The acclaimed author of Duchess and Royal Harlot returns with the unforgettable story of a king’s last love and London’s darling…
BR>Nell Gwyn has never been a lady, nor does she pretend to be. Blessed with impudent wit and saucy beauty, she swiftly rises from the poverty of Covent Garden to become a sensation in the theater. Still in her teens, she catches the eye of King Charles II, and trades the stage for Whitehall Palace—and the role of royal mistress.

Even though she delights the king, she must learn to negotiate the cutthroat royal court, where ambition and lust for power rule the hearts of all around her. For beneath her charm and light-heartedness, Nell has her own ambition—to become no less than the king’s favorite....

From the author of The King's Favorite-a new novel based on a dazzling and decadent true story of Restoration England.

The daughter of a poor nobleman, Louise leaves the French countryside for the court of King Louis XIV, where she must not only please the tastes of the jaded king, but serve as a spy for France. With few friends, many rivals, and ever-shifting loyalties, Louise learns the perils of her new role. Yet she is too ambitious to be a pawn in the intrigues of others. With the promise of riches, power, and even the love of a king, Louise creates her own destiny in a dance of intrigue between two monarchs-and two countries....

London: 1673. With her family ruined by war, penniless thirteen-year-old Sarah Jennings is overjoyed to be chosen as a maid of honor at the bawdy Restoration court of Charles II. Her beauty stirs the desires of the jaded aristocrats, but Sarah wants a grander future for herself than that of a pampered mistress. As allies, she chooses John Churchill, a military hero whose ambition and passions match her own, and befriends the Lady Anne of York, a lonely royal princess who comes to trust Sarah over all others.

But Whitehall Palace is ripe with ever-shifting alliances and sexual scandal, and Sarah will need all her cleverness to succeed. Titles, power, and wealth are the prizes, while an idle whisper in the wrong ear can bring a cry of treason, and the executioner's axe. Will Sarah's loyalties -- and her dreams -- falter when a king is toppled from his throne, and a new queen crowned? And will she dare risk everything when her one true love is tested by a passionate, dangerous obsession?

Brimming with the intrigue and sensuality of one of history's most decadent courts, DUCHESS brings to vivid life the story of an unforgettable woman who determines her own destiny -- outspoken, outrageous, but most of all true to herself and her heart....