A bone-sculpted angel and the woman who wears it––heretic, Devil’s servant, saint.Midwife Héloïse has always known that her bastard status threatens her standing in the French village of Lucie-sur-Vionne. Yet her midwifery and healing skills have gained the people’s respect, and she has won the heart of the handsome Raoul Stonemason. The future looks hopeful. Until the Black Death sweeps into … Death sweeps into France.
Terrified that Héloïse will bring the pestilence into their cottage, Raoul forbids her to treat its victims. Amidst the grief and hysteria, the villagers searching for a scapegoat, Héloïse must choose: preserve her marriage, or honour the oath she swore on her dead mother’s soul? And even as she places her faith in the protective powers of her angel talisman, she must prove she’s no Devil’s servant, her talisman no evil charm.
Héloïse, with all her tragedies and triumphs, celebrates the birth of modern medicine, midwifery and thinking in late medieval times.
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A very absorbing novel. A vibrant evocation of Medieval France during the Black Death.
Feisty midwife Heloise has a lot to put up with – as well as fighting the plague, a proud and impatient husband, jealous rivals, the resentment, ingratitude and hatred of other townspeople, she has to deal with accusations of heresy, witchery and more. Perrat doesn’t hold back in recreating the stench and filth of a town in the clutches of pestilence. The insights into 14th century midwifery and herbalism were fascinating and vivid.
Most of the book is written in the first person of Heloise but there are a couple of chapters which switch to third person narrative from her husband Raoul’s point of view. I wasn’t convinced this was necessary and it didn’t help the flow. Minor point though in a really good read!
Let me begin by simply stating I did not want to stop reading Blood Rose Angel. The story of midwife Héloise and her true love, Raoul, in the 14thC French village of Lucie-sur-Vionne during the time of a deadly plague, will resonate with me for a very long time. It was fascinating to return to the same village I grew to know at different historical times in the first two novels of the trilogy.
Themes of family, friendship, love, politics and fear are explored in compelling fashion. At the same time, we have a fascinating opportunity to gain an understanding of some of the roots of modern medicine. As much as I was offered a rich and satisfying reading experience, I also learned a great deal.
When I write a review, I prefer to explain why I enjoyed a book, rather than recount the story.
Liza Perrat is truly an artist. She weaves magical threads through her stories combining historical and scientific fact with human emotions and behaviours. She paints vivid landscapes, villages and personalities with broad brush strokes and follows with such attention to detail that the reader clearly grasps the images and eagerly enters the narrative.
Each book in the Bone Angel trilogy, can be read as a stand-alone and each is equally mesmerizing, horrifying, and enthralling. Perrat is simply brilliant here at exposing life for what it was in the Middle Ages: harsh, challenging, and yet still filled with moments of joy and simple pleasure. Through her words, we see, smell, taste, and viscerally feel what is described on each page. The cast of characters she creates breathes life into a time we know from movies and history books. We live it in her stories.
As did Wolfsangel and The Spirit of Lost Angels, Blood Rose Angel gripped me from the beginning and held my attention to the last word. I have found all of these novels to be immensely satisfying reads. Historical fiction is my favourite genre and I have great respect for the tremendous amount of research that is required to produce the kind of high quality literature that Liza Perrat offers us.
I highly recommend the entire trilogy and eagerly await news of her next publication.