John Allen
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Title: The Carpentier Diaries
Genre: Historical Fiction
Pages: 704

Synopsis:

As revealed in their diaries, the island legacy of Maximilienne and Emilie Carpentier exposes them to dangerous situations and treacherous loves. Determined to retain their inheritance, the cousins encounter amorous seducers and determined enemies, with neither woman always sure of the difference between friend and foe. What is certain, however, is that they must fight for the birthright they treasure, even when their antagonists are their closest relatives.

Centered around a waterfall and a labrynth, their story is both inspiring and unusual. Struggling for survival, Maximilienne finds herself both guileless and vulnerable, and with Emilie her only encouragement, death often seems the most welcome of solutions - either that, or she must bring down her enemies, but since that would destroy her young cousin's family, the choice is far from easy.

Eventually the two women gain control, but even this victory is short-lived. Following a tragedy neither could forsee, Emilie is left to redeem the family name and inheritance. In her record of how she accomplishes this, her life, loves and confessions produce a remarkable eighteenth-century tale. In the rough-and-tumble world of gunrunning and slavery, the Carpentier cousins' commitment to their legacy provides responses that only the most determined can offer.

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Review by Brenda Youngerman


The Carpentier Diaries – A Book Review

There sits at the beginning of this extraordinary tale a 798 word introduction from the author stating that the diary of one Maximiliene Carpentier was located while he and his wife were visiting a small maritime museum along a western Danish coastline. His introduction further states that he verified some of the information from this diary and it bears factual with historical events, thereby leading me to believe that this book might in fact be non-fiction. However, when I did a bit more research prior to writing this review this book is listed as historical fiction, so I suppose it is up to the reader to decide its fate.

None of that matters when reading this book. It is in fact broken into two distinct parts. The first being the diary of Maximiliene Carpentier and the second being the diary of Emilie Carpentier. I am led to believe that the original publication of Maximiliene’s diary was published as ‘The Islander.’

Opening this book will lead you back in time to a world of exploration, kingdoms with legal systems unlike those of today and the open seas. This author weaves a tale of family betrayal, greed, treachery, trickery and down-right underhandedness that would make the Harry Potter’s of today blush. If in fact John Allen used words that were written hundreds of years ago then Maximiliene and Emilie were poets, but having read other works written by this author I’m of the mindset that this work can only be attributed to Mr. Allen.

The Carpentier Diaries is a wonderful read and should be on everyone’s ‘What to give someone who has everything’ list. It will definitely be my number one gift to give this year!

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