Tanzanite's Castle Full of Books

Here are some more upcoming releases to make your credit card cry:


Margaret Beaufort: Mother of the Tudor Dynasty by Elizabeth Norton. Non-fiction. UK release September 1, 2010. Divorced at ten, a mother at thirteen & three times a widow. The extraordinary true story of the 'Red Queen', Lady Margaret Beaufort, matriarch of the Tudors. Born in the midst of the Wars of the Roses, Margaret Beaufort became the greatest heiress of her time. She survived a turbulent life, marrying four times and enduring imprisonment before passing her claim to the crown of England to her son, Henry VII, the first of the Tudor monarchs. Margaret's royal blood placed her on the fringes of the Lancastrian royal dynasty. After divorcing her first husband at the age of ten, she married the king's half-brother, Edmund Tudor, becoming a widow and bearing her only child, the future Henry VII, before her fourteenth birthday. Margaret was always passionately devoted to the interests of her son who claimed the throne through her. She embroiled herself in both treason and conspiracy as she sought to promote his claims, allying herself with the Yorkist Queen, Elizabeth Woodville, in an attempt to depose Richard III. She was imprisoned by Richard and her lands confiscated, but she continued to work on her son's behalf, ultimately persuading her fourth husband, the powerful Lord Stanley, to abandon the king in favour of Henry on the eve of the decisive Battle of Bosworth. It was Lord Stanley himself who placed the crown on Henry's head on the battlefield. Henry VII gave his mother unparalleled prominence during his reign. She established herself as an independent woman and ended her life as regent of England, ruling on behalf of her seventeen-year-old grandson, Henry VIII.




A Royal Likeness by Christine Trent. US and UK release December 28, 2010. As heiress to the famous Laurent Fashion Dolls business, Marguerite Ashby’s future seems secure. But France still seethes with violence in the wake of the Revolution. And when Marguerite’s husband is killed during a riot, the young widow travels to Edinburgh and becomes apprentice to her old friend, Marie Tussaud, who has established a wax exhibition. When Prime Minister William Pitt commissions a wax figure of Admiral Nelson, Marguerite becomes immersed in a dangerous adventure—and earns the admiration of two very different men. And as Britain battles to overthrow Napoleon, Marguerite will find her loyalties under fire from all sides. With a masterful eye for details, Christine Trent brings one of history’s most fascinating eras to life in of a story of desire, ambition, treachery, and courage.




Pale Rose of England by Sandra Worth. US and UK release February 1, 2011.
A prince without a kingdom. A king resolved to keep his crown. The princess they both love. Award-winning author Sandra Worth takes a fresh look at the mystery of Prince Richard of England, one of the two little princes who vanished in the Tower of London, and his famous love affair with Lady Catherine Gordon, princess of Scotland.
It is 1497. The news of the survival of Richard Plantagenet, Duke of York, has thundered across Europe, setting royal houses ablaze with intrigue and rocking the fledgling Tudor dynasty. Stepping finally onto English soil, Catherine arrives at the island of Saint Michael’s Mount, along with her husband and young son Dickon, their second child already on the way. With the keen support of Scotland’s King James IV, Richard—known in England as Perkin Warbeck—has come to reclaim his rightful crown from Henry Tudor. Based on a prophecy given Catherine by a seer that she would be loved by a king, she has no doubt Richard will succeed in his quest. But rather than assuming the throne she believed was their destiny, Catherine would soon be prisoner of King Henry VII, and her beloved husband would, unimaginably, be stamped as an imposter.
Nothing could shake Catherine’s belief in Richard and her loyalty to the man she loved. She became a favored lady-in-waiting to the queen, Elizabeth of York, but her dazzling beauty only brought her unwanted affections from a jealous king and enmeshed her in a terrifying royal love triangle. With her husband facing execution for treason, Catherine, alone in the glittering but deadly Tudor Court, found the courage to spurn a cruel monarch and shape her own destiny, winning the admiration of a nation.




To Serve a King by Donna Russo Morin. US release February 2011.
Genevieve Gravois has always known one fact above all: Francis I, King of France, is her enemy. Since her parents’ deaths, Genevieve has been schooled in things no woman should know: how to decipher codes, how to use a dagger, and how to kill. For Henry VIII has a destiny in mind for Genevieve—as his most dangerous spy. When the time is ripe, Genevieve enters the French court, where she becomes maid of honor to Anne de Pisseleau, Francis’s mistress. Yet neither the court—which teems with artistry and enlightenment as well as intrigue—nor Francis himself are what Genevieve expected.
And with the fate of two kingdoms at stake, she must make deadly decisions about where her ultimate loyalties lie.




Scandalous Women by Elizabeth Kerri Mahon. Non-fiction. US release March 1, 2011.
From the ancient world to present day, women have defied the rules, flouted convention, beaten the odds, caused wars, and have been the stuff of lust, betrayal, temptation, intrigue, and endless fascination. This book takes a look at the tumultuous lives of some of the most scandalous women of all—from queens and criminals to actresses and activists, from women who helped build empires to those who burned them to the ground. Examples include:
• Emilie du Chatelet (1706-1748), a mathematician,
physicist, and author who fell in love with Voltaire,
and whose work energized the school of theoretical
physics in France
• Margaret Tobin Brown (1867-1932), who outraged
Denver society with her outspoken opinions before
becoming a legend as the “Unsinkable Molly Brown”
due to her heroics on the Titanic
• Gertrude Bell (1868-1926), the “female Lawrence
of Arabia,” who was one of the architects of the
modern nation of Iraq



Where Shadows Dance by C.S. Harris.  US release March 1, 2011. 
The 6th in a series set in 1812 London. Sebastian St. Cyr finds himself in the realm of international intrigue when he investigates the murder of a foreign office diplomat—a murder his reluctant bride-to-be, Hero Jarvis, knows something about. And when a second body is found, Sebastian must race to unmask a ruthless killer who is now threatening Hero’s life—and the life of their unborn child.













England’s Queens: The Biography by Elizabeth Norton. Non-fiction. UK release September 1, 2010. Her story not his, the English monarchy through the private and public lives of the queens of England. Nearly eighty women have sat on the throne of England, either as queen regnant or queen consort and the voices of all of them survive through their own writings and those of their contemporaries. The primary role of the queen over the ages was to provide an heir. Catherine of Aragon found this to her cost, divorced by Henry VIII for failing to produce a healthy son. Anne Boleyn was executed shortly afterwards for the same reason. The birth of an heir was also a route to power for a queen and Eleanor of Aquitaine became the most powerful woman in Europe during the reigns of her sons. Emma of Normandy was so desperate to be queen mother that she manipulated her three sons in an attempt to ensure that one would be king. One was murdered when he attempted to reach his mother but her remaining two sons became kings in turn with their mother as a leading advisor. Strong relationships could also develop between the queens and their husbands. Richard II and Anne of Bohemia made an arranged marriage but quickly fell deeply in love and, on Anne's death at Sheen Palace, Richard's grief was so intense that he ordered the palace to be destroyed. Edward VIII even abandoned his throne when forced to choose between the crown and his lover, Wallis Simpson. Not all marriages were happy and queens such as Isabella of France and Catherine Howard took lovers to escape their marriages. The unhappy Sophia Dorothea of Celle was imprisoned for over thirty years by her husband George I when her affair was discovered. Her lover, Count von Konigsmarck was murdered. Most queens made arranged marriages and were used by their families to build alliances. Some queens were able to break away from this control. Queen Victoria spent her childhood secluded with her overprotective mother, even sharing the same bedroom until the day when she was proclaimed queen and finally freed herself from her mother's control. For the first time, the voice of each individual queen can be heard together, charting the course of English queenship through nearly two thousand years of history. Each queen played her own part in shaping what the role of queen would become and it developed through the lives and actions of each of the women in turn.


The Tudor Secret by CW Gortner. UK release January 6, 2011. (Reissue of The Secret Lion)
Summer 1553: A time of danger and deceit. Brendan Prescott, an orphan, is reared in the household of the powerful Dudley family. Brought to court, Brendan finds himself sent on an illicit mission to the King’s brilliant but enigmatic sister, Princess Elizabeth. But Brendan is soon compelled to work as a double agent by Elizabeth’s protector, William Cecil—who promises in exchange to help him unravel the secret of his own mysterious past. A dark plot swirls around Elizabeth's quest to unravel the truth about the ominous disappearance of her seriously ill brother, King Edward VI. With only a bold stable boy and audacious lady-in-waiting at his side, Brendan plunges into a ruthless gambit of half-truths, lies, and murder. Filled with the intrigue and pageantry of Tudor England, THE TUDOR SECRET is the first book in the Elizabeth's Spymaster series.