Every year Sunbury Press honors the best-selling novels at each of their imprints with a Sunny Award.
“The authors and books awarded best exemplify the mission and values of Sunbury Press, Inc. The authors are dedicated to their craft. Their books are high quality and are among the bestsellers in their category for the calendar year.”
I am pleased to announce the Readers’ Favorite 5-Star Review of the Fiction – Historical – Event/Era book “From the Drop of Heaven.”
Click here to see Juliette Godot’s page on the Reader’s Favorite website
Click here to learn more about the novel at juliettegodot.com.
Readers’ Favorite 5-Star Review
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Review by Saifunnissa Hassam
Juliette Godot’s From the Drop of Heaven: Legends, Prejudice, and Revenge is historical fiction inspired by the author’s 16th-century French ancestors. Catherine Cathillon de la Goutte de Paradis was Godot’s thirteenth-generation grandmother. The family name “de la Goutte de Paradis” provides the title of the novel (which translates as ‘from the drop of heaven’) and refers to the beautiful Salm area in the French Vosges mountains.
Set in the town of Vacquenoux in Salm, the account centers around the Cathillon and de la Goutte de Paradis families and follows the lives of three characters through the decades. The story begins when Catherine Cathillon was a young girl from a family of farmers. Nicolas de la Goutte de Paradis’s father, Jean, was a blacksmith and the mayor of Vacquenoux. Martin was a student in Geneva when his professor was burned at the stake for sedition. He found refuge in Vacquenoux with Nicolas’s family. Martin shares the banned books he receives from Strasbourg with Nicolas. Catherine learns to read from Nicolas. Their lives unfold through the years, with a constant undercurrent of danger from religious and political turmoil.
I enjoyed From the Drop of Heaven for its compelling characters, particularly Catherine Cathillon, Nicolas de la Goutte de Paradis, and Martin. I became immersed in the tangled web of their storylines from the outset. I liked the different backgrounds of the three major characters. Catherine is from a farming family, Nicolas becomes a silversmith, while Martin manages the Vacquenoux stables. I loved their character development, their inner journeys, and the drama of interactions within families and with other characters.
I loved the interwoven narrative of how books draw them together. Catherine’s inner journey was the most profound, from her early days on the farm to her incredible courage when faced with persecution. Martin’s character comes into its own in the latter part of the novel when the Cathillon and de la Goutte de Paradis families face unexpected struggles for survival. I loved the rich evocative descriptions of Vacquenoux, its La Grande-Courty river, and the valley of Lac de la Maix. Juliette Godot’s book is gripping, with memorable characters, life in 16th-century France, unflinching courage, resilience, and hope.
Juliette Godot in the Author’s Guild Member Spotlight
Why is writing important to you and why do you think it’s an important medium for the world?
Writing is important to the world because it allows the writer’s experiences, ideas, and dreams to be understood and contemplated by others who would never have met that person and would never have had the chance to see the world through another’s eyes.
What are your tried and tested remedies to cure writer’s block?
My tried and tested remedy to cure writer’s block is to read something. Something as mundane as the local news or a magazine article could trigger the perfect idea. Always keep your mind open to any reading opportunity.
What is your favorite time to write?
My favorite time to write is in the evening. I got a lot of my ideas on my long commute home. As soon as I arrived, I had to quickly get them written down before I forgot them.
What’s the best piece of writing advice you’ve ever received and would like to impart to other writers?
The best piece of writing advice I’ve ever received and would like to impart to others is to get beta readers that are not your friends or family. Friends and family won’t tell you the truth. They mean well and since they know you personally, they may also know the situation you are describing. You need someone completely impartial to give you honest feedback.
What excites you most about being a writer in today’s age?
What excites me most about being a writer today is that research is so much easier. We have access to most of the world’s history at our fingertips. Within a few minutes, I can search for every historical event that happened on a certain day, hundreds of years ago. As someone who was born prior to the rise of the internet, I remember having to search my family’s encyclopedias (back then, every family had a set of encyclopedias) to find information for a school paper. Now, I can find that information in an instant.
Juliette Godot’s From the Drop of Heaven is out now with Brown Posey Press.
Find out more about me and my research for the novel, From the Drop of Heaven.
