Historical Fiction Renaissance

"No one wanted you. But I did." Kat's true identity is a secret, even from her. All she has ever known are Grace and Anna and their small village. Kat wants more - more than hours spent embroidering finery for wealthy ladies and more than Christian, the gentle young farmer courting her. But there are wolves outside, Grace warns. Waiting, with their eyes glowing in the dark... nd Grace has given Kat safety and a home when no one else would.

Florenz, 1557: Lucrezia de' Medici ist gerade einmal zwölf Jahre alt, als ihr Vater sie per Brief mit Alfonso II. d'Este verlobt. Eigentlich war ihre ältere Schwester Maria dem Herzog von Ferrara versprochen, doch als diese überraschend verstirbt, tritt Lucrezia an ihre Stelle. Und wider Erwarten eröffnet sich der jungen Herzogin in Ferrara eine neue Welt: Plötzlich darf sie, die ihrer Familie immer als zu eigensinnig, zu störrisch und sensibel galt, selbst entscheiden, ob sie durch die Gärten flanieren oder sich ihrer geliebten Staffelei zuwenden will.

England, May 1536. Anne Boleyn is dead, decapitated in the space of a heartbeat by a hired French executioner. As her remains are bundled into oblivion, Thomas Cromwell breakfasts with the victors. Cromwell is a man with only his wits to rely on; he has no great family to back him, no private army. Despite rebellion at home, traitors plotting abroad and the threat of invasion testing Henry’s regime to breaking point, Cromwell’s robust imagination sees a new country in the mirror of the future.

Spanning 2,000 years, The Everlasting follows four characters whose struggles resonate across the centuries: an early Christian child martyr; a medieval monk on crypt duty in a church; a Medici princess of Moorish descent; and a contemporary field biologist conducting an illicit affair. Outsiders to a city layered and dense with history, this quartet separated by time grapple with the physicality of bodies, the necessity for sacrifice, and the power of love to sustain and challenge faith.

March 1557. Jack Blackjack is back in London and enjoying a sedentary life. After his treacherous voyage back to his beloved city the previous year, he desires nothing more than women, wine, beer and more women. But his new parish of St Helen's has different ideas for him. A week after first laying eyes on the tempting Miss Rachel Nailor, she turns up dead on the church vestry floor...and someone is trying to frame him for her murder! Rachel was a woman with many secrets. But was she murdered in a fit of lustful rage, or was it part of a wider political play?

Penguin presents the unabridged, downloadable audiobook edition of Sisters of Treason by Elizabeth Fremantle. Lady Jane Grey has just been executed by her cousin Mary Tudor and her two younger sisters, Mary and Catherine, live in the shadow of their sister's tragic demise. Lady Catherine's fatal flaw is her compulsive desire for love, while clever Lady Mary is burdened with a crooked spine and tiny stature - and both have inherited the curse of royal blood.

Leonardo watched helplessly as his artistic and engineering achievements were demolished by the invading armies. Exhausted and despondent, the artist abandons his workshop in Milan. But where will he go? Everything was left behind in his escape and he is now without funds. An artist need a patron to survive. An invitation to paint a portrait of Isabella d’Este is welcome but, Leonardo suspects an ulterior motive. If he is right. . . accepting could prove dangerous. Leonardo and Niccolo arrive at a lavish palace in chaos. Spies are everywhere attempting to discover how and why a valuable ...

En Ébano, Alberto Vázquez-Figueroa nos lleva de la mano por la odisea de un fotógrafo europeo para recuperar a su esposa, una deportista africana que resulta raptada durante su viaje de novios. Durante el viaje para rescatar a su mujer y evitar que sea vendida como esclava a un poderoso jeque árabe, nuestro protagonista se enfrentará a multitud de peligros, a la intemperie del desierto y a la inclemencia del continente africano.

Frances Howard has beauty and a powerful family - and is the most unhappy creature in the world. Anne Turner has wit and talent - but no stage on which to display them. Little stands between her and the abyss of destitution. When these two very different women meet in the strangest of circumstances, a powerful friendship is sparked.

12 quests. 12 relics. And a race to save the fate of the world. Travel deeper into the mysterious world of the Copernicus Legacy with the Copernicus Archives: exciting, series-companion novellas that get you close to the characters and the heart of the adventure. The first installment - Wade and the Scorpion's Claw - picks up right where book one left off, with the Kaplan family seeking the next Copernicus relic.

Palermo 1632: Giulia is thirteen years old when she learns her mother Teofania's greatest secret. Her mother knows how to brew an undetectable lethal poison, which she uses to free the broken and abused women of Palermo. Now Teofania wants to pass her recipe on to her daughter, and Giulia soon learns that, in a time when women have no voice, justice is sometimes best served in a cup of wine. Rome, 1659: Years later, Giulia ends up alone and poor in Rome. Within the alleys and shadows of the Eternal City, she forms her own circle of female poisoners.

A naive young woman at the mercy of her ambitious family. At just 19, Katheryn Howard is quick to trust and fall in love. She comes to court. She sings, she dances. She captures the heart of the king. Henry declares she is his rose without a thorn. But Katheryn has a past of which he knows nothing. It comes back increasingly to haunt her. For those who share her secrets are waiting in the shadows, whispering words of love...and blackmail.

King Henry V's beautiful widow, Catherine, is determined to marry Owen Tudor, a Welsh gentleman-at-arms. But her life decisions are not her own, overshadowed as she is by more powerful men who are closer to the Throne. The Duke of Bedford would marry her off to a foreign prince, Henry Beaufort would give his allegiance in exchange for a Cardinal's hat, and the handsome Duke of Gloucester, brother of the dead king, openly desires her. Added to that, her son, the King, is a weak child. She must use all her wits and courage if she is to forge a new life for herself.

Rome, 1659. Months after the plague has ravaged Rome, men are still dying in unnatural numbers, and rumour has it that their corpses do not decay as they should. The Papal authorities commission prosecutor Stefano Bracchi to investigate, telling him he will need considerable mettle to reach the truth. To the west of the Tiber, Girolama and her female friends are at work, helping other women with childbirths and foretelling their futures. Elsewhere in the city, a young wife, Anna, must find a way to escape her abusive husband. But in a city made by men for men, there are no easy paths out.

In a chamber overlooking the nighttime waterways of a maritime city, a man looks back on his youth and the people who shaped his life. Danio Cerra's intelligence won him entry to a renowned school even though he was only the son of a tailor. He took service at the court of a ruling count - and soon learned why that man was known as the Beast.

England, 1613. At the dazzling but brutal court of King James I, politician and philosopher Francis Bacon, the cleverest person in England, the inventor of the modern world, has a fight to survive. A life-threatening alliance of his enemies has formed around the king's exquisite but noxious lover, Carr. Bacon, always the outsider and the plotter, goes to his friend, James' neglected queen, and together they come up with a plan.

The running wolf inscription told the world that a Solingen blade was at its throat. When a German smuggler is imprisoned in Morpeth Gaol in the winter of 1703, why does Queen Anne's powerful right-hand man, the Earl of Nottingham, take such a keen interest? At the end of the turbulent 17th century, the ties that bind men are fraying, turning neighbour against neighbour, friend against friend and brother against brother.

The year is 1501. Michelangelo has created his Roman pieta, and yet patrons are not lining up at his door to hire him for more commissions. Reluctantly, he agrees to take on a project for Cardinal Piccolomini - a commission which will try the patience of both patron and artist. Before the year is out, Michelangelo hears the rumors that the Florentine City Fathers are looking for a sculptor to finish the colossal David that had been been begun four decades before. Will they give the task to Michelangelo, or his arch rival, Leonardo the Florentine?

A young boy grows up dreaming of knights and chivalry. Harry is the second son. He is never meant to rule. But the death of his brother changes everything, and great destiny awaits this young prince. One day he will be the most infamous king in English history. Henry VIII. His story.

"Ich, die Königin" von Susan Hastings ist nicht nur ein historischer Roman - es ist eine Zeitreise ins Kastilien von 1464, ein Land geplagt von Unordnung und Ungerechtigkeit. In dieser raue Welt, wo Reisende und Kaufleute der Gnadenlosigkeit von Räuberscharen ausgeliefert sind und Adel und Klerus sich unerbittlich an der armen Bevölkerung bereichern, erscheint die Lage düster und verzweifelt. Aber aus dem Schatten tritt Isabella hervor, die Schwester des unauffälligen Königs Enrique. Mit ihrer eisernen Entschlossenheit und scharfen Intelligenz trotzt sie den Gezeiten und bringt Veränderung.