How can so many months pass without a post?  Is it because I stopped reading good books?  Stopped watching great movies?  The answer is yes and no.  The fall of 2012 has been one of the busiest of my life.  But today is January 4th.  A new year is ahead and who knows what fabulous stories are in store for us!

Every few years I get on a kick and decide I’ll save a few dollars by not buying books.  I’ll  do a better job at talking friends out of their books or have my library card reactivated.  This past fall, I read a couple of spy thrillers my husband had laying around and then searched my book shelves for something else.  Something I might have missed among the stacks that sit on the shelves of nearly half my house.  I found Tales of Passion Tales of Woe by Sandra Gulland.  A book I must have bought many years ago and left on my shelf….ahhh those years when you piled more food on your plate than you needed and bought more books than you could possibly read…but I digress.

The story unfolds through imagined journal entries, letters to Josephine (both real and contrived), and a true timeline of events.  I’m not a huge fan of the journal style story unless it’s a piece of a much bigger narrative but since I had obviously paid for the book at one time, it seemed important to read (eat what’s on your plate missy).  It didn’t take long to pull me into the life of this woman we know as Napoleon’s wife.  Did you know she’s an islander?  She was born and raised on Martinique and didn’t move to France until her late teens.  Anyway, Ms. Gulland really lets us get to know ‘Rose’ and the cast of characters we’d learn more about throughout the trilogy.  Napoleon is introduced in the final few pages of this first book.

Towards the end of the book I knew I wanted to read the next two but how?  How could I read the books and not spend money?  I went to the library and after the woman at the counter reminded me just how long it had been since I visited (in that past the glasses, down the nose manner), she had my card reactivated.  I had the next two books put on hold and sent to my branch.  Since I was home from work for the holidays, I had time to read more than my practical side usually allows.  The books never flow the way a good narrative does but the story was fascinating to me.  Josephine ‘hung’ with the right crowd but she never had the resources she really needed.  Napoleon was pretty much the little jerk you think he is….even requiring in their marriage contract that she pay for her own expenses.  That said, they did appear to love each other and partner throughout his time as leader of France.

So Is It A Good Story?  Yes.  It’s not a popular series (maybe it was when I bought it years ago but I don’t know) so go to your library and put it on hold.  You should have it in your hands within a week or so.  If you don’t like the way the first book reads, don’t bother with the next two.  The style remains the same.