The Diamond Keeper
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- ¥1,200
発行者による作品情報
A thrilling tale of the elusive Hope Diamond's journey across Europe during the French Revolution, with gorgeous, absorbing writing from Jeannie Mobley!
Eighteen-year-old Claudie Durand's future is planned. She'll take over the family inn, watch her much prettier younger sister, Mathilde, married off to the butcher's son, and live out her days alone, without the hope of finding a love of her own. Her mother ran off to the cloister when she was young, and her gruff, abusive father has deemed her unmarriageable, a nuisance, and only good for hard labor.
But outside their small village in Brittany, a revolution is brewing. When the Army of the Republic seizes their town, and Claudie finds herself at the center of the conspiracy, she and Mathilde must flee their sheltered life and take up a cause that, up till now, had always seemed like a distant conflict. As the sisters carry out a dangerous mission for the resistance: delivering a precious item to the mysterious Rooster of Rennes--Claudie's conscience is torn between the longing to return to her predictable, lonely existence and the desire to carve out a new future, reaching for the life--and love--she never dared dream of but knew deep down she truly deserved.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Set in the volatile early years of the French revolution, Mobley's (Bobby Lee Claremont and the Criminal Element) YA debut is a well-paced historical adventure featuring plenty of romance and valor among its cued-white cast. Since her mother abandoned the family to become a nun, "solid, useful" Claudie Durand, 19, has become caretaker to her volatile father, pretty younger sister Mathilde, and the travelers who stop by their small inn in Brittany. Lately, she's had her hands full keeping her sister's flirtations with the dashing town messenger in check as well as trying to quell the town's fears that the violent revolution in Paris might reach the countryside. When revolutionary soldiers destroy their entire village, the sisters are unwittingly thrust into a dangerous mission to deliver a valuable stolen jewel to the French resistance's handsome leader. Against her better judgment, Claudie finds herself drawn to this mysterious man—and the cause for which he and so many seem willing to die. Claudie is a worthy heroine whose clearly wrought insecurities pair well with her fierce loyalty, appealing wit, and admirable self-reliance. Alongside a swoony if predictable romance, Mobley pairs heart-stopping danger and valiant heroism with a stark portrayal of war's far-reaching costs. Ages 12–up.
