A Review of Belle Canadienne, by Juliet Waldron and Jay Lang

Belle Canadienne is a wonderful, old-fashioned historical novel with a tender romance. If you are looking for an immersive experience that will transport you to early Quebec, you will love this story. I did!

Setting

1640s French coast and Quebec.

Main Characters

Jeanne Dube is a young French woman who ran away with a poor sailor as a teenager to get away from her stepmother. She loved her husband, but he was lost at sea, and she worked as a fish seller with her in-laws until her young son was washed out to sea and drowned. Miserable, she is looking for an escape by emigrating to New France (Canada).

Thibaut Babin is a young Métis widower, trained by his French father on how to build boats and pilot them. From his Mi’kmaw mother, he learned to survive in the Canadian wilderness, including the deadly winters. He is a trusted river pilot, but a social outsider in Quebec.

Romance

Jeanne realizes that, as a marriageable young woman emigrating to New France, where men vastly outnumber women, she will be expected to marry one of the Frenchmen in Quebec. But the man who piloted their ship up the St. Lawrence helps her learn to walk in snowshoes and ice fish, and shows his kindness by distributing the fish they catch among the poor in the small huts around the trading post. She far prefers him to the much older Frenchmen.

Thibaut makes the most of the winter when he can spend time with Jeanne, but maintains strict propriety. When he is sent to fight the Iroquois, he breaks his formality with Jeanne and tells her he will find her when he returns—leaving Jeanne with a crushing dilemma.

Plot

Jeanne has come to New France in the service of a Frenchwoman and remains in her house until she finds a husband. She endures extreme pressure to marry, and she knows that behaving impulsively by marrying her first husband led to no end of trouble. She is determined to follow her head this time around.

All of French society in Quebec pushes her to marry a Frenchman quickly. Thibaut is delayed on his return from fighting because he has to help his father. Then he cannot find Jeanne and fears she may think him dead.

Historical Worldbuilding

This book is a wonderfully unhurried, immersive trip to New France in the 1640s. We live the details with Jeanne, from selling fish in La Rochelle, to learning how to walk in snowshoes, to the constant cycle of freezing numbness and excruciating pins-and-needles as hands and feet warm by the fire. Thibaut’s boat building and travels are equally detailed. Nothing is rushed in this book, and you will revel in the virtual time travel. I absolutely loved slipping into New France as I read this story!

Tropes

This is a very, very slow burn romance, as, indeed, the book is really historical women’s fiction with a strong romance arc. It is also a multicultural romance, with a French heroine and a Métis hero.

Secondary Characters

Agathe Martin, the woman Jeanne emigrates with, is a bold, three-dimensional character who evolves throughout the story. She plays a significant role in the plot. Thibaut’s father, Agathe’s brother, and any number of the men who pass through the trading post all have distinct and colorful personalities. They make up a vibrant, if precarious community.

Point of View

This novel is written in third person, mostly from Jeanne’s perspective, but it has some chapters from Thibaut’s point of view.

In Summary

• This is an atmospheric novel that will tug at your heart as you feel the life-changing pressures on the inhabitants of New France. It transports readers back in time.
• It is set primarily in 1640s Quebec, after starting in LaRochelle, France.
• Jeanne and Thibaut are both layered characters facing choices that are almost unimaginable to modern readers, and it is impossible not to root for them.
• The historical detail is almost its own character in this novel. It is breathtaking, and I would read this book for that alone, even if it didn’t have such a wonderful story.
• The tropes are super-slow burn and multicultural romance.
• The heat level is at most a 1 out of 5. There is a brief allusion to activities of the marital bed, but that is all. There is nothing sexual on the page in either action or thought.
• The situations the characters experience are absolutely life and death, and there are many mentions of deadly violence, but it is not on the page, nor is it described in detail.

Keep them Coming!

What other historical romances have you read that are set in the Americas and you think others might enjoy? Any good Latin American or Caribbean romances you have read recently? Please email me or post in the comments below with suggestions for other titles!

Love historical romance? My latest novel, Passion’s Duty, is set during the outbreak of the Seven Years’ War (also known as the French & Indian War). That is the war that laid the foundation for the American Revolution. We are embarking on the 250th anniversary of the Revolution, so this is the perfect time to read it. Be sure to check it out!

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