In this third installment in the “Emma of Normandy” trilogy, Emma, queen of Æthelred the Unready has been trapped in a miserable, loveless marriage for years. She survives the best she can with a cold and cruel husband who us haunted by the ghost of his deceased brother. Like any devoted mother, she protects the interests of her children, especially since her husband has so many sons from his first marriage.
Love, Theodosia
Theodosia Burr, daughter of Senator Aaron Burr, is a young socialite who comes of age in 1800. In a time where female education and independence of spirit are not encouraged, she is something of a rarity. The other ladies around her prefer to talk of mindless topics—such as courtship and gossip—while she likes intelligent discourse. The product of a well-rounded education overseen by a caring father, she is entirely unconventional.
Lotharingia
It is 1062 AD. During the High Middle Ages, Countess Matilde of Tuscany is one of the most powerful women in all of Christendom. A descendant of the legendary Charlemagne, she is an heiress who stands to inherit vast lands. She lives in a world where strictures are placed upon women, including those who wield great power. While she is powerful, she must rule with a man by her side. Enter Gottfried, Duke of Lower Lotharingia.
Miss Austen
Gill Hornby’s Miss Austen is a historical fiction book that centers around famed author, Jane Austen and her lesser-known sister, Cassandra. In Spring of 1840, Cassandra arrives in Kintbury with a mission that she has secretly undertaken to protect the legacy of a beloved sister. This involves searching for letters that have been long forgotten in the vicarage of the Fowle family, letters once written by Jane.
Dark Lady
It is the height of Queen Elizabeth’s reign, a celebrated golden age. The seven-year-old Emilia Bassano is sent away from her mother to be entrusted to the care of the Countess of Kent, where she will be raised with propriety. Not long after that day, Emilia blossoms into a young woman who is a lover to two men, one of whom is William Shakespeare, the Queen’s playwright and poet. In time, Emilia becomes a poetess herself, something that is unusual in the Elizabethan era. Suffice it to say, Emilia, being of questionable birth, is an oddity in her own time.
Two Empresses
Two Empresses centers around two young women who are cousins, Marie Josèphe Rose Tascher de La Pagerie and Aimée du Buc de Rivéry, growing up in Martinique. The story opens up in 1779, on an evening where Rose (who history would known as Joséphine) and Aimée sneak out of the house to go visit a mystic by the name of Euphemia David, a woman who is something of a local legend.
The Dream Lover
The story opens up in 1873 where George is an old woman. Knowing that her death is not entirely too far off, she reminisces about her earlier life.vThe story alternates between her childhood in the early 19th century and her life as a disgruntled married woman in the year 1831. As a married woman, George Sand has done the unthinkable and made an agreement with her husband where they remain married but live separate lives.
The Accidental Empress
It is July 1853 and the plucky young Elisabeth (known as Sisi), Duchess of Bavaria lives happily with her family in the wild countryside. Much to the surprise of everyone in her family, Sisi’s sister, Helen (known as Néné) receives a proposal of marriage from the Imperial Austrian Court. It is proposed that Néné (the eldest daughter of Duke Maximilian Joseph in Bavaria and Ludovika, Duchess in Bavaria) wed her cousin Franz Joseph, Emperor of Austria.
The Taming of the Queen
The thirty-one-year-old Kateryn Parr is recently the widow of John Neville, 3rd Baron Latimer and she has come to the royal court. While there, she happens to catch the eye of the rather old and ailing corpulent King Henry VIII, who is determined to have her. When she is approached by the king with a proposal of marriage, Kateryn is very much taken aback and doesn’t really quite know what to say. Deep down, she is absolutely disgusted at the prospect of being the wife to such a man, a personage who has gone through five queens. After the king proposes, she smiles at him and requests that she has time to pray on the matter.