Two female titans -- perfectly matched in guts, guile, and political genius.

Elizabeth, queen of England, has taken on the mighty Spanish Armada and, in a stunning sea battle, vanquished it. But her troubles are far from over. Just across the western channel, her colony Ireland is embroiled in seething rebellion, with the island's fierce, untamed clan chieftains and their "wild Irish" followers refusing to bow to their English oppressors.

Grace O'Malley -- notorious pirate, gunrunner, and "Mother of the Irish Rebellion" -- is at the heart of the conflict. For years, she has fought against the English stranglehold on her beloved country. At the height of the uprising Grace takes an outrageous risk, sailing up the Thames to London for a face-to-face showdown with her nemesis, the queen of England.

In this "enthralling historical fiction" (Publishers Weekly), Robin Maxwell masterfully brings to life these strong and pugnacious women in order to tell the little-known but crucial saga of Elizabeth's Irish war.

...

"Entertainment Weekly" has written of this novel, "History doesn't come any more fascinating--or lurid--than the wife-felling of Henry VIII". Robin Maxwell recreates the story of the doomed second wife of Great Harry, telling an exuberant and bawdy tale of lust, betrayal, love, and murder....

Following the “absolutely superb”(Diane Haeger, author of The Secret Bride) Mademoiselle Boleyn, novelist Robin Maxwell delves into the life of Caterina—the adventurer, alchemist, and mother of Leonardo da Vinci.

Caterina was fifteen years old in 1452 when she bore an illegitimate child in the tiny village of Vinci. His name was Leonardo, and he was destined to change the world forever.

Caterina suffered much cruelty as an unmarried mother and had no recourse when her boy was taken away from her. But no one knew the secrets of her own childhood, nor could ever have imagined the dangerous and heretical scheme she would devise to protect and watch over her remarkable son. This is her story....

Caterina was fifteen years old when she fell in love with a man much above her station. The daughter of a humble village apothecary, she was considered unmarriageable by her lover s wealthy and ambitious family. She had no recourse when they took her child away from her, leaving her bereft and rejected by society as a fallen woman. But Caterina had always hidden a part of herself from society. Unlike most women of that time, she had been educated since childhood not only in her father s medicinal arts, but in Greek philosophy and pagan mysticism, considered heretical by the church. Now, to be close to her son, she would carry that deceit further than she had ever imagined, taking up a new life under a dangerous new identity. In Florence at the height of Italy s cultural Renaissance, Caterina would discover undreamed-of opportunities and freedoms and her gifted son, Leonardo, would change the world forever....

Caterina was fifteen years old when she fell in love with a man much above her station. The daughter of a humble village apothecary, she was considered unmarriageable by her lover s wealthy and ambitious family. She had no recourse when they took her child away from her, leaving her bereft and rejected by society as a fallen woman. But Caterina had always hidden a part of herself from society. Unlike most women of that time, she had been educated since childhood not only in her father s medicinal arts, but in Greek philosophy and pagan mysticism, considered heretical by the church. Now, to be close to her son, she would carry that deceit further than she had ever imagined, taking up a new life under a dangerous new identity. In Florence at the height of Italy s cultural Renaissance, Caterina would discover undreamed-of opportunities and freedoms and her gifted son, Leonardo, would change the world forever....

"Entertainment Weekly" has written of this novel, "History doesn't come any more fascinating--or lurid--than the wife-felling of Henry VIII". Robin Maxwell recreates the story of the doomed second wife of Great Harry, telling an exuberant and bawdy tale of lust, betrayal, love, and murder....