Well written. Give you an insight into courtly life. Sad, inspiring and romantic. A good read! ( )

I acquired Emilie's Voice on a whim from a thrift store and I was very quickly inthralled in the book. There is a good portion of it that is very musically focussed and I admit that I had a hard tie keeping up at times with the terms. Luckily though, the beautiful language and more importantly, the emotion that the authoress uses makes up for any issues I had. Emilie's naiveness is both heartbreaking and breathtaking, making her much more believable than the usual period piece heroine. The people around her are what truly keep the plot interesting, and I for one still have a hard time figuring out who was a quote on quote 'good guy' and who was a 'bad guy'.

And excellent read.

Only a person with outstanding knowledge of music, music history, and 17th century Paris could write a historical saga as entertaining and totally engrossing as Ms. Dunlap's EMILIE'S VOICE. Dunlap, the Director of Development for the Connecticut Opera, holds a PhD in Music History from Yale University. Her many years of teaching, writing about, and working in the world of music and opera have lent their unique voice to this superb debut novel.

By 1675, at the royal court of Versailles a few miles outside of Paris, Louis XIV ruled with a heavy hand. Versailles had become one of his most prized courts to sit, and although he rarely visited the city of Paris itself, the noblemen, courtier's, and men of wit and wisdom that graced the halls of the court of Versailles provided him with constant entertainment.

For Emilie, a young girl on the cusp of adulthood, having the voice of an angel has brought her to the attention of renowned composer Marc-Antoine Charpentier. A childhood friend of Louis XIV, Charpentier takes Emilie under his wing-determined, at all costs, to train her to become the most wonderful of courtiers at Louis' court at Versailles. But danger comes in many forms, and Charpentier's conniving schemes to keep Emilie from the control of rival Jean-Baptiste Lully, the official court composer, creates undue strain upon Emilie. And when a noblewoman hoping to usurp the king's mistress brings Emilie to court before she's ready, everyone involved has something to lose.

EMILIE'S VOICE is a wonderful, richly engaging book of power, betrayal, music, mayhem, and, above all, Emilie's wish to have control of her own life. For a girl who wants only to sing, that desire has brought more trouble than pleasure. It seems that everyone has a hidden agenda for Emilie and her angelic voice-but what of Emilie's own needs and desires? ( )

Author is a Yale Ph.D. in musicology. The novel is set in and around the court of Louis XIV and turns in part upon the rivalry between Charpentier and Lully. (Peter Bloom)

This book was well researched and very interesting. The author describes music and the singing voice so well I could almost hear it. I was a bit surprised by the end - not our typical cookie cutter happy ending, but I can see how this might have been more plausible in that particular day and age where women virtually had no rights at all, even royalty. ( )