📖 Book Review ~ Bitter Greens by Kate Forsyth

Allison and Busby
20 March 2025

Thanks to the publisher for the opportunity to read this book 

Three women bound together by the strands of fate

Charlotte-Rose de la Force, exiled from the court of the Sun King Louis XIV, has always been a great teller of tales.

Selena Leonelli, once the exquisite muse of the great Venetian artist Titian, is terrified of time.

Margherita, sold by her parents for a handful of bitter greens, is trapped in a doorless tower and burdened by tangles of her red-gold hair. She must find a way to escape.

Bitter Greens is a dark, beautifully written retelling of the Rapunzel tale, interwoven with the story of one of the tale’s first tellers. 

📖 My Review

I’ve always loved fairy tales, from my very first, and now rather battered copy of Grimm’s Fairy Tales, to this sumptuous retelling of the story of Rapunzel. The author shares with us the gift of her imagination as she vividly brings to life Charlotte-Rose de Caumont de la Force who had been exiled to a nunnery by the Sun King, Louis XIV. Charlotte was a real person, a teller of tales and it is her 1698 story, Persinette, which inspired the Grimm’s version of Rapunzel.

The story gets off to a bit of slow start but once the main threads of the story come together then it becomes a clever mixture of history, fantasy and fairy tale. It’s always difficult to recreate an old story which has been previously well told but the author does a good job of breathing new life into an old tale. I enjoyed Charlotte-Rose’s story, she’s a fascinating character and a strong woman when women were not treated very well. As a lover of fairy tales I was equally enthralled with Marguerite and Selina both of whom bring everything together in a fascinating way. 

It’s been well worth a re-read as Bitter Greens was previously published in 2013. Its bright and attractive new cover art will certainly help to bring the book to a new audience.

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