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“Full of palace intrigue, dark magic, romance, and lush, evocative descriptions, this is historical fiction at its finest.” —Library Journal, starred review The amazing power and truth of the Rapunzel fairy tale comes alive for the first time in this breathtaking tale of desire, black magic and the redemptive power of love French novelist Charlotte-Rose de la Force has been banished from the court of Versailles by the Sun King, Louis XIV, after a series of scandalous love affairs. At the convent, she is comforted by an old nun, Sœur Seraphina, who tells her the tale of a young girl who, a hundred years earlier, is sold by her parents for a handful of bitter greens . . . After Margheri...
Once there were six sisters. The pretty one, the musical one, the clever one, the helpful one, the young one . . . And then there was the Wild one. Dortchen Wild has loved Wilhelm Grimm since she was a young girl. Under the forbidding shadow of her father, the pair meet secretly to piece together a magical fairy tale collection. The story behind the stories of the Brothers Grimm.
In Crete during World War II, Alenka, a young woman who fights with the resistance against the brutal Nazi occupation, finds herself caught between her traitor of a brother and the man she loves, an undercover agent working for the Allies. May 1941. German paratroopers launch a blitzkrieg from the air against Crete. They are met with fierce defiance, the Greeks fighting back with daggers, pitchforks, and kitchen knives. During the bloody eleven-day battle, Alenka, a young Greek woman, saves the lives of two Australian soldiers. Jack and Teddy are childhood friends who joined up together to see the world. Both men fall in love with Alenka. They are forced to retreat with the tattered remains ...
Viviane de Faitaud has grown up alone at the Chateau de Belisama-sur-le-Lac in Brittany. Her father, the Marquis, lives at the court of Louis XVI in Versailles. After a hailstorm destroys the chateau’s orchards, gardens and fields an ambitious young Welshman, David Stronach, accepts the commission to plan the chateau’s new gardens in the hope of making his name as a landscape designer. David and Viviane fall in love, but it is an impossible romance. Her father has betrothed her to a rich duke who she is forced to marry and David is hunted from the property. Viviane goes to court and becomes a maid-in-waiting to Marie-Antoinette and a member of the extended royal family. Angry and embitte...
Merry, Zed and Liliana - three children born between those of hearthkin blood and starkin blood - are on a perilous quest to the Palace of Zarissa. Amid the splendour and treachery of court, they watch and wait - planning the rescue of Princess Rosalina, held captive in the dazzling Tower of Stars. And as their pasts and presents unfold, their destinies become clear.
‘Ava fell in love the night the Nazis first showed their true nature to the world ...’ A retelling of the Grimms' Beauty and The Beast, set in Nazi Germany. It’s August 1939 in Germany, and Ava’s world is in turmoil. To save her father, she must marry a young Nazi officer, Leo von Löwenstein, who works for Hitler's spy chief in Berlin. However, she hates and fears the brutal Nazi regime, and finds herself compelled to stand against it. Ava joins an underground resistance movement that seeks to help victims survive the horrors of the German war machine. But she must live a double life, hiding her true feelings from her husband, even as she falls in love with him. Gradually she comes ...
Once upon a time, these stories of magical transformation were told to young women by their mothers and grandmothers and the wise women of the clan. The heroines of these old tales set out on a difficult road of trials to discover their true destiny. And marrying a prince was not the only goal. These ancient tales of wonder and adventure are about learning to be strong, brave, kind and true-hearted, and trusting in yourself to change the world for the better. -- Back cover.
A free sample of the wonderfully romantic writing of the bestselling writer, Kate Forsyth. Two free chapters from Bitter Greens, Kate's retelling of the Rapunzel fairy tale that The Age called A lovely stew of sex, fairytales and, well, sex really, set in the era of the Sun King, Louis XIV and Renaissance Venice. And, two free chapters from Kate's brand new novel The Wild Girl. This is one of the greatest unrequited love stories. And it has a happy ever after ending. Napoleon is at the height of his powers, taking all the land he can find and eviscerating cultures. The Grimm brothers set out to collect the fire side stories told by all families in their German kingdom. Dortchen Wild, their young and lovely next door neighbour, is one of their best sources .
Named Best First Novel by Locus 'Twas a time when dragons left their lair and evil shadowed the land.... On the Day of Reckoning, the witches of Eileanan were outlawed--and violations of the new order were punishable by death. Eileanan's Great Towers, once meccas of magic and learning, were left in ruins. And now, the entire land trembles in fear.... Yet deep in the mountains, in the shadow of Dragonclaw, a young girl is being tutored in the old ways. Ignorant of her past, uncertain of her future, the foundling Isabeau will soon be forced down a dangerous path of prophesy, conspiracy, and magic. It is a world where dragons possess the key to ancient mysteries...where a lost prince will discover a strange and wondrous destiny...and where the ultimate battle between good and evil will be waged.... A new Day of Reckoning is at hand....
The Pre-Raphaelites were determined to liberate art and love from the shackles of convention. Ned Burne-Jones had never had a painting lesson and his family wanted him to be a parson. Only young Georgie Macdonald - the daughter of a Methodist minister - understood. She put aside her own dreams to support him, only to be confronted by many years of gossip and scandal. Dante Gabriel Rossetti was smitten with his favourite model, Lizzie Siddal. She wanted to be an artist herself, but was seduced by the irresistible lure of laudanum. William Morris fell head-over-heels for a 'stunner' from the slums, Janey Burden. Discovered by Ned, married to William, she embarked on a passionate affair with Gabriel that led inexorably to tragedy. Margot Burne-Jones had become her father's muse. He painted her as Briar Rose, the focus of his most renowned series of paintings, based on the fairy-tale that haunted him all his life. Yet Margot longed to be awakened to love. Bringing to life the dramatic true story of love, obsession and heartbreak that lies behind the Victorian era's most famous paintings, Beauty in Thornsis the story of awakenings of all kinds.