Champagne Widows by Rebecca Rosenberg - BOOK BEGINNINGS

 

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

Brrrr! It's a cold week here in the Pacific Northwest! How about where you are? Settling in with a good book and a cuddly blanket sounds like a good way to spend this chilly weekend.

It is time again for Book Beginnings on Fridays, where we share the opening sentence (or so) of the books we are reading this week. You can also share the first line from a book that has caught your fancy and you feel like highlighting. 

MY BOOK BEGINNING

My Book Beginning this week comes from a new historical fiction book that launches in paperback next week, on March 1, called Champagne Widows.

Grand-mère sways over the edge of the stone stairs into the cavern, and I step between her and eternity, dizzy from the bloody tang of her head bandage.

-- from chapter 1, "Le Nez, The Nose" in Champagne Widows by Rebecca Rosenberg. Chapter 1 notes that it is set in Reims, Champagne, France in 1797. 

That opening sentence sets quite a scene! Why does the narrator's grandmother have a bloody bandage on her head? 

Champagne Widows is the fictionalized account of Barbe-Nicole Clicquot who, after the death of her husband became Veuve (Widow) Clicquot, of champagne fame. It is a story of love, tragedy, war, entrepreneurship, romance, and bravery. 

I got an early copy and cannot wait to read it! It is available on kindle now and in paperback next week. 

YOUR BOOK BEGINNINGS

Add the link to your Book Beginnings post in the Linky box below. If you share on social media, please use the hashtag #bookbeginnings, with an s on the end. 

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THE FRIDAY 56

The Friday 56 hosted by Freda's Voice is a natural tie in with this event and there is a lot of cross over, so many people combine the two. The idea is to post a teaser from page 56 of the book you are reading and share a link to your post. Find details and the Linky for your Friday 56 post on Freda’s Voice.

MY FRIDAY 56

From Champagne Widows:

"He doesn't expect you to love him now, after what he's experienced. He's a broken man."

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Twenty-year-old Barbe-Nicole inherited Le Nez (an uncanny sense of smell) from her great-grandfather, a renowned champagne maker. Determined to use Le Nez to make great champagne, she learns her childhood sweetheart, François Clicquot, wants to start a winery and marries him despite his mental illness.

Her husband's tragic death forces her to become Veuve (Widow) Clicquot and grapple with a domineering partner, the complexities of making champagne, and six Napoleon wars, which cripple her ability to sell champagne. When she falls in love with her sales manager, Louis Bohne, who asks her to marry, she must choose between losing her winery to her husband, as dictated by Napoleon Code, or losing Louis.

In the ultimate showdown, Veuve Clicquot risks imprisonment and even death, defying Napoleon himself.