Her Own Legacy

by Debra Borchert

Overview

A Woman Fights for Her Legacy as the French Revolution Erupts

Headstrong Countess Joliette de Verzat prefers secretly managing her family's Loire Valley château and vineyards to the cut-throat politics of Versailles. For nearly three centuries, generations of families have toiled to produce Château de Verzat wines, and their homes and livelihoods depend upon Joliette. But ancient laws block her from inheriting property-unless she is widowed.

Revolution erupts. Thousands of women march on Versailles. Caught in the battle, Joliette risks her own life to save her lover's. She flees to Paris, blazing with hatred for aristocrats, where she discovers her illegitimate half-brother, Henri-the secret rightful heir who distains the nobility to which he unknowingly belongs.

As insurrection mounts, Joliette faces heartbreaking choices. She must risk all that she loves and trust the people she has saved to save her.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780989454551
Publisher:	Le Vin Press
Publication date:	09/01/2022
Series:	Ch�teau de Verzat , #1
Pages:	568
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.27(d)

Editorial Reviews

04/03/2023

The guillotine looms over Borchert’s full-length historical fiction debut, as Joliette Verzat, a young woman “with wine in blood,” faces the complex duties of family, business, and matrimony as her nation boils toward bloody revolution. At the end of the 18th century, at a time when unmarried women cannot inherit property, Joliette fears that the Verzat’s legacy—almost three centuries of making some of France’s best wine, with hundreds of families’ livelihood dependent on the business—will pass out of the Verzats’s hands if her father, a noble and minister to the king, should die before Joliette marries. Joliette’s equipped to be a world-class vintner, thanks to her grandmother’s training, but she understands the hard truth: she’ll have to marry a man of suitable station who will inherit the legacy himself.

Complicating matters is a revelation readers discover long before she does. Joliette has a half-brother, Henri, a young man of about her age who is caught up, thanks to his and Joliette’s father’s encouragement and support, in the revolutionary fervor gripping Paris. Writing with spirit and grace, plus an eye for the striking detail, Borchert keeps the story engaging and surprising despite its significant length, at times challenging reader expectations—while Her Own Legacy bursts with old-fashioned novel elements like secret siblings and a woman pressured to marry a miserable old widower with bad breath, both author and heroine alike commit to the promise of the title.

That means Joliette, a markswoman who learns the ropes of shipping and other business niceties, blazes her own trail, as she and her nation face grief, tumult, and execution as entertainment. Readers who love stories of determined women seizing opportunities history too often denied them will relish Joliette’s story. Death haunts the novel—relatives, royals, the old ways—but America, represented by Thomas Jefferson, a dashing ambassador with a palate for wine, offers a chance at something new.

Takeaway: This accomplished historical novel finds a young woman making her own choices as revolution sweeps France.

Great for fans of:Catherine Delors’s Mistress of the Revolution, Fay Weldon’s Habits of the House series.

Production grades Cover: A Design and typography: A Illustrations: N/A Editing: A- Marketing copy: A-

BookLife Reviews

"Borchert's passionate tale is the first installment of the Château de Verzat series. ...multifaceted...sustained intrigue...effervescent... A compelling wine tale..." Kirkus

"With an equally eloquent and dynamic tone, the novel is an immersive piece of historical fiction - both thorough and concise in historical detail - which stands up against other works of this storied time. Charming, gracefully written, with moments of true excitement, Borchert's historical work is a marvel." Independent Review of Books

One of the Top 5 Paris-Based Books We Can't Wait to Read in 2023, Parisian Niche

B.R.A.G. Medallion Honoree

From the Publisher