Ribbons of Scarlet

By: Kate Quinn, Stephanie Dray, Laura Kamoie, E. Knight, Sophie Perinot, Heather Webb

Narrated by: Marisa Calin, Lisa Flanagan, Barrie Kreinik, Saskia Maarleveld, Cassandra Campbell, Lauren Ezzo

Length: 16 hrs and 1 min

Publisher's Summary

Six best-selling and award-winning authors bring to life a breathtaking epic novel illuminating the hopes, desires, and destinies of princesses and peasants, harlots and wives, fanatics and philosophers - six unforgettable women whose paths cross during one of the most tumultuous and transformative events in history: the French Revolution.

Ribbons of Scarlet is a timely story of the power of women to start a revolution - and change the world.

In late 18th-century France, women do not have a place in politics. But as the tide of revolution rises, women from gilded salons to the streets of Paris decide otherwise - upending a world order that has long oppressed them.

Blue-blooded Sophie de Grouchy believes in democracy, education, and equal rights for women and marries the only man in Paris who agrees. Emboldened to fight the injustices of King Louis XVI, Sophie aims to prove that an educated populace can govern itself - but one of her students, fruit-seller Louise Audu, is hungrier for bread and vengeance than learning. When the Bastille falls and Louise leads a women’s march to Versailles, the monarchy is forced to bend, but not without a fight. The king’s pious sister, Princess Elisabeth, takes a stand to defend her brother, spirit her family to safety, and restore the old order, even at the risk of her head.

But when fanatics use the newspapers to twist the revolution’s ideals into a new tyranny, even the women who toppled the monarchy are threatened by the guillotine. Putting her faith in the pen, brilliant political wife Manon Roland tries to write a way out of France’s blood-soaked Reign of Terror while pike-bearing Pauline Leon and steely Charlotte Corday embrace violence as the only way to save the nation. With justice corrupted by revenge, all the women must make impossible choices to survive - unless unlikely heroine and courtesan’s daughter Emilie de Sainte-Amaranthe can sway the man who controls France’s fate: the fearsome Robespierre.

©2019 Kate Quinn, Stephanie Dray, Laura Kamoie, E. Knight, Sophie Perinot, and Heather Webb (P)2019 HarperCollins Publishers

Didn't like

This book did not hold my attention. I really tried, but couldn't get through this one.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Powerful story

I’m not good at writing but this book makes me want to try to tell you how amazing it was. I truly felt I was climbing the steps of the guoteen with Emily. I’m still reeling inside over the emotions that these women have evoked. This is a must read/listen!

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

👍

Moving. The multiple different viewpoints and the interaction between the characters at different points in the story gives a unique viewpoint of this time in history.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

HerStory * Revolutionary * Historical Now

Just finished this fantastic book. So good, couldn’t put it down. Kudos to each & all, & to @WmMorrowBooks for giving it the attention it deserves. Great job of highlighting relevance to now. Loved learning about these heroines. #ribbonsofscarlet 🙌🏻 #ReadThis #HistFic #women

Not my thing thanks to the narration

I couldn’t get on with the narration at all. I accept it’s hypocritical because I’m comfortable with British voices pretending to be residents of half the world but such a European story in an American accent was too distracting.