Unforgettable Books
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I, Medusa
From New York Times bestselling author Ayana Gray comes a new kind of villain origin story, reimagining one of the most iconic monsters in Greek mythology as a provocative and powerful young heroine. The first edition hardcover will feature stunning sprayed edges, a premium dust jacket with foil, and a gorgeous custom-stamped case--while supplies last! "Ayana Gray brings her fresh, dynamic storytelling to one of the most monstered, maligned, and misunderstood women of Greek myth, imagining all the girls that Medusa was and could have been."--Jennifer Saint, bestselling author of Ariadne Meddy has spent her whole life as a footnote in someone else's story. Out of place next to her beautiful, immortal sisters and her parents--both gods, albeit minor ones--she dreams of leaving her family's island for a life of adventure. So when she catches the eye of the goddess Athena, who invites her to train as an esteemed priestess in her temple, Meddy leaps at the chance to see the world beyond her home. In the colorful market streets of Athens and the clandestine chambers of the temple, Meddy flourishes in her role as Athena's favored acolyte, getting her first tastes of purpose and power. But when she is noticed by another Olympian, Poseidon, the course of Meddy's promising future is suddenly and irrevocably altered. When her locs are transformed into snakes as punishment for a crime she did not commit, Medusa must embrace a new identity--not as a victim, but as a vigilante--and with it, the chance to write her own story as mortal, martyr, and myth. Exploding with rage, heartbreak, and love, I, Medusa portrays a young woman caught in the crosscurrents between her heart's deepest desires and the cruel, careless games the Olympian gods play.
$35.00 $30.00
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Babylonia
DELUXE HARDCOVER EDITION--featuring stunning printed edges, luxe gold foil, and full color endpapers giving you a peek into the gripping world of Ancient Assyria!From the author of the bestselling Clytemnestra comes another intoxicating excursion into ancient history, painting the brutal and captivating empire of gods and men, and the one queen destined to rule them all.A common woman. The governor she married. The king who loved them both.Babylonia across the centuries has become the embodiment of lust, excess, and dissolute power that ruled Ancient Assyria. In this world you had to kill to be king. Or, in the case of Semiramis, an orphan raised on the outskirts of an empire: Queen.Nothing about Semiramis's upbringing could have foretold her legacy. But when she meets a young representative of the new Assyrian king, a prophecy unfolds before her, one that puts her in the center of a brutal world and in the hearts of two men - one who happens to be king.Now a risen lady in a court of vipers, Semiramis becomes caught in the politics and viciousness of ancient Assyria. Instead of bartering with fate, Semiramis trains in war and diplomacy. And with each move, she rises in rank, embroiled in a game of power, desire, love, and betrayal, until she can ascend to the only position that will ever keep her safe.In her second novel, Costanza Casati brilliantly weaves myth and ancient history together to give Semiramis, the only female ruler of the Assyrian Empire, a voice, charting her captivating ascent to a throne no one promised her.
$32.99 $27.99
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Murder's Snare (Main -)
Friar-sleuth Brother Athelstan is caught in a politically charged race against time! He must uncover the truth behind numerous gruesome murders in this tense historical mystery set in medieval London. Normandy, 1358: The Free Company of the 'Via Crucis - the Way of the Cross' sweeps into the peaceful village of Avranches, like the riders from the Apocalypse, leaving nothing but death and hellish destruction in their wake. London, 1382: Brother Athelstan is summoned to unpick the ugly truth behind a number of killings afflicting the great city. Some carried out like clean, efficient assassinations, all bearing the message 'Justitia Fiat - let there be justice', others inflicting torture and humiliation upon the bodies. But the victims all have one thing in common - they were all once members of Via Crucis. With every new gruesome discovery, Brother Athelstan, with the help of Coroner Cranston, uncovers more clues which make up a most complicated riddle - but can he put together the last piece before the fate of the whole country is decided? A skilfully plotted and researched medieval mystery which will appeal to fans of C.J. SANSOM
$43.99 $38.99
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Rebels in Pisa
Rumors of insurrection in Renaissance Pisa spur Florentine authorities to send young lawyer Nico Argenti to investigate. He and his team uncover more than expected: smuggling, abduction, and murder.Renaissance Italy 1465: After six decades of domination by Florence, agitators in Pisa are taking action. They remember the past when Pisa was an independent State and they are impatient to regain that freedom. Rumors of an impending insurrection reach officials in Florence who dispatch Nico Argenti and his team to find and stop the troublemakers before they resort to violence.Nico and his colleagues conceal their identities as Florentine Security Commissioners to gain the confidence of Pisan loyalists. The ploy lets them unearth clues, some valuable and some red herrings, that point to the rebel leader, but it also sets Nico as a target. The hunt turns urgent when the rebels show their resolve by abducting the provincial governor. Nico's team intensify their efforts to discover the source of the rebels' weapons which, surprisingly, leads them back to Florence. In Florence's highest court, Nico uses his legal skills to bring the traitorous arms dealer to justice.Fast-paced Rebels in Pisa is the fifth book in the award winning Nico Argenti series. It may be read standalone.
$36.99 $31.99
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Last Mona Lisa
ONE OF PEOPLE MAGAZINE'S BEST BOOKS OF SUMMER!"Unstoppable what-happens-next momentum."--Michael Connelly, #1 New York Times bestselling author"A deliciously tense read."--Ruth Ware, #1 New York Times bestselling authorFrom award-winning crime writer and celebrated artist Jonathan Santlofer comes an enthralling tale about the 1911 theft of the Mona Lisa from the Louvre, the forgeries that appeared in its wake, and the present-day underbelly of the art world.August, 1911: The Mona Lisa is stolen by Vincent Peruggia. Exactly what happens in the two years before its recovery is a mystery. Many replicas of the Mona Lisa exist, and more than one historian has wondered if the painting now returned to the Louvre is a fake, switched in 1911.Present day: Art professor Luke Perrone digs for the truth behind his most famous ancestor: Peruggia. His search attracts an Interpol detective with something to prove and an unfamiliar but curiously helpful woman. Soon, Luke tumbles deep into the world of art and forgery, a land of obsession and danger.The Last Mona Lisa is a suspenseful and seductive tale, perfect for fans of the Netflix documentaries This Is A Robbery and Made You Look and readers obsessed with the world of art heists and forgeries.
$32.99 $27.99
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Chrysanthemum Tiger (Main -)
Physician-sleuth Dr Gabriel Taverner has to face his greatest challenge yet - a serious danger from the East threatens not just his life, but everyone he loves! All aboard this adventurous historical mystery set in the early seventeenth century. March, 1605. Country doctor and former ship's surgeon Gabriel Taverner has embarked on his next adventure. Since discovering that the debilitating injury he sustained years ago has lost its power to induce chronic seasickness, he has been impatient to leave Devon once more, and now it is in the service of Walter Haverleigh, a wealthy and successful merchant, who has engaged Gabriel to tend the crew of the Luipaard on her voyage to the Eastern seas. As the months and years of Gabriel's absence continue, his family and friends are struggling with the replacement physician he engaged before his hasty departure. Doctor Maudsley Cheverell has turned out to be incompetent, arrogant and self-serving. When one morning his dead body is found in a ditch, it seems that nobody will mourn him or regret his untimely death. However, when the body is examined, it is apparent that Cheverell was tortured by the application of a specific method from the East . . . Is there a connection to Gabriel and his time in Asia? And where is Gabriel? Why has the quiet peace of England's Tavy Valley been disrupted by a sinister plot and, most crucially, will everyone come out of it alive?
$43.99 $38.99
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Fair Rosaline
The most exciting historical retelling of 2023: a subversive, powerful untelling of Romeo and Juliet by New York Times bestselling author Natasha Solomons Was the greatest ever love story a lie? The first time Romeo Montague sees young Rosaline Capulet he falls instantly in love. Rosaline, headstrong and independent, is unsure of Romeo's attentions but with her father determined that she join a convent, this handsome and charming stranger offers her the chance of a different life. Soon though, Rosaline begins to doubt all that Romeo has told her. She breaks off the match, only for Romeo's gaze to turn towards her cousin, thirteen-year-old Juliet. Gradually Rosaline realizes that it is not only Juliet's reputation at stake, but her life .With only hours remaining before she will be banished behind the nunnery walls, will Rosaline save Juliet from her Romeo? Or can this story only ever end one way? Shattering everything we thought we knew about Romeo and Juliet, Fair Rosaline is the spellbinding prequel to Shakespeare's best known tale, which exposes Romeo as a predator with a long history of pursuing much younger girls. Bold, lyrical, and chillingly relevant, Fair Rosaline reveals the dark subtext of the timeless story of star-crossed lovers: it's a feminist revision that will enthrall readers of bestselling literary retellings such as Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell and Hester by Laurie Lico Albanese. "Irresistible. An excellent spin on a timeless classic." --Jennifer Saint, Sunday Times bestselling author of Ariadne "I have not been able to stop thinking about this book . . . Fair Rosaline is a gripping, spellbinding and wonderfully immersive book--and one that truly makes you think. I would be very surprised if everyone is not talking about it.." --Elodie Harper, Sunday Times bestselling author of The Wolf Den "A brilliant, feminist re-imagining of Romeo and Juliet, Fair Rosaline is a gorgeously written version of Verona from Juliet's cousin, Rosaline's, point of view. What does Romeo truly look like through the eyes of a woman on the periphery of the original story? Natasha Solomons skillfully shows us another version of the star-crossed lovers--and the Romeo--we all think we know. I absolutely devoured this thought-provoking, female-centric take on Shakespeare." --Jillian Cantor, USA Today bestselling author of Beautiful Little Fools
$32.99 $27.99
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Shakespeare Secret
Shakespeare is a woman--three women, in fact, who hire a footloose actor as the face of their writing. When they become suspects in a plot to kill Queen Elizabeth, their secret identity is suddenly at risk--along with the queen's life--in this imaginative historical novel for fans of Hamnet and The Tower. Everyone knows of William Shakespeare, the rakish former actor and famous playwright. But few know the three women writing every word of his plays: Mary Herbert, Countess of Pembroke, a frustrated poet; Emelia Bassano, a court musician with a passion for complex stories; and Jane Daggett, a seamstress with an impressive ability to spin fantastic plots. Frustrated by the patriarchal restrictions of their sixteenth-century society, they come together to write anonymously. Soon the three women come under the scrutiny of one of the Queen's spies, who notices their surreptitious meetings and odd behavior and suspects they are involved in an ongoing plot to kill the Queen. To help guard their secret as they face inquisition, they hire an actor named Will Shakespeare to be the face of their endeavor and divert attention. As the plague deepens its grip on London and the Queen's man traces their every move, the women are forced to choose between admitting what they've done and betraying each other to the Crown or hiding the truth at risk of endangering the Queen herself. The Shakespeare Secret is a thrilling feminist tale of perseverance, justice, and freedom where friendship and trust are put to the test, for fans of Tracy Chevalier and Charlie Lovett.
$34.99 $29.99
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Marriage Portrait: Reese's Book Club
WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION FINALIST - REESE'S BOOK CLUB PICK - NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER - The author of award-winning Hamnet brings the world of Renaissance Italy to jewel-bright life in this unforgettable fictional portrait of the captivating young duchess Lucrezia de' Medici as she makes her way in a troubled court. "I could not stop reading this incredible true story." --Reese Witherspoon (Reese's Book Club Pick) "O'Farrell pulls out little threads of historical detail to weave this story of a precocious girl sensitive to the contradictions of her station...You may know the history, and you may think you know what's coming, but don't be so sure." --The Washington Post Florence, the 1550s. Lucrezia, third daughter of the grand duke, is comfortable with her obscure place in the palazzo: free to wonder at its treasures, observe its clandestine workings, and devote herself to her own artistic pursuits. But when her older sister dies on the eve of her wedding to the ruler of Ferrara, Modena and Reggio, Lucrezia is thrust unwittingly into the limelight: the duke is quick to request her hand in marriage, and her father just as quick to accept on her behalf. Having barely left girlhood behind, Lucrezia must now enter an unfamiliar court whose customs are opaque and where her arrival is not universally welcomed. Perhaps most mystifying of all is her new husband himself, Alfonso. Is he the playful sophisticate he appeared to be before their wedding, the aesthete happiest in the company of artists and musicians, or the ruthless politician before whom even his formidable sisters seem to tremble? As Lucrezia sits in constricting finery for a painting intended to preserve her image for centuries to come, one thing becomes worryingly clear. In the court's eyes, she has one duty: to provide the heir who will shore up the future of the Ferranese dynasty. Until then, for all of her rank and nobility, the new duchess's future hangs entirely in the balance. Full of the beauty and emotion with which she illuminated the Shakespearean canvas of Hamnet, Maggie O'Farrell turns her talents to Renaissance Italy in an extraordinary portrait of a resilient young woman's battle for her very survival.
$22.00 $17.00
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War Nurse
"Any readers who enjoyed the mix of romance, intrigue, and medical accuracy of Call the Midwife will love The War Nurse."--New York Journal of Books"[An] impeccably researched, well-drawn, based-on-a-true-story tale, written by a former RN...The War Nurse shines an important light on a woman whose story was, until now, lost to time."--Kristin Harmel, New York Times bestselling author of The Book of Lost NamesBased on a true story, The War Nurse is a sweeping historical novel by USA Today bestselling author Tracey Enerson Wood that takes readers on an unforgettable journey through WWI France.She asked dozens of young women to lay their lives on the line during the Great War. Can she protect them?Superintendent of Nurses Julia Stimson must recruit sixty-four nurses to relieve the battle-worn British, months before American troops are ready to be deployed. She knows that the young nurses serving near the front lines will face a challenging situation, but nothing could have prepared her for the chaos that awaits when they arrive at British Base Hospital 12 in Rouen, France. The primitive conditions, a convoluted, ineffective system, and horrific battle wounds are enough to discourage the most hardened nurses, and Julia can do nothing but lead by example--even as the military doctors undermine her authority and make her question her very place in the hospital tent.When trainloads of soldiers stricken by a mysterious respiratory illness arrive one after the other, overwhelming the hospital's limited resources, and threatening the health of her staff, Julia faces an unthinkable choice--to step outside the bounds of her profession and risk the career she has fought so hard for, or to watch the people she cares for most die in her arms.Fans of Martha Hall Kelly's Lost Roses and Marie Benedict's Lady Clementine will devour this mesmerizing celebration of some of the most overlooked heroes in history: the fierce, determined, and brave nurses who treated soldiers in World War I.Praise for The War Nurse: "Through careful research, this book shows the incredible bravery and compassion of women who find themselves in extraordinary situations."--Julia Kelly, international bestselling author of The Last Garden in England and The Light Over London"A rich, gripping history of one woman's lifelong battle against systemic prejudice."--Stewart O'Nan, award-winning author of The Good Wife"Once again, Tracey Enerson Wood, with her impeccable research and evocative prose, kept me glued to the page. Wood has a talent for bringing strong, yet lesser-known women from history, to life."--Linda Rosen, author of The Disharmony of Silence"A riveting and surprisingly timely story of courage, sacrifice, and friendship forged at the front lines."--Kelly Mustian, author of The Girls in the Stilt House"If you, like me, are a voyeur of historical drama that unfolds as if the kitchen window flew open and the characters were caught in action, then The War Nurse is for you."--Diane Dewey, author of Fixing the Fates"Fans of Patricia Harman will love Wood's treatment of medical expertise in a historical setting."--Booklist
$31.99 $26.99
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President's Wife
"A vivid portrait of a woman whose remarkable role and achievements in history have largely been relegated to the shadows... A fascinating read!" --Kristina McMorris, New York Times bestselling author of Sold on a Monday and The Ways We Hide From the USA Today bestselling author of The Engineer's Wife comes an incredible historical novel about the First Lady who clandestinely assumed the presidency. Socialite Edith Bolling has been in no hurry to find a new husband since she was widowed, preferring to fill her days with good friends and travel. But the enchanting courting of President Woodrow Wilson wins Edith over and she becomes the First Lady of the United States. The position is uncomfortable for the fiercely independent Edith, but she's determined to rise to the challenges of her new marriage--from the bloodthirsty press to the shadows of the first World War. Warming to her new role, Edith is soon indispensable to her husband's presidency. She replaces the staff that Woodrow finds distracting, and discusses policy with him daily. Throughout the war, she encrypts top- secret messages and despite lacking formal education becomes an important adviser. When peace talks begin in Europe, she attends at Woodrow's side. But just as the critical fight to ratify the treaty to end the war and create a League of Nations in order to prevent another, Woodrow's always-delicate health takes a dramatic turn for the worse. In her determination to preserve both his progress and his reputation, Edith all but assumes the presidency herself. Now, Edith must contend with the demands of a tumultuous country, the secrets of Woodrow's true condition, and the potentially devastating consequences of her failure. At once sweeping and intimate, The President's Wife is an astonishing portrait of a courageous First Lady and the sacrifices she made to protect her husband and her country at all costs.
$32.99 $27.99
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Animals of the Alpine Front
From a remote village between Italy and the Austro-Hungarian Empire unrolls the intimate story of Teresa and Carlo, two young people whose paths cross and recross as they are first impelled by parents, then forced by sweeping world events to leave their childhood homes for lives they never imagined. Having left her mother and cherished dog Allucio, in Ulfano, Teresa works as a domestic servant in a large villa in Trento. She survives the Great War in the occupied city by banding together in a makeshift family with the other servants of the owners who have fled to escape the occupation. Carlo, an American still new to Italy and who speaks barely passable Italian, is just finding his footing in Trento when he's dragged from bed at his boarding school, along with his classmates, and conscripted by the invading Austrian army. In a comical twist of fate, Carlo's childhood near the Colorado gold mines motivates his captors to place him with a company of miners tasked with digging entrenchments and bunkers and building a massive fortress out of stone and ice, even as blizzards rage and artillery shells fall from the sky. Out of sheer loneliness, Carlo writes letters to Teresa, the girl he met only once in Trento. After the war, Carlo returns to Trento and reconnects with Teresa. Times are unsettled, as soldiers and those who fled the war flood back to the city and signs of the impending Influenza epidemic appear. With so much chaos, tradition gives way to new ideas, so neither worries about the consequences of their growing attachment. However, the same independence that has them dreaming of a future that didn't exist when they were children, may pull them apart forever.
$33.00 $28.00
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