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The Virgin Blue tells two parallel stories. In the modern story, an American couple, Ella Turner and her husband Rick, move to a small village near Toulouse in France. Rick works as an architect with a multinational corporation. Ella has too much time on her hands. Her ancestors came from this part of France so starts researching her family history. In the historic story, starting in the same French village 400 years earlier, the poor Isabelle du Moulin marries Etienne Tournier, the son of one the community's more affluent and prominent families. The Tourniers are Huguenots (French Protestants). The Tourniers, like many Huguenots in the 16th century, are driven out of France to Switzerland by their Catholic persecutors. Isabelle, like everyone in the village, outwardly adopts "The Truth," as followers of Swiss theologian John Calvin call their non-Catholic faith, but retains her secret adoration of the Virgin Mary. "The Virgin Blue" refers to the color traditionally used for the Virgin's robes in artworks adorning Catholic churches.

Chevalier chooses Ella as her modern narrator. Ella, in my opinion is NOT a likeable character. In fact, I did not like her at all nor did I have any sympathy for her. She's fretful about what the villagers think of her, has weird dreams about the color blue, and always seems vaguely dissatisfied with what appear to be reasonable efforts by the perfectly nice Rick to make her happy. After four years with Rick, Ella is attracted to the Jean-Paul the village librarian. Ella feels that Jean-Paul really notices her and shares her excitement about her research rather than just indulging her the way Rick does. I found Ella so self absorbed.

There's lots of detail on how people went about farming, eating, building homes and otherwise going about their daily lives back in the times of Isabelle.

I felt that the ending left me flat.

Enjoy! Off to Josierivers for Christmas in July 2012. Virgin for the virgin birth of Christ.

Received in mail from booklady331.

Thank you.

So I decided I needed to work on Mt TBR in a systematic way of sorts...

Grabbed this and read it today.... I would have liked to know what happened to Isabelle and Jacob, but unfortunately did not get this closure. I didn't feel the same dislike for Ella, though she was not a very likable character. She did come off as self-absorbed and self absorbed describes her well.

I did like the story and really enjoyed reading this book. Glad to have had the chance. Now to find a new reader

Passing this along to DVG Hope you enjoy!!


To the finder of this book:

Welcome to BookCrossing, a unique community of book lovers, sharing their libraries with the world. You have in your hands a free gift. This book is yours to do with as you wish...read it, share it, keep it, pass it on. The best book is a shared book.

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BookCrossing is free to join, completely confidential (you are known only by your screen name and no one is ever given your e-mail address) and a great deal of fun. If you choose to join please consider using me, Josierivers as your referring member.

Happy Readings!

So excited, this arrived in the mail today. I can't wait to read it. Thank you sharing it with me. I will have it travelling soon. :)

I, too, am trying to read the books on my BC Mt TBR. I have been trying to read what BCers have kindly sent me before I read my own books. Anyway, back to the book.

I truly enjoyed this story. I was surprised at how quickly I became immersed in the story and how fast I reached that last page. I enjoyed Ella investigating her family history and reading how it unfolded. I did not like Ella the character. I felt she was a bit selfish. She gave into her attraction to a librarian, she left to find her family without even thinking of sharing that excitement of her intended trip to her husband. I think the author could have wrapped up the story a bit better. Overall, I did enjoy it and am glad that I read it.

Sneaking this into a package I am sending to dabercro. I hope you enjoy this one! Happy Reading and Happy BookCrossing!

Arrived safely. Thanks for the RABCK!

I, too, enjoyed this book and the parallel storylines. I wasn't satisfied with the ending of either story.

Reserving for the General Literature VBB.

Removing from the General Literature VBB as not chose.

Reserving for the Books I've Read VBB.

VBB is closed. Book is now available.

Added to a RABCK box sent to ILuvToRead2 in IL.

I read another bookcrossing copy of this book back in 2005, when Cliff's wishlist and the book relay site existed. Anybody remember those? Tracy Chevalier is one of my favorite authors, so I have read most of her books. My favorite is Girl With a Pearl Earring. I will pass this on to another bookcrosser or release in a LFL.

Thank you dabercro for the awesome box of books!

In the Little Free Library. I don't think I will reread this anytime soon, so I thought I should pass it along.

Released for National Read a Book Day and the September Sapphire Challenge.