalez and his wife Catherine. This book alternates POV between Pedro/Petrus and Catherine.

Take my stars with a grain of salt, because I could not finish Marvelous. It was very overwritten, which I noticed on page one, and the descriptions often grated on me and seemed awkward. I was waiting for a Beauty and the Beast story and got tired of waiting. A sudden time leap convinced me that the romance I had been patiently waiting for either would not transpire or would take place after some very irritating time leaps back and forth, and I could not continue. It's a pity that the novel had so many weaknesses because I felt for the characters and the story was quite compelling at times despite the mediocre writing. The next book I picked up convinced me that I was correct about the writing because the author of this book was also a debut author and the flow of the novel was instantaneous and carried me away in a nice prose rhythm.

The cover is gorgeous. The premise is solid. The characterization is compelling. The writing, pacing, and confusing time leaps ruin it.