The Rose of Versailles vol 3 by Riyoko Ikeda

France continues to decay as the royal family amasses an amazing amount of debt, and the citizenry refuses to acquiesce to more taxes until an Estates General is called. Oscar’s father decides he will marry Oscar off to a wealthy noble, and claim a male child of Oscar's as his heir, but Oscar will have none of it, and sabotages the arrangements. The people of France demand the king reinstate a minister of finance who was sympathetic to the plight of the commoners. As the Estates General Meet and try to erode the power of the king even more, Louis I’d advised to bring in the military to squash the rumblings of the Representatives from the Third Estate (commoners). Oscar is torn apart by her sense of duty to follow the orders of the king and the military’s goal of protect her countrymen.

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Things are really starting to heat up on the road to revolution.  As the queen is the major villain in the story in the eyes of the people, Oscar has come into her own as the main character in the story.  Much of the storyline of this volume focuses on Oscar trying to win over her troops as they refuse to follow a woman's orders.  There are also some heartbreaking moments in this volume, as anyone familiar with the life of Marie Antionette probably knew would be coming.  

The art is beautiful but slightly frustrating.  There are a few characters with distinct designs, but Ikeda seems to have one template of the male with shoulder-length black hair.  Andre, Oscar's closest friend, looks very similar to Alain, Oscar's biggest critic.  And Alain looks almost identical to Rosalie's husband, Bernard.  It's sometimes hard to keep them all straight when they're on the same pages.

Sara's Rating: 9/10
Suitability Level: Grades 9-12

Reviews of previous volumes in this series: vol 1, vol 2

Tags: Rating: 9/10, Suitability: High School, Manga, Historical Fiction, Romance