by Benjamin Black

During a secret meeting in Dublin, arrangements are made: King George's two young daughters need to be kept safe during the Blitz, and remote Ireland seems the perfect place. The result is a series of domestic and professional frictions of nationality, class, religion, and gender. 

by Georgie Blalock

The Honourable Vera Strathmore is unmarried, which is about the only thing she has in common with the fabulous Princess Margaret. But Vera's secret life as romance writer Rose Lavish intrigues the princess, and soon Vera is part of the infamous Set, staying up late nightclubbing instead of writing.

by Rebecca Dean

Born into a poor southern family but taken in by rich relatives, Wallis Simpson was raised as an American socialite. Between family conflicts and debutante balls, she and her friends dream of their future husbands, and like millions of girls worldwide, dream of Prince Edward, the heir to the British throne who would someday be king.

 

by Sarah Dunant

A tale inspired by the lives of Borgia siblings Lucretia and Cesare traces the family's rise in the aftermath of Rodrigo Borgia's rise to the papacy, during which war, a terrifying sexual plague, and the family's notorious reputation forge an intimate bond between brother and sister.

by Danielle Dutton

Margaret Cavendish was a 17th-century English duchess who wrote and published extensively under her own name and with the support of her husband, both a rarity for the time. 

by Philippa Gregory

United in sisterhood by birth and marriage, Katherine of Aragon, Queen of England; Margaret Tudor, Queen of Scots; and Mary Tudor, Queen of France immediately recognize each other as both allies and rivals in the treacherous world of court and national politics.

by Elizabeth Chadwick

Thirteen-year-old Eleanor of Aquitaine is forced into a marriage she does not want, and when a death thrusts her into the role of queen, she faces scandal, forbidden love, and the complexities of the ruthless French court at every turn.

by Stella Duffy

Theodora was trained as a dancer, singer, and actress who performed on the stage and in the bedrooms of anyone who could afford her, from the time she was a child. Her skills as a comedic orator endeared her to both rich and poor, noble and common, so much so that she was exhausted by the time she was 16 years old.

by Suzannah Dunn

When Jane Seymour is sent away to serve Katharine of Aragon, she is forced to witness another wife being put aside, with terrible consequences.  Changed forever by what happened to Katherine Filliol, Jane comes to understand that, in a world where power is held entirely by men, there is a way in which she can still hold true to herself.

by Daisy Goodwin

Early one morning, less than a month after her eighteenth birthday, Alexandrina Victoria is roused from bed with the news that her uncle William IV has died and she is now Queen of England. The men who run the country have doubts about whether this sheltered young woman, who stands less than five feet tall, can rule the greatest nation in the world.

by C. W Gortner

Minnie knows that her station in life as a Danish princess is to leave her family and enter into a royal marriage. She is brought to Russia, and marries the Romanov heir, Alexander. Once he ascends the throne, she becomes empress Maria.

by Tosca Moon Lee

With tensions ready to erupt within her own borders and the future of her nation at stake, the one woman who can match wits with Solomon undertakes the journey of a lifetime in a daring bid to test and win the king. But neither ruler has anticipated the clash of agendas, gods, and passion that threatens to ignite -- and ruin -- them both.

by Livi Michael
 

1445. King Henry VI is married by proxy to Margaret of Anjou. French, beautiful and unpopular, her marriage causes a national uproar.  At the same time, the infant Margaret Beaufort is made a great heiress and suddenly becomes the most important commodity in the nation. 

by Michelle Moran

The British government expected minimal resistance: India wasn't a country so much as an assortment of independent and frequently warring small kingdoms. But the ruler of one kingdom, Queen Lakshmi, led a surprise rebellion that showed the rest of India and the world that there were alternatives to lying down before the might of the British Empire.

by Beatriz Williams

When journalist Lulu Randolph arrives in Nassau in 1941 and gains the favor of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, she quickly learns that beneath the surface of the Windsors' court in this tropical paradise where the duke is serving as governor lies a quagmire of espionage, scurrilous financial dealings, and possible treason.