Kaytee Cobb

Okay.

Well, for my third book, I also have historical fiction, not fantasy.

I'm going to talk about Isola by Allegra Goodman.

And that is a word in Spanish, but I don't think this is a Spanish title.

So it's probably like Isola.

I can't say it like that.

It's French.

Got it.

We're back in France, actually, in the 1500s, firmly back in the French countryside.

We are meeting Marguerite de la Roque.

She is a young girl under the care of a detached guardian after the deaths of both of her parents.

Her guardian is an explorer of the seas, which, like, yes, thank you.

But he's only around occasionally when he shows up at her family home where she lives with a number of servants and a young companion who's the daughter of her teacher.

Depending on his recent expedition and his fortune, her guardian either shows up issuing threats or she's lavished with gold coins and finally able to replace her tattered clothing.

There is no in-between.

As his fortunes change, Marguerite's family home is mortgaged to another family, and she is relegated to a tiny attic room like Cinderella, right?

On his next return, right as she comes of age in the early 1540s, she's informed that she will accompany him on his next voyage to New France.

The icy islands of the St.

Lawrence Seaway beckon fortune hunters and colonizers at this time.

During the voyage, alongside her lifelong nurse, whose name is Demien, Marguerite starts to get to know Auguste, the clerk of her guardian.