Book Review: Bride of New France

I thoroughly enjoyed Suzanne DesRochers' Bride of New France. Laure is a young woman living in the Salpetriere-a dormitory/orphanage/hospital in Paris in 1669. She was taken from her parents from the streets of parents as a toddler because they were homeless beggars on the streets. Taught needlework and to make lace, she produces exceptional work, and Laure dreams of one day becoming a seamstress. After writing a letter to the King of France requesting better food rations, the King's minister writes back to the nun Superior at the Salpetriere requesting 100 of their girls to be sent to New France to marry the French men of the Colony. This is considered a fate worse than death and Laure is sent to be one of the filles du roi. We follow Laure as she crosses the Atlantic and settles in this new world of "Savages" (it pains me to write that word but that was what was said in that time) and lonely Frenchmen. I do enjoy historical fiction, and love to read about Canada's history so this was a great book for me! I also like that DesRochers' Bride of New France  began as her master's thesis project!