Thank you so much to NetGalley and Claire Harper for providing me with a complimentary digital ARC for Ripples in Stone out January 1, 2025. The honest opinions expressed in this review are my own.

This is the first book I’ve read by this author. I really love historical fiction, so this seemed like a fun royal story. I liked the story. I thought the writing was good. It didn’t hold my attention as much as I wanted. I think there was something missing for me. I would check out other books by this author though.

Netgalley pls forgive me I meant to send this in here when I posted it on thanksgiving :(( life had other plans

This was wonderfully written!

Ripples in Stone is set in France during the Revolution, and follows several nuns as they struggle to navigate this scary New France. Genevieve, our main protagonist, is a noble, forced to enter the nunnery due to both of her sisters having relations with the king. This penance is the only way to save her family, she’s told.

But the Abbey she is sent to is a cruel place. The Abbess tortures any novice or nun who dares step out of her tight lines, and the snitches are the only ones who remain well fed. As Genevieve grows up in the Abbey, tensions in France grow, and she finds herself trapped in the middle of a plot that not only puts the nuns in harm’s way, but also her and her royalist older sister. Yearning for her lost love, Genevieve is determined to escape the fate she was forced into, as well as the civil war.

The writing was a slower pace than I typically prefer, but I did enjoy the twists and turns! Thank you to NetGalley for my arc in exchange for my review!

Viva la Revolution! (sort of)

Being walled up in a convent, a silent order at that, by your family for something your sister did is so unjust that I was shocked. Not only that the Abbess de Tourmont was a bully, self interested and a harsh disciplinarian. Lady Geneviève was fourteen when she entered into the Abbey as a novice.
It is a time of unrest in Paris and their majesties have retired from the troublesome area waiting for calm. Their court of course travels with them.
As background, her sister Félicité had been acting as the King’s mistress, however the King bedded their sister Celeste to prove he wasn’t impotent. Unfortunately the Pope is furious because bedding sisters is incest. Someone had to pay. That someone was the horse mad, innocent Geneviève.
What’s really happening is that the aristocracy is caught in the snare of the French Revolution, fighting for their position.
Geneviève might have survived with her spirit intact but her magnificent horse is not so fortunate.
I found the story complicated and had difficulty relating to events that followed.
There were too many threads waiting to be pulled.

A Victory ARC via NetGalley.
Many thanks to the author and publisher.
(Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.)

Thank you for an Arc of Ripples in Stone. I absolutely enjoyed reading this Young Adult historical fiction. I look forward to reading more from this author!

4.25⭐️
I have mentioned before that historical fiction is not my go-to genre so how did I end up beta reading one? It happens when you happily agree to read someone’s book without asking them anything about it!

Thankfully in the end I enjoyed my experience in reading Ripples in the Stone!

I am so thankful to the author Claire Harper for trusting me with an early ARC and allowing me to give feedback to make the book even stronger. I am also thankful have gotten an eARC (after the edits) for free from Netgalley to enjoy which gave me the opportunity to voluntarily leave a review.

Fhe best part of the experiment e I’m reading this book was getting immersed into history which is highly detailed along side the fictional plot lines. You can tell how much the author cares about detailing the story so the reader could easily picture the world and circumstances in their mind as they read.

The book comes out on December 1st so if you’re a historical fiction lover, get this on your TBR asap!

My rating system since GoodReads doesn’t have partial stars and I rarely round up.

⭐️ Hated it
⭐️⭐️ Had a lot of trouble, prose issues, really not my cup of tea (potentially DNF’d or thought about it)
⭐️⭐️⭐️ Meh, it was an ok read but nothing special
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Really enjoyed it! Would recommend to others
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Outstanding! Will circle back and read again