Louis XIV is one of the best-known monarchs ever to grace the French throne. But what was he like as a young man?the man before Versailles?
 
After the death of his prime minister, Cardinal Mazarin, twenty-two-year-old Louis steps into governing France. He's still a young man, but one who, as king, willfully takes everything he can get?including his brother's wife. As the love affair between Louis and Princess Henriette burns, it sets the kingdom on the road toward unmistakable scandal and conflict with the Vatican. Every woman wants him. He must face what he is willing to sacrifice for love.

But there are other problems lurking outside the chateau of Fontainebleau: a boy in an iron mask has been seen in the woods, and the king's finance minister, Nicolas Fouquet, has proven to be more powerful than Louis ever thought?a man who could make a great ally or become a dangerous foe . . .

Meticulously researched and vividly brought to life by the gorgeous prose of Karleen Koen, Before Versailles dares to explore the forces that shaped an iconic king and determined the fate of an empire.

Guest Reviewer: Jean M. Auel on Before Versailles

I?ve enjoyed Karleen Koen's writing since I first read Through a Glass Darkly many years ago, so I was delighted to have the chance to read her latest, Before Versailles. Louis XIV is a fascinating monarch and Koen has rendered him perfectly in these pages: he's smart, dashing, cunning, manipulative--everything one expects from a King, even one as young as twenty-two. Koen has wisely chosen a few months in 1661 during the early reign of Louis in which to tell this story; these are perhaps the most decisive months of his monarchy and she shows opposing forces pulling him in many directions as he makes his decisions, as well as his reasons for making them. I was intrigued by the lives of the women closest to him: Louise de la Baume le Blanc, the young beauty who is just learning the ways of the court when she is seduced by the King, and the gorgeous Princess Henriette, Louis's brother's wife who loves the taste of danger and isn?t above flirting (perhaps a bit too much!) with the receptive King. I loved reading about Louis's mother--the lover of Louis's former advisor Cardinal Mazarin--a profound influence in his political decisions. Karleen Koen leaves us wondering if she can be trusted? Koen also dramatically weaves in a scary and mysterious subplot involving a boy in an iron mask, a poor child who could ruin everything for the young and virile King.

Lush descriptions jump off the page and into the imagination and by the time you?ve finished, you?ll feel you?ve lived a few intimate months with these vivid characters. If you?ve not yet visited the chateau de Fontainebleau or seen the magnificent gardens of Versailles you?ll be planning your own tour de France soon after reading the last page, inspired by Karleen Koen's fascinating research and intriguing exploration of the young Louis and his entourage. I strongly encourage you to read Koen's latest, Before Versailles.

Vive la France!

Jean M. Auel

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