From the author of the beloved Josephine B. Trilogy comes a spellbinding novel inspired by the true story of a young woman who rose from poverty to become confidante to the most powerful, provocative and dangerous woman in the 17th-century French court: the mistress of the charismatic Sun King.1660, Paris: Claudette’s life is like an ever-revolving stage set. Following an impoverished childhood spent wandering the French countryside with her family acting troupe, s...

The Josephine B. Trilogy comprises three acclaimed, bestselling novels that draw the reader into the delicate yet passionate relationship between Josephine and Napoleon Bonaparte: The Many Lives & Secret Sorrows of Josephine B.; Tales of Passion, Tales of Woe; and The Last Great Dance on Earth. Together they form an irresistible epic, tracing Josephine’s transformation from impressionable young girl to canny and compassionate wife, to confidante empress ...

In this first of three books inspired by the life of Josephine Bonaparte, wife of Napoleon, Sandra Gulland recreates the astonishing world of a young girl who transforms herself into one of the most powerful women in history. Told in an imaginative and historically accurate diary form, this is an utterly absorbing novel of magical proportions.

From the author of the acclaimed and beloved Josephine B. Trilogy comes an enchanting historical novel that captures the drama, elegance and treachery of the court of Louis XIV of France. Louise de la Vallière, the brave and spirited child of minor nobility and an extraordinary horsewoman, falls in love with a wild stallion and uses ancient magic to tame him. This act shadows Louise throughout her life as she enters the court of the Sun King, where she captures—and then tragically loses—th...

The much-anticipated second novel in the trilogy, Tales of Passion, Tales of Woe opens as Josephine awakens to the reality of her recent marriage to Napoleon Bonaparte. A remarkable portrait of a canny and compassionate woman emerges, set against one of the most tumultuous periods in European history.

The final installment in the acclaimed trilogy lays bare the rise and fall of a great empire and a steadfast love that outlasts treachery, exile and even death. Napoleon is now Emperor, but his passionate union with Josephine is severely troubled. This is a shattering climax to a completely engrossing and tragic love story.

**Inspired by Hortense de Beauharnais’s real-life autobiography with charming glimpses of life long ago, this is the story of a girl destined by fate to play a role she didn’t choose.“Even fans of historical fiction fascinated by the period will find plenty to appreciate here.”—Booklist**For Napoleon's step-daughter, nothing is simple—especially love.France, 1798—Fifteen-year-old Hortense is engrossed in her studies at a boarding school for aristocratic gir...

The year is 1210, and Ailith is at Windsor Castle witnessing the recovery of the bodies of Matilda de Braose and her eldest son, Will, from an oubliette beneath the floor of the round tower where they have been cruelly starved to death. First maid, then companion to Matilda, Ailith is caught up in the harrowing events that lead to them being incarcerated in a cold and lonely cell with no food, no water and at the end, no hope, and her story begins here. Taken into service at Bramber Castle...

“Tantalizing descriptions and cliff-hangers will leave the reader rapidly turning the pages in anticipation…A wickedly delightful read.” —New York Daily NewsThe first book in a historical fiction trilogy that follows the lives of the five extraodinary Nesle sisters, four of whom were the first mistresses to King Louis XV of France.Court intriguers are beginning to sense that young King Louis XV, after seven years of marriage, is ti...

And you thought sisters were a thing to fear. In this captivating follow-up to Sally Christie’s clever and absorbing debut, we meet none other than the Marquise de Pompadour, one of the greatest beauties of her generation and the first bourgeois mistress ever to grace the hallowed halls of Versailles.The year is 1745 and King Louis XV’s bed is once again empty. Enter Jeanne-Antoinette Poisson, a beautiful girl from the middle classes. As a child, a fortune...

In the final installment of Sally Christie’s “tantalizing” (New York Daily News) Mistresses of Versailles trilogy, Jeanne Becu, a woman of astounding beauty but humble birth, works her way from the grimy back streets of Paris to the palace of Versailles, where the aging King Louis XV has become a jaded and bitter old philanderer. Jeanne bursts into his life and, as the Comtesse du Barry, quickly becomes his official mistress.“That beastly bourgeois Pom...

For fans of Philippa Gregory and Alison Weir, bestselling author C. W. Gortner effortlessly weaves history and drama in this captivating novel about one of the world’s most notorious families. Glamorous and predatory, the Borgias fascinated and terrorized fifteenth-century Renaissance Italy, and Lucrezia Borgia, beloved daughter of the pope, was at the center of the dynasty’s ambitions. Slandered as a heartless seductress who lured men to their doom, was she in fact the villainess of legen...