Daughter of the King (Defying the Crown)

During the reign of the Sun King, Protestants were persecuted through France. Between notable massacres, they were treated as second-class citizens, branded and harried for nothing more than their faith. In the end, hundreds of thousands would flee Europe. Isabelle Colette, the protagonist of Daughter of the King, follows but one of those paths. She becomes a Fille du Roi, an honorary daughter of the king, sent to the French colonies in Canada to become a wife for one of the settlers there and help further establish the French presence.

Isabelle is a strong character, and her story is a powerful one. Not only must she face persecution in her own home, she must travel to a forbidding landscape and learn to survive there, among not only strangers but also figures from her past. The only reason I gave this four stars rather than five was that some of the twists in the second half of the book came on too quickly, without enough build-up. Chaput seemed more focused on the setting, both in terms of place and time. It does pay off, though; Chaput gives us a beautiful sense of both, making for a richly written book.