Once upon the time there was a princess who believed in fairies but found that fairies were not often mentioned in fairy tales. She was distraught at this fact, so she decided to spend her spring and summer months plowing through her fairy tale books in search of fairy interpretations. (It seemed a natural time to do so, as she’d always associated the end of spring with the coming of the fairies, so it was as though they were visiting her personally, egging her on through this journey.)

First she picked up George MacDonald’s Complete Fairy Tales, a collection which she had owned for quite some time but hadn’t yet read. She enjoyed his other books, Phantastes and Lilith, to the point that when someone came looking for George MacDonald books in her bookstore, she was so delighted as to regale them with her experiences in reading his books. Suffice to say, they were not always pleased to hear her talk, but she was still consistently excited whenever someone came looking for his books (though her bookstore didn’t have any copies, ever, possibly attributed to the fact that once someone read George MacDonald, that someone would not want to give up the book). (On another note, every time she mentioned her love of George MacDonald’s books, someone would say “Do you mean adventure writer George MacDonald Fraser?” to which she most certainly replied “No.”)

My head is full of France. I have lately finished Marie-Therese, Child of Terror: The Fate of Marie Antoinette’s Daughter by Susan Nagel, an engrossing book that tells of Marie-Therese’s life. In this fascinating and clearly well-researched account, Nagel brings the reader from before Madame Royale’s birth on through and after her death. The book illustrates her life as a child of King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, who, as one may have gathered from the recent movie depicting an interpretation of Marie Antoinette’s life, said at her daughter’s birth: “Poor little thing; you are not what they wanted, but we will love you nonetheless. A son would have belonged to the State; you shall be mine, and have all my care; you shall share in my happiness and soften my sorrows.”

I personally had not previously found much interest in the French Revolution and the events surrounding the Reign of Terror, but before I even reached Page 100 I was enthralled in the mysterious tales surrounding the time. The writing style flows comfortably and almost throughout the whole book, it tricked this reader into late nights with wide eyes and genuine sympathy. I could not put it down; indeed, I wouldn’t, even when others distractions sought my attention.