Book Review Sanctuary for a Lady by Naomi Rawlings

Book discription:

 Running to freedom, she found love . . .

The injured young woman that Michel Belanger finds in the woods is certainly an aristocrat, and in the midst of France’s bloody revolution, sheltering nobility merits a trip to the guillotine. Yet despite the risk, Michel knows he must bring the wounded girl to his cottage to heal.

Attacked by soldiers and left for dead, Isabelle de La Rouchecauld has lost everything. A duke’s daughter cannot hope for mercy in France, so escaping to England is her best chance of survival. The only thing more dangerous than staying would be falling in love with this gruff yet tender man of the land. Even if she sees, for the first time, how truly noble a heart can be . . .
 
My Review:
I was lucky to win this book in a contest and was really looking forward to reading the book. The story had in interested as this period in time is interesting. The book is set during the French Revolution. The revolution  has been going on 5 years and the book starts with Isabelle trying to get away when she's attacked and left for dead. Michel finds her and nurses her back to health. Helping Isabelle could mean death for Michel and his family but he feels he has to help her. The book shows how the revelation hasn't really improved the life of the average Frenchman it may have got rid of the Aristocrats but has replaced it with a regime of terror. I also learnt it was during the revolution that the metric system was first introduced. I would love to talk more of the story but it would give to much away. This book does show how often our lives are dictated to a degree by the circumstances we are born into. Being a daughter of an Aristocrat Isabelle was born to extravagance, servants and being able to do basically what she wanted without having to work for anything. Where as Michel is born to a peasant family who have a farm which only is only just supporting them and they know what its like to be hungry and have no money. Unless you put yourself in the others shoes or go out of your way to see how the other half live you have no idea and the lower classes will grow disgruntled at what they see as extravagance and waste while they are work so hard and hardly surviving. Its not the children's fault they were born to these circumstances and this is where the revolution was so cruel children were killed cos of who they were. This book does show some of these issues when both Isabelle and Michel get to see the other side. This is a really good book and made me think and want to know more about the era. Great debut book.