Merchants of Virtue is the first book in the Huguenot Connection Trilogy by Paul C. R. Monk and it tells the story of the Delpech family starting in 1685. Jeanne Delpech has just returned, with her three children, to the family home in Montauban as she desires to have her next child be born in the same town as all of her previous children. Her husband Jacob was against the idea due to the growing pressure on Protestants or Huguenots to convert back to Catholicism. Shortly after she arrives the military also arrives to try and force the conversion. All of the Protestant families are forced to host soldiers at their own expense and are not allowed to protest or interfere with whatever the soldiers are doing, even if that means the utter destruction of their homes. Jacob and Jeanne refuse to abjure or convert and instead remain determined to hold to their faith no matter the result, for them or for their children. Things get difficult and tricky though as most of the Protestants in Montauban cave into the pressure and convert in order to protect what little they have left.
This was a decent read and the information included about the events and the time period seems to be pretty accurate from what I understand. The story however is fairly sad though the characters insist on being optimistic even in these rather dire circumstances. It also is a rather compelling read in regards to what was happening to this family. The level of detail for some things was rather impressive but only sometimes as there were other times there seemed to be a general lack of a lot of detail. I mean the story was still pretty good but it seemed to be a pretty fast read considering the events it was supposed to cover. There were several places I would have preferred to have more depth to the story, especially in regards to what happened during some of the time skips that took place. I tend to prefer stories that I can really sink my teeth into and this story just didn’t seem like one of them. Don’t get me wrong, the story was good and I did enjoy it but at the same time it also felt fairly shallow and lacking depth on a lot of things. To be more specific I noticed there was a lot more depth and detail to the story in the earlier stages and it gradually disappeared over the course of the story. Now I will admit that it may just be my impression of the story but that is how it felt to me. It didn’t interfere with my enjoyment of the story too much but it did affect my thoughts on the quality of the story. While I did enjoy it as I said I am only giving this book a 3.5 out of 5 stars.
This book is a historical drama though it seems to be based off of a true story. I am going to classify it as primarily historical fiction so if you enjoy that genre than I would recommend you consider trying this one. More specifically if you enjoy reading about Europe in the 1600’s or about the clashes between Protestants and Catholics than you might consider trying it out. This book is primarily aimed at adult readers and I would probably agree with that for the most part. While there is some violence it is not necessarily graphic and there doesn’t seem to be any adult or mature references in it. At the same time there is some rather obvious and brutal discrimination that takes place throughout the story so I would suggest you keep that in mind. In my opinion, this book should probably only be read by readers older than about fifteen due to the content. It is a decent book though so I hope you will keep these things in mind when considering it. If you do decide to try it feel free to share your thoughts in the comments.