LIFESTYLE | BOOK REVIEWS
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BY SAMANTHA MONTGOMERY
Allison Pataki – The Queen’s Fortune: Desiree, Napoleon, and a Dynasty
L James Ponti – City Spies
J
ames Ponti’s new series City Spies is a fast-paced thriller that takes readers on a romp around the globe. Recruited to the British Secret Intelligence Service, five kid operatives are taken in by a head spy named Mother. Mother is an Englishman who prides himself on finding talented tweens and teens to take on Umbra—an underground organization bent on destroying the world with a deadly virus. Brooklyn, Paris, Rio, Sydney, and Kat are renamed after the city they were discovered in by Mother. Each kid operative has unique talent that lends itself to thwarting crime. With a diverse cast of characters, children will love this high energy, exciting read and will pick up some fun historical facts along the way.
14 N O N A M A G A Z I N E | I S S U E 1 1
ong before Napoleon and Josephine became the A-list celebrities of France, there was another woman who held Napoleon’s heartstrings: Desiree Clary. Napoleon’s first love was a 19th–century French woman who was the daughter of a wealthy silk manufacturer. When Desiree’s brother faces the guillotine, it is up to her to persuade a young Napoleon to intervene and save his life. He is immediately smitten with Desiree and declares himself to her. As soon as he can secure a military post and prove himself essential to the French Revolution, he swears they will be married—that is, until he meets and falls in love with Josephine. The Queen’s Fortune takes you through the highs and lows of the French Revolution and details how it affected France and Europe as a whole. Author Allison Pataki does a fabulous job of making readers feel as though they are spectators in the court of Napoleon and Josephine. The lavish parties, Parisian couture, and endless flowing champagne are just one side of this moment in history; there is also the matter of the guillotine, sabotage, and the fall of the French Empire. If you ever wanted to be a fly on the wall during this fascinating time in history, then pour a glass of bubbly, because this is the book you have been waiting for. l
