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Darling readers, please note, this is a review of the third book in a trilogy.  Spoilers for the first two books are likely.  Proceed, or don’t, with that in mind.  We’ve also read and reviewed (and recommended) Daughter of the King (Defying the Crown #1) and Daughter of the Shadows (Defying the Crown #2) if you’re interested in where this story begins.  

Also, special thanks to Kerry Chaput and Black Rose Writing for giving us an Advanced Review Copy to read and review here.  As always, all opinions are our own.  You can pre-order your copy of Daughter of Snow and Secrets now to receive it on publication day, March 21, 2024.  You can also check out the trilogy here.  

Let me start out by saying, I love a good series.  I love digging in deep with characters, getting to know them, and then seeing what antics the author has in store for the plot as these (hopefully) beloved characters navigate whatever chaos ensues.  I am on record stating dramatic trilogies scare me because I don’t appreciate the usual cliffhanger of the second book leaving our characters in the worst possible position, so I’m delighted to remind you that darling Kerry Chaput did not leave Isabelle and friends on a cliff at the end of Daughter of Shadows.  This made starting Daughter of Snow and Secrets that much more fun!  We do jump ahead several more years from the epilogue of the previous book to find Elizabeth nearly grown, and bringing her own sort of chaos with her as she asserts herself into the work of saving Protestants.  (If you’re playing along at home, I 100% reread the last couple of chapters in the second book before starting this one.  It greatly helped jog my memory!)

In Daughter of Snow and Secrets, Isabelle is living in Geneva and crossing the border into France to help fellow Protestants escape religious persecution and live in freedom.  Making matters more interesting is the teenage daughter who’s been raised in a Protestant community with parents and found family who are quite active in the Protestant movement and she has recently decided she’s ready to play her part.  We see more of the friends and foes from books one and two, meet a very interesting new character (who Chaput shared she loved writing), and learn a bit about how Isabelle and her husband have been working together to fight for their people, while also trying to protect their souls (not in the religious sense, but more in the maintain some semblance of control of themselves and their hopes for their future sense) and ensure they make it back home at the end of each mission.  It’s an interesting balance to read how they determine when violence is and isn’t warranted, and the push and pull of their internal struggles, as well as how they interact with the rest of their group that made the story feel more real and dimensional.  

Having watched Marie Antoinette on PBS last spring (and having studied French history), I was aware of the opulence of Versailles, but I wasn’t prepared for how it would strike Isabelle, particularly given her family’s struggles in La Rochelle, and the journey that lead her to the filles du roi program and Canada, then back to France.  Even after a chunk of the second book took place in Paris in the palaces there, Versailles was built to be the most extravagant palace, and it clearly struck Isabelle as just that.  As someone who hasn’t been there (but has been to the property that inspired it), Versailles definitely hits differently through Isabelle’s eyes, but still, Chaput’s writing took me back to the show, and my other experiences in the palaces of France, especially the scenes that take place on the extensive grounds.   

Overall, I’m giving Daughter of Snow and Secrets four solid stars.  While I wanted a bit more of a bow than we received, the ending was solid enough.  Chaput’s writing is picturesque, and the characters have a lot of development going on while also working their way through the action of the plot.  Chaput did a wonderful job with Isabelle’s story, and I’m interested in seeing what story lures her in next.

What’s a book you wanted more from when it was over?

~Nikki 

Kerry Chaput is a writer who found published authorship as a second career in her forties. Born in California she now lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband, daughters, and dogs, where she takes to the hiking trails for inspiration. She writes about the varied histories of young women, the bonds of found family, and the power of first love. This is the third historical fiction novel we have read by Chaput, in the Defying the Crown series. Her three other stand alone novels take place in three other time periods all following a young girl’s coming of age journey.

I have really enjoyed spending time with Isabelle Beaumont Boucher née Colette from the Protestant ghetto of La Rochelle, to the wilds of New France and Québec City, to the lavishness of Paris, to the relative peace of Geneva. The trails Isabelle takes find her learning something about herself at every turn. At first it’s her ability to lie to the Sun King about her Catholicism before he ships her off to New France as a Fille du Roi, and to repeatedly keep her Huguenot heart protected by letting no one get to know her in Daughter of the King. Then in Daughter of Shadows, she leans into the warrior ways of the Huron, by standing up for herself and her desires and uses them to manipulate her Catholic lieutenant of a husband, in order to return to France and foil the plans of the man who harmed her family. That husband didn’t end up in a good place by the end of the book either… 

And now, here we are, ten years after Daughter of the Shadows, finding Isabelle married to the love of her life, Andre Boucher, rescuing Protestants from religious persecution in France and traveling with them to safety in Geneva. It’s during one of these rescues that Isabelle’s mercy for one French dragoon – because she will not harm someone who is not actively attacking her people, her family, or herself – that the plot starts to spiral together in a web that started with her being branded with an H on her arm as a child and ends with her being willing to sacrifice herself at Versailles to kill the man who started her on this path to freedom for herself, her family, and her people.

I’m going to give Daughter of Snow and Secrets 3.5 rounded up to 4 stars. I loved and adored our newest side character’s arc in this third installment of Defying the Crown trilogy, at the same time I was wary of his shenanigans and when his presence was going to blow up in Isabelle’s face. One of his actions I conjectured did not happen, praise be, but the rest…you’ll have to read to find out! Isabelle finally reaches a place of inner peace and contentment in this story that I had waited for her to realize she could have had at the beginning of the story – but a character’s journey and whatnot had to occur first. It makes a good tale either way. I was frustrated at the semblance of ease in the day to day activities, of finding safe houses, of avoiding soldiers, of creating poisons, of knowing who to speak to and where to be amidst the nobility, etc. Versailles should not have been so easy a place to infiltrate as it seemed – since those gardens are immense (I was there once, in the rain) so perhaps it was easier during Isabelle’s time. It doesn’t mean I can’t momentarily suspend my disbelief for the plot and see Isabelle finally satisfied with her life and her family. I’ll always recommend Kerry Chaput, but Isabelle’s story will probably remain my favorite of hers forever.

~Ashley

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