Chevalier is one of those authors that I always intended to read again. I really enjoyed The Girl with the Pearl Earring and several of the book groups at my library have picked books by her to discuss. I just never got back to her. Fortunately, my friend brought this book with her on vacation and handed it to me when she was done.

To start, I thought Chevalier's book about Vermeer was her first and secondly I thought all of her novels were based on historical characters. This novel is based on history, but the characters were all imaginary. Two pleasant surprises and I hadn't even begun reading.

As I have said in my reviews before, I like learning about new worlds and ideas while I read. I also like meeting characters who would be interesting to meet in real life. Chevalier gave me all these things in The Virgin Blue. I knew very little about the Huguenots and rural France before I started this novel. I don't know much more, but I am a bit more knowledgeable about that religion than I was.

Also I am very grateful to have met Isabelle and Ella. They are both wonderful, strong, independent women and I would be happy to sit down with them and just talk. Chevalier does a good job of telling both their tales without making their link to each other totally impossible. I did have to suspend some of my rationality, but it was easy to do.

If you like historical fiction, exploring family ties, interesting characters, or happy endings - this is the novel for you.

"It was a funny thing: once you tell your story to others it becomes more like fiction and less like truth. A layer of performance is added to it, removing you further from the real thing."

I really enjoyed this novel and couldn't stop thinking about it for the past few days. There were a couple things that bothered me though, including the main character and elements of the last section, which is why I dropped my rating to 3. But the concept and setting were wonderful.

A perfect poolside read.

Det er jo altid skønt at læse en bog, når der er inkluderet sætninger på fransk, og jeg forstår det! Jeg lærte også en del om fransk historie (både om religionskrigene og den overtro, der lå under (ha...) områdets religion.

Der var mange ting, der skete meget hurtigt; som om alt for meget skulle ske på for kort tid (men det er nok bare fordi, jeg er vant til fantasyserier, hvor handling og udvikling er spredt ud over flere sider i stedet for to handlinger på én bogs plads). Især i Ellas forhold til de to mænd...

Der var også flere steder, hvor jeg undrede mig over, at nutidens storyline vidste noget meget specifikt om fortidens storyline, selvom det ikke burde være noget, der kunne blive overleveret i 'naturlige' forhistoriske levn.

Andre ting - som drømme og hårfarve og lignende - er simpelthen for tilfældigt til at kunne være realistisk. Hvis det havde været historisk fantasy fiktion, så ville det fungere helt fint, men det er det ikke, så det fungerer ikke helt fint. Den eneste mulige forklaring er reinkarnation af Isabelle i Ella.

Jeg elskede idéen om, hvad der skete (samme sted, samme familie, samme navne, opklaring af et mysterie...), og jeg forventede ikke det store af bogen, så jeg er tilfreds med at have læst den :).

Ok...I give the historical part a 4.5 and I give the contemporary part a 1.5. This was nowhere near the wonderful book that Girl with a Pearl Earring is. I was disappointed. Ella Turner is an embarrassment to all American women....whiny and pouty...ugh! I stuck with it because Isabel and the Tourniers were made of much sturdier stuff...and I was stuck in the car anyway.

An interesting story going back through history, well written and enjoyable to read. Sometimes I like the historical characters better than the modern characters in books, but this time I enjoyed the modern characters almost more. The characters were real and I loved the fact that Jean-Paul was a librarian!

I really liked this book, it only took me 8-10 hours to finish it (over a snow day).

This was an easy read and I liked the way Tracy Chevalier captures emotions very well - when she describes subtle body language you can really sense how it happened. The story was reminiscent of Layyrinth by Kate Mosse and was even set in the same area of France. There must be lots of history to be seen here.

Not my favorite of her books but still very good. This author can always be climes on for a great historical novel!