The Sugar Pavilion [Large Print] [Hardcover]

Rosalind Laker (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1994

During the French Revolution, Sophie Delcourt and Antoine, a four-year-old French noble, escape to England, where Sophie must guard Antoine's identity while she builds a confectionery business, joins the British royal circle, and comes to love two very different men. 35,000 first printing. $35,000 ad/promo.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Seventeen well-written and thoroughly researched historical novels (most recently, The Venetian Mask ) have come from English writer Laker's pen; in each she gives her heroine a talent or trade which can be described in fascinating detail. Here, feisty, independent Sophie Delcourt is an accomplished confectioner, having trained at her late father's Paris atelier. When Sophie is forced to flee France during the Revolution, taking under her protection the young heir of an aristocratic family, she ends up in Brighton, where adventures, dangers, career opportunities--and love--await her. Laker nicely evokes the atmosphere of Brighton in the late 1700s, the resort favored by the Prince of Wales and the woman he has secretly wed, Maria Fitzherbert. Plot complications also deal with Brighton's other "industry"--smuggling. Sophie is wooed by two men: steadfast Rory Morgan, Captain in the Excise Service, who is determined to apprehend the notorious Broomfield smuggling gang, and charismatic Tom Foxhill, purveyor of antiques to "Prinny" and other bluebloods, but seemingly involved in smuggling himself. Meanwhile, Sophie sets up her own atelier and readers learn how bonbons, sweetmeats and extraordinarily complex spun-sugar centerpieces were produced. If Laker succumbs to the genre conventions, making Sophie more beautiful, brave and also more foolhardy than credibility would allow, she also illuminates a colorful epoch.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Independent, resourceful, and beautiful, Sophie Delcourt is another of Laker's spirited heroines (like Marguerite Dremont in To Dance with Kings , LJ 12/88). Sophie flees revolutionary France with her aristocratic employer's young son, Antoine, and settles in Brighton, made newly fashionable by the Prince of Wales. Her goal is to become a confectioner, but no job is beneath her. She begins by waiting tables and becoming a cook at a large Brighton restaurant and later works at Prinny's Marine Pavilion as a linen maid until her confectionery business succeeds. She is torn between her quiet affection for Rory Morgan, the brave excise officer who patrols the coast at Brighton for smugglers, and her attraction to the dashing, mysterious Tom Foxhill, who knows too much about smuggling for Sophie's peace of mind. Emigres, smugglers, romance, and royal intrigue make this a can't-miss selection for general collections.
- Mary Ann Parker, California Dept. of Water Resources Law Lib., Sacramento
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 663 pages
• Publisher: Thorndike Pr (May 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786202254
• ISBN-13: 978-0786202256
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.8 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,931,305 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Delicious!, December 29, 2000

By 

Leah M. Brown "Leah Marie Brown, Author" (Mentally in Paris, France) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Sugar Pavilion (Hardcover)

As a huge fan of Rosalind Laker, I will admit I am a bit biased. Still, I think THE SUGAR PAVILION was sweet and sinfully addictive. As with most of her books, I could not put it down until the last emotion-wrought page was read. I liked Sophie Delacourt more than any other Laker character because she was fleshed out wholly. She was smart, determined, independent to a fault. I disagree with the above review and did not find the "side story" of Prinny - George IV (not the V) - and Maria Fitzherbert distracting. If I wanted an in depth lesson on Prinny and his not-so-secret wife, I would read Prince of Pleasure. I like historical romances. And this one is sheer perfection, a delightful morsel!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Sugary Sweet (that's a good thing in this case) Tale to read, March 2, 2008

By 

Misfit (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: The Sugar Pavilion (Paperback)

Laker's tale of Sophie Delcourt starts in 1793 at the height of the French Revolution as Sophie is forced to flee to England with her employer's young son Antoine de Juneau and his aging grandfather, as the revolutionaries hunt down and kill any members of the aristocracy they can find. Sophie reaches England in safety by is set upon by villains who attack her party and rob them of everything and leave them for dead. Found by the gorgeous (of course) and mysterious (of course) Tom Foxhill she eventually recovers from the attack and she and Antoine settle in Brighton, England with young Antoine posing as Sophie's nephew. Sophie uses her skills as a confectionery to establish a business in her new life as she is torn by her strong attractions to Tom as opposed to the quiet but strong and loving revenue agent, Rory Morgan.

Laker mixes Sophie's tale in with one of George, then Prince of Wales, and his "wife" Maria Fitzherbert and their on again off again relationship. I have to admit sometimes it was a bit of a stretch the way commoner Sophie was able to step in and out of George's and Maria's lives without so much of a raising of an eyebrow, but otherwise this was a genuinely entertaining tale. As Sophie battles to maintain her independence while being courted by two men who love her, danger from France threatens as a relative of the de Juneau's plots to harm Julian and remove any possibility of his laying claim to his rightful inheritance in France.

The author does a nice job of setting her scenes and includes plenty of period detail, with the clothes, food, etc. To some readers it may be a bit much and it does slow the story down at times, so you're not going to have a sit on the edge of your seat page turning story, but one to sit back and savor at a leisurely pace. Not the greatest entry in the historical fiction genre, but still a pleasant way to spend an afternoon in another century. 3.5 stars rounded up to 4.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A Good Read, September 21, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: The Sugar Pavilion (Hardcover)

I liked this story. I am not particular familiar with the history of the French Revolution, but the book had enough references to seem credible. The one problem is that the story of the secret marriage between Maria Fitzherbert and Prince George the Vth is randomly intermingled with Sophie's narration. I found that the side-story of the marriage was more interesting than that which the novel was centered around, and found myself skipping forwards to parts that were about Maria Fitzherbert and her husband. Perhaps it is not as interesting to others, but I found myself greatly distracted.