Historical Fiction Part II
Discover compelling historical fiction with our curated selection, featuring Philippa Gregory's Tudor classics, Jeanne Kalogridis's Borgia intrigue, and David Liss's Revolutionary-era tales. Explore royal dramas, epic love stories, and hidden histories in this collection of unputdownable novels.
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The Fiercer Heart
by Micaela Gilchrist
This is the story of an American love affair.Intimate and painfully real, this epic tale from the pages of history is based on the lives of vivacious and iron-willed Diana Bullitt, a Southern woman from an illustrious colonial family, and General Philip Kearny, one of the Union's legendary military leaders, a dissolute and passionate man descended from two centuries of New York aristocracy. In antebellum America, a time when appearances are paramount, Kearny introduces his beautiful young bride to a mesmerizing world of opulence and power. But Diana's tranquil existence soon ends when Kearny joins his cavalry company in Mexico and returns home from the war mutilated and suffering from trauma. Though Diana struggles to free Philip of his demons, she discovers that she must either follow her conscience and begin a new life for herself or submit to societal pressure and ignore Philip's devastating addictions and his indiscreet liaisons with other women. Rebelling against her husband, Diana embarks on a perilous journey, experiences the full power of her own abilities, and changes profoundly, shedding her provincial ideas of wifely duty and propriety. Even as Philip's and Diana's twin destinies spiral inexorably toward disaster with the impending Civil War, the couple is entrapped by the persistence of their desire, their pride, and their abiding love for each other. Micaela Gilchrist uses privately held correspondence, unpublished diaries, and family legends to create an unforgettable love story inspired by historical figures and actual events.
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The Good Journey
by Micaela Gilchrist
After a brief courtship, Mary Bullitt finds herself married to General Henry Atkinson and on her way to the frontier outpost at St. Louis, where she finds harsh living conditions and a growing awareness that she knows nothing about the man she married.
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Memoirs of a Geisha
by Arthur Golden
A literary sensation and runaway bestseller, this brilliant debut novel tells with seamless authenticity and exquisite lyricism the true confessions of one of Japan's most celebrated geisha. Nominated as one of Americaâs best-loved novels by PBSâs The Great American Read Speaking to us with the wisdom of age and in a voice at once haunting and startlingly immediate, Nitta Sayuri tells the story of her life as a geisha. It begins in a poor fishing village in 1929, when, as a nine-year-old girl with unusual blue-gray eyes, she is taken from her home and sold into slavery to a renowned geisha house. We witness her transformation as she learns the rigorous arts of the geisha: dance and music; wearing kimono, elaborate makeup, and hair; pouring sake to reveal just a touch of inner wrist; competing with a jealous rival for men's solicitude and the money that goes with it. In Memoirs of a Geisha, we enter a world where appearances are paramount; where a girl's virginity is auctioned to the highest bidder; where women are trained to beguile the most powerful men; and where love is scorned as illusion. It is a unique and triumphant work of fictionâat once romantic, erotic, suspensefulâand completely unforgettable.
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The Constant Princess
by Philippa Gregory
From the "New York Times" bestselling author of "The Virgin's Lover," this enthralling new novel answers one of history's most intriguing questions: What lay behind Katherine of Aragon's enormous, history-changing lie?
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The Virgin's Lover
by Philippa Gregory
From #1 New York Times bestselling author and âqueen of royal fictionâ (USA TODAY) comes a riveting and scandalous love triangle between a young woman on the brink of greatness, a young man whose ambition far exceeds his means, and the wife who cannot forgive them. In the autumn of 1558, church bells across England ring out the joyous news that Elizabeth I is the new queen, yet one woman hears the tidings with utter dread. She is Amy Dudley, wife of Sir Robert, and she knows that Elizabethâs ambitious leap to the throne will draw her husband back to the center of the glamorous Tudor court, where he was born to be. Elizabethâs excited triumph is short-lived. She has inherited a bankrupt country where treason is rampant and foreign war a certainty. Her faithful advisors warns her that she will survive only if she marries a strong prince to govern the rebellious country, but the one man Elizabeth desires is her childhood friend, the ambitious Robert Dudley. As the young couple falls back in love, a question hangs in the air: can he really set aside his wife and marry the queen? When Amy is found dead, Elizabeth and Dudley are suddenly plunged into a struggle for survival.
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The Boleyn Inheritance
by Philippa Gregory
From the "New York Times"-bestselling author of "The Other Boleyn Girl" comesa tempestuous Tudor tale about two queens, Anne of Cleves and Catherine Parr, and the woman who destroys them both.
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The Queen's Fool
by Philippa Gregory
#1 New York Times bestselling author and âqueen of royal fictionâ (USA TODAY) Philippa Gregory weaves a spellbinding tale of a young woman with the ability to see the future in an era when destiny was anything but clear. Winter, 1553. Pursued by the Inquisition, Hannah Green, a fourteen-year-old Jewish girl, is forced to flee with her father from their home in Spain. But Hannah is no ordinary refugee; she has the gift of âSight,â the ability to foresee the future, priceless in the troubled times of the Tudor court. Hannah is adopted by the glamorous Robert Dudley, the charismatic son of King Edwardâs protector, who brings her to court as a âholy foolâ for Queen Mary and, ultimately, Queen Elizabeth. Hired as a fool but working as a spy; promised in wedlock but in love with her master; endangered by the laws against heresy, treason, and witchcraft, Hannah must choose between the safe life of a commoner and the dangerous intrigues of the royal family that are inextricably bound up with her own yearnings and desires. Teeming with vibrant period detail and peopled by characters seamlessly woven into the sweeping tapestry of history, The Queenâs Fool is a rich and emotionally resonant gem from a masterful storyteller.
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Wideacre
by Philippa Gregory
Set in 18th century England, "Wideacre" introduces Beatrice Lacey, a heroine who makes Scarlett O'Hara look like a simpering weakling. Readers will fall in love with Philippa Gregory's mesmerizing trilogy.
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The Many Lives & Secret Sorrows of Josephine B
by Sandra Gulland
Passion intertwines with fate in this riveting and historically rich novel about the journey of a woman from poverty to ultimate power in Revolution-era France. In this first of three books inspired by the life of Josephine Bonaparte, Sandra Gulland has created a novel of immense and magical proportions. We meet Josephine in the exotic and lush Martinico, where an old island woman predicts that one day she will be queen. The journey from the remote village of her birth to the height of European elegance is long, but Josephine's fortune proves to be true. By way of fictionalized diary entries, we traverse her early years as she marries her one true love, bears his children, and is left betrayed, widowed, and penniless. It is Josephine's extraordinary charm, cunning, and will to survive that catapults her to the heart of society, where she meets Napoleon, whose destiny will prove to be irrevocably intertwined with hers.
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Tales of Passion, Tales of Woe
by Sandra Gulland
In the second novel in the acclaimed Josephine B. Trilogy, Sandra Gulland offers a sweeping yet intimate portrayal of the political and personal struggles of the wife of the most powerful man in the world. Tales of Passion, Tales of Woe is the much-awaited sequel to Sandra Gulland's highly acclaimed first novel, The Many Lives & Secret Sorrows of Josephine B. Beginning in Paris in 1796, the saga continues as Josephine awakens to her new life as Mrs. Napoleon Bonaparte. Through her intimate diary entries and Napoleon's impassioned love letters, an astonishing portrait of an incredible woman emerges. Gulland transports us into the ballrooms and bedrooms of exquisite palaces and onto the blood-soaked fields of Napoleon's campaigns. As Napoleon marches to power, we witness, through Josephine, the political intrigues and personal betrayals -- both sexual and psychological -- that result in death, ruin, and victory for those closest to her.
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The Last Great Dance on Earth
by Sandra Gulland
The Last Great Dance on Earth is the triumphant final volume of Sandra Gulland's beloved trilogy based on the life of Josephine Bonaparte. When the novel opens, Josephine and Napoleon have been married for four tumultuous years. Napoleon is Josephine's great love, and she his. But their passionate union is troubled from within, as Josephine is unable to produce an heir, and from without, as England makes war against France and Napoleon's Corsican clan makes war against his wife. Through Josephine's heartfelt diary entries, we witness the personal betrayals and political intrigues that will finally drive them apart, culminating in Josephine's greatest tragedy: her divorce from Napoleon and his exile to Elba. The Last Great Dance on Earth is historical fiction on a grand scale and the stirring conclusion to an unforgettable love story.
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Courtesan
by Diane Haeger
Amid the disapproving gossip of the Court, a royal romance defies all obstacles. The Court of François I is full of lust, intrigue, and bawdy bon tempsâa different world from the quiet country life Diane de Poitiers led with her elderly husband. Now a widow, the elegant Diane is called back to Court, where the Kingâs obvious interest marks her as an enemy to the Kingâs favourite, Anne dâHeilly. The Court is soon electrified by rumors of their confrontations. As Anne calls on her most venomous tricks to drive Diane away, Diane finds an ally in the one member of Court with no allegiance to the Kingâs mistress: his teenage second son, Henri. Neglected by his father and disliked by his brothers, Prince Henri expects little from his life. But as his friendship with Diane deepens into infatuation and then a romance that scandalizes the Court, the Prince begins to discover hope for a future with Diane. But fate and his father have other plans for Henriâincluding a political marriage with Catherine de Medici. Despite daunting obstacles, Henriâs devotion to Diane never wanes; their passion becomes one of the most legendary romances in the history of France. Also available as an eBook
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Sarah
by Marek Halter
Sarahâs story begins in the cradle of civilization: the Sumerian city-state of Ur, a land of desert heat, towering gardens, and immense wealth. The daughter of a powerful lord, Sarah balks at the marriage her father has planned for her. On her wedding day, she impulsively ďŹees to the vast, empty marshes outside the city walls, where she meets a young man named Abram, son of a tribe of outsiders. Drawn to this exotic stranger, Sarah spends one night with him and reluctantly returns to her fatherâs house. But on her return, she secretly drinks a poisonous potion that will make her barren and thus unďŹt for marriage. Many years later, Abram returns to Ur and discovers that the lost, rebellious girl from the marsh has been transformed into a splendid womanâthe high priestess of the goddess Ishtar. But Sarah gives up her exalted life to join Abramâs tribe and follow the one true God, an invisible deity who speaks only to Abram. It is then that her journey truly begins. From the great ziggurat of Ishtar to the fertile valleys of Canaan to the bedchamber of the mighty Pharaoh himself, Sarahâs story reveals an ancient world full of beauty, intrigue, and miracles.
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Lilah
by Marek Halter
Set in the magnificent culture of the Middle East more than four thousand years ago, Lilah is a rich and emotionally resonant story of faith, love, and courage.Living in exile, Lilah is in love with Antinoes, a Persian warrior. They have known each other since they were children, and Antinoes dearly wants to make Lilah his wife. Yet Lilah does not feel she can marry without the blessing of her brother, Ezra. She and Ezra are close, and Lilah knows her brother wellâhe does not want his sister to have a husband outside their faith. Ezra is a scholar of the laws of Moses, and Lilah believes it is her brotherâs destiny to lead the Jewish people back to the Promised Land. While Antinoes pressures her to accept his proposal, Lilah realizes that before she can consider her own happiness, it is her duty to help her brother accomplish the seemingly impossible task that is before him.Putting herself in grave danger, and with the help of Antinoes, Lilah wins Ezra an audience with Artaxerxes II, the King of Kings, who grants permission to lead the exiles on their journey back to the Promised Land. After a hazardous trip across the desert, Lilah, Ezra, and the thousands who join them arrive in Jerusalem. But the hardship of rebuilding the Temple takes its toll, and the religious enthusiasm of some turns to extremism. Ezra, listening to the zealots, orders all non-Jewish wives and their children banished from Jerusalem. Lilah, whose love for Antinoes has never wavered, is horrified by this command. She knows she must now choose between her brother and her conscience, which tells her that the time has come to defy him.Lilah is a timeless story of one womanâs stand against intolerance; it will linger in the readerâs mind long after the last page has been turned.
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The Emancipator's Wife
by Barbara Hambly
As a girl growing up in Kentucky, she lived a sheltered, privileged life filled with picnics and plantation balls. Vivacious, impulsive, and intoxicated by politics, she is a Todd of Lexington, an aristocratic family whose ancestors defeated the British. But no one knows her secret fears and anxieties. Although she is courted by the most eligible suitors in the land, including future senator Stephen Douglas, it is a gangly lawyer from Illinois who captures her heart. After a stormy courtship and a broken engagement, Abraham Lincoln will marry twenty-four-year-old Mary Todd and give her a ring inscribed with the words âLove Is Eternal.â But their happiness wonât last nearly so long. Their first child will be born under the gathering clouds of a civil war, and three more follow. As Lincolnâs star rises, the pleasure-loving Mary learns, often the hard way, the rules of being a politicianâs wife. But by the time the fiery storm of war passes, tragedy will have claimed two sons, scandal will shadow her days as First Lady, and an assassinâs bullet will take Lincoln himself, leaving Mary alone and all but forgotten by the nation that owed her husband its survival. Yet it is in the years to come that Mary Todd Lincoln will truly come into her own. In public, she will fight to preserve Lincolnâs memory even as she battles a bitterly contested insanity trial. In private, she will struggle with depression and addiction as she endures the betrayalsâboth real and imaginedâof family and friends. With a gifted novelistâs imagination and a historianâs eye for detail, Barbara Hambly tells a story of astonishing scope, richly peopled with real-life characters and their fictional counterparts, a tour-de-force tale of power, politics, and the role of women in nineteenth- century America. The result is a Mary Todd Lincoln few have seen and none will forgetâthe fascinating, controversial woman of whom her husband could say: âMy wife is as handsome as when she was a girl and I fell in love with her; and what is more, I have never fallen outââMary Todd, the woman who loved Abraham Lincoln.
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The Observations
by Jane Harris
The Observations is a hugely assured and darkly funny debut set in nineteenth-century Scotland. Bessy Buckley, the novel's heroine, is a cynical, wide-eyed, and tender fifteen-year-old Irish girl who takes a job as a maid in a once-grand country house outside Edinburgh, where all is not as it seems. Asked by her employer, the beautiful Arabella, to keep a journal of her most intimate thoughts, Bessy soon makes a troubling discovery and realizes that she has fled her difficult past only to arrive in an even more disturbing present.
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Holy Fools
by Joanne Harris
Joanne Harris, bestselling author of Chocolat, presents her most accomplished novel yet -- an intoxicating concoction that blends theology and reason, deception and masquerade, with a dash of whimsical humor and a soupçon of sensuality. Britanny, 1610. Juliette, a one-time actress and rope dancer, is forced to seek refuge among the sisters of the abbey of Sainte Marie-de-la-mer. Reinventing herself as Soeur Auguste, Juliette makes a new life for herself and her young daughter, Fleur. But when the kindly abbess dies, Juliette's comfortable existence begins to unravel. The abbey's new leader is the daughter of a corrupt noble family, and she arrives with a ghost from Juliette's past -- Guy LeMerle, a man she has every reason to fear and hate. This P.S. edition features an extra 16 pages of insights into the book, including author interviews, recommended reading, and more.
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The Linnet Bird
by Linda Holeman
In the claustrophobic, mannered world of British India, Linny Ingram seems the perfect society wife: pretty, gracious, subservient. But appearances can be deceptive. Linny Ingram was born Linny Gow, an orphan raised in the gray slums of Liverpool. Sold into prostitution by her stepfather when she was only eleven, Linny clung to the belief that she was meant for something more, something better, than life on the cold, dangerous streets. A stroke of luck granted Linny the chance to re-create herself as a proper middle-class young lady, allowing her to join âthe fishing fleetââyoung women of good birth who sailed to India in search of husbands. India, with its exotic colors, sights, and smells, is a world away from the cold back alleys of Linnyâs childhood. But even there, she is haunted by her past, and by the constant threat of discovery. Soon she finds that respectability and marriage bring a new kind of imprisonment. But having come so far, Linny is not about to surrender easily. In the lush tropics of India she finds not only the means of rebellion . . . she finds that she may be capable of feeling love and freedom after all.
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The Dress Lodger
by Sheri Holman
In a novel set in London during the Industrial Revolution, a prostitute borrows a blue dress to attract a higher class of client and is shadowed through the streets by an evil old woman hired by the dress' owner to keep an eye on her.
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The Borgia Bride
by Jeanne Kalogridis
Vivacious Sancha of Aragon arrives in Rome newly wed to a member of the notorious Borgia dynasty. Surrounded by the city's opulence and political corruption, she befriends her glamorous and deceitful sister-in-law, Lucrezia, whose jealousy is as legendary as her beauty. Some say Lucrezia has poisoned her rivals, particularly those to whom her handsome brother, Cesare, has given his heart. So when Sancha falls under Cesare's irresistible spell, she must hide her secret or lose her life. Caught in the Borgias' sinister web, she summons her courage and uses her cunning to outwit them at their own game. Vividly interweaving historical detail with fiction, The Borgia Bride is a richly compelling tale of conspiracy, sexual intrigue, loyalty, and drama.
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The Devil's Queen
by Jeanne Kalogridis
In her latest historical fiction bestseller, Kalogridis tells the story of Caterina, a tender young girl who would grow up to become Catherine de Medici, one of the most maligned monarchs in history.
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Through a Glass Darkly
by Karleen Koen
"A completely involving story...power, greed, family conflict, burning ambition and passion kindle the plot. Readers will be captivated "-- Publishers Weekly Karleen Koen's sweeping saga contains unforgettable characters consumed with passion: the extraordinarily beautiful fifteen-year-old noblewoman, Barbara Alderley; the man she adores, the wickedly handsome Roger MontGeoffry; her grandmother, the duchess, who rules the family with cunning and wit; and her mother, the ineffably cruel, self-centered and licentious Diana. Like no other work, Through a Glass Darkly is infused with intrigue, sweetened by romance and awash in the black ink of betrayal. Praise for Through a Glass Darkly: "Fast-paced and fun to read "-- Glamour" Engaging, elegant, chock full of sex and gossip."-- Philadelphia Inquirer
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Now Face to Face
by Karleen Koen
The unforgettable sequel to Karleen Koenâs beloved debut, Through a Glass Darkly A Book-of-the-Month Club main selection A bride at ďŹfteen, widowed at the tender age of twenty, Barbara, Countess Devane, embarks for colonial Virginia ďŹnancially ruined by the death of her husband in scandalous circumstances. Dressed in mourning as is proper for a woman, she is patronizingly described as a âfragile black butterfly,â but the fragility is deceiving. She makes a place for herself in the new world, takes lovers and friends across political divides, and questions the established traditions of slavery. Facing enemies she never suspected, she must return to England and deal face to face with the problems created by her husband, who haunts her even in death. Back in London, she quickly ďŹnds herself pulled into Jacobite plotting, and the treachery of powerful men suddenly threatens her family, her friendsâand a new love. Now Face to Face sweeps readers from eighteenth-century America to London and brings both worlds to vivid life. It is a magniďŹcent evocation of an era, from the plantations of Virginia to Hanoverian England.
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The Witch of Cologne
by Tobsha Learner
In seventeenth-century German Catholic Cologne, Ruth bas Elazar Saul's interest in the Kabbalah and her skills as a successful midwife earn her the label of "witch" and threaten her future.
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In the Fall
by Jeffrey Lent
Compared by critics to William Faulkner and Cormac McCarthy, Jeffrey Lentâs In the Fall is the most stunning debut to come along in years. Ambitious in scope and passionately executed, this epic novel is the rarest of things: a truly moving, emotionally honest, and intellectually satisfying American family. In the twilight of the Civil War, Leah, an escaped slave, discovers Norman Pelham, a wounded soldier who lies dying in a battlefield outside Richmond. After she nurses him back to health, Norman brings her to his family farm in Vermont as his wife, and they begin a family. Now the mother of three, and however begrudgingly, accepted in the community, Leah travels back to the South of her birth and returns with a secret that threatens to destroy what she and Norman had created. Her son Jamie, passing for white, escapes his legacy and enters a world of petty bootlegging, achieving a kind of respectability in the Prohibition era, but also suffering wrenching losses. At the eve of the Great Depression his son, Foster, retraces the path taken by his grandmother and finally confronts the secret exposed by an unknown white uncle, the legacy of slavery, and the painful intricacies of race.
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A Conspiracy of Paper
by David Liss
Benjamin Weaver, a Jew and an ex-boxer, is an outsider in eighteenth-century London, tracking down debtors and felons for aristocratic clients. The son of a wealthy stock trader, he lives estranged from his familyâuntil he is asked to investigate his fatherâs sudden death. Thus Weaver descends into the deceptive world of the English stock jobbers, gliding between coffee houses and gaming houses, drawing rooms and bordellos. The more Weaver uncovers, the darker the truth becomes, until he realizes that he is following too closely in his fatherâs footstepsâand they just might lead him to his own grave. An enthralling historical thriller, A Conspiracy of Paper will leave readers wondering just how much has changed in the stock market in the last three hundred years. . . .
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The Whiskey Rebels
by David Liss
America, 1787. Ethan Saunders, once among General Washingtonâs most valued spies, is living in disgrace after an accusation of treason cost him his reputation. But an opportunity for redemption comes calling when Saundersâs old enemy, Alexander Hamilton, draws him into a struggle with bitter rival Thomas Jefferson over the creation of the Bank of the United States. Meanwhile, on the western Pennsylvania frontier, Joan Maycott and her husband, a Revolutionary War veteran, hope for a better life and a chance for prosperity. But the Maycottsâ success on an isolated frontier attracts the brutal attention of men who threaten to destroy them. As their causes intertwine, Joan and Saundersâboth patriots in their own wayâfind themselves on opposing sides of a plot that could tear apart a fragile new nation.
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Push Not the River
by James Conroyd Martin
A panoramic and epic novel in the grand romantic style, Push Not the River is the rich story of Poland in the late 1700s--a time of heartache and turmoil as the country's once peaceful people are being torn apart by neighboring countries and divided loyalties. It is then, at the young and vulnerable age of seventeen, when Lady Anna Maria Berezowska loses both of her parents and must leave the only home she has ever known. With Empress Catherine's Russian armies streaming in to take their spoils, Anna is quickly thrust into a world of love and hate, loyalty and deceit, patriotism and treason, life and death. Even kind Aunt Stella, Anna's new guardian who soon comes to personify Poland's courage and spirit, can't protect Anna from the uncertain future of the country. Anna, a child no longer, turns to love and comfort in the form of Jan, a brave patriot and architect of democracy, unaware that her beautiful and enigmatic cousin Zofia has already set her sights on the handsome young fighter. Thus Anna walks unwittingly into Zofia's jealous wrath and darkly sinister intentions. Forced to survive several tragic events, many of them orchestrated by the crafty Zofia, a strengthened Anna begins to learn to place herself in the way of destiny--for love and for country. Heeding the proud spirit of her late father, Anna becomes a major player in the fight against the countries who come to partion her beloved Poland. Push Not the River is based on the true eighteenth century diary of Anna Maria Berezowska, a Polish countess who lived through the rise and fall of the historic Third of May Constitution. Vivid, romantic, and thrillingly paced, it paints the emotional and unforgettable story of the metamorphosis of a nation--and of a proud and resilient young woman.
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Property
by Valerie Martin
WINNER OF THE ORANGE PRIZE ⢠Set in 1828 on a Louisiana sugar plantation, this novel from the bestselling author of Mary Reilly presents a âfresh, unsentimental look at what slave-owning does to (and for) one's interior life.... The writingâso prised and clean limbedâis a marvel" (Toni Morrison, Nobel Prize-winning author of Beloved). Manon Gaudet, pretty, bitterly intelligent, and monstrously self-absorbed, seethes under the dominion of her boorish husband. In particular his relationship with her slave Sarah, who is both his victim and his mistress. Exploring the permutations of Manonâs own obsession with Sarah against the backdrop of an impending slave rebellion, Property unfolds with the speed and menace of heat lightning, casting a startling light from the past upon the assumptions we still make about the powerful and powerful.
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Passion
by Jude Morgan
Novel of the Romantic poets Byron, Shelley, and Keats through the eyes of the women who loved them.