Ancient Women

Ireland, AD 671. It is the beginning of the summer season and the Kingdom of Muman is preparing to celebrate the Great Fair of Cashel. It is an extravagant nine days of contests, food, and endless entertainment. Circumstances have led Fidelma and Eadulf far and wide across the kingdom, and they have been absent from the Great Fair for many years. But for once they haven't been called away from Cashel, and are eager to enjoy the festivities - that is, until the last wagon in a group traveling to the fair catches on fire.

In this action-romance short story, dashing Greek gladiator Leonidas promises his true love he’ll buy her freedom if he wins his own in the Colosseum of Ancient Rome. First he must defeat an opponent he knows he cannot kill. The year is 83AD and it’s nine years since Roman soldiers killed a young Leonidas’s family in their farmhouse outside Athens and consigned him to the life of a gladiator at Ludus Magnus, one of the biggest and best ludi gladiatori, or gladiator schools, in Rome. Since then, he remains undefeated after twenty-five fights and has risen to the top of the gladiator ...

A group of foreign mercenaries hired as deniable assets by a newly-formed humanitarian division of the CIA is tasked with saving Mali’s persecuted Dogon people from genocide. The operation must be carried out in stealth while journeying across some of West Africa’s most hostile terrain. As if all that’s not enough, they are also instructed to help solve an ancient astronomical mystery linked to the pyramids of Egypt. Mission impossible? Duh! Nicknamed the Deniables because their existence isn’t officially acknowledged by the CIA, the mercenaries are crazy enough to accept the ...

Will her solitude cost her everything? For twenty years, Sophia has guarded the Lighthouse of Alexandria, alone in her task and in her heart. Her pain and loss keep her hidden and isolated, even as the elderly scholars she funds in the famed Library try to coax her into the world. But Julius Caesar and his Roman legions are bearing down on Cleopatra’s Egypt. And when a Roman centurion marches his troops into her lighthouse, endangering the city’s best scholars and their secret invention, Sophia’s peace is shattered. As the historic war erupts, tangling Sophia in its chaos, she finds ...

Set in France and England at the end of the twelfth century, the moving story of a spirited, questing young woman, Isabelle, who defies convention to forge a remarkable life, one profoundly influenced by the fabled queen she idolizes and comes to know – Eleanor of Aquitaine

In Rachel & Leah, Orson Scott Card paints vivid portraits of four celebrated women—Laban's daughters, Rachel and Leah; Bilhah, the orphaned servant; and Zilpah, an ambitious member of Laban's household. Into the desert camp comes Jacob, a handsome and charismatic kinsman who is clearly destined to be Rachel's husband. But that doesn't prevent the other woman from vying for his attention. Tracing their lives from childhood to maturity, Card shows how these women change in relationship to each other and how they are changed again by the holy books that Jacob brings with him.

When a daughter is born to the King of Arcadia, she brings only disappointment. Left exposed on a mountainside, the defenceless infant Atalanta is left to the mercy of a passing mother bear and raised alongside the cubs under the protective eye of the goddess Artemis. Swearing that she will prove her worth alongside the famed heroes of Greece, Atalanta leaves her forest to join Jason's band of Argonauts. But can she carve out her own place in the legends in a world made for men?

Queens of a Fallen World tells a story of betrayal, love, and ambition in the ancient world as seen through a woman's eyes. Historian Kate Cooper introduces us to four women whose hopes and plans collided in Augustine's early adulthood: his mother, Monnica of Thagaste; his lover; his fiancée; and Justina, the troubled empress of ancient Rome. Drawing upon their depictions in the Confessions, Cooper skilfully reconstructs their lives against the backdrop of their fourth-century society. Though they came from different walks of life, each found her own way of prevailing in a world ruled by men.

All I wanted to do was relax after being in battle. I didn’t realize I had time-traveled to an ancient enchanted forest, complete with a sexy Princess. A real-life damsel in distress. A sexy, HOT damsel, who is the picture of pure innocence. She’d lost her memory. I had to help her. My Angel instinct was to leave innocence alone and not defile that purity. But my libido was overcoming my willpower. I need to possess her. Magical beings in the forest don’t want us to succeed. They work with the witch who cast a spell on her. As our two worlds collide we must work together to overcome ...

Sorceress, Princess of Colchis, Securer of the Golden Fleece. Medea - her very name is a byword for infamy. Legend has it that she murdered her own children for revenge. But love in Ancient Greece was often a dangerous game; and legends are not always what they seem. Medea, devoted wife of Jason, was also a loving mother, a loyal friend of Herakles and a brave adventurer with the Argonauts. A woman both betrayer and betrayed, the real story of Medea is strange, sensual and heroic.

Two queens. One bloodline. A legacy of terror that nearly destroyed Israel. Queen Jezebel murdered God's prophets and corrupted a kingdom. Her daughter Athaliah went further—slaughtering her own grandchildren to steal the throne. This gripping biblical historical fiction reveals the shocking true story of history's most ruthless mother-daughter dynasty. Experience both complete novels in one volume. Get “Queens of Darkness” today and discover the dark legacy that changed the ancient world.

This time, the sacrifice is too great to ask of anyone—even a daughter of the sky. In this thrilling conclusion to the Touch the Sky series, Jennifer once again experiences visions of the past. This time, she sees life through the eyes of the young girl Alyona, captured by the Mongolian soldiers of Genghis Khan in AD 1224. Alyona’s journey is one of pain, heartbreak, and courage as she rises above the brutal world of the Mongolians. As Jennifer is drawn deeper into Alyona’s life, she can’t escape a feeling of foreboding. Each time she returns to the present and Derek’s loving arms...

The ancient hungry stones of Coptos in Upper Egypt have soaked up the stories of the inhabitants along with their blood. When archaeologists unearth a magician's box in the rubble of an ancient Egyptian tomb, it propels Jay into a supernatural journey across space and time. She merges with the mysterious Zenobia, a native of ancient Coptos. Zenobia and her family are fleeing from the advancing Roman armies that are returning to their Egyptian frontier bent on punishing its rebellious citizens. The only escape from the frying pan of Coptos is into the fire of the Eastern desert. Their ...

The idea of a powerful woman in the Middle Ages seems like an oxymoron. Females in this time are imagined to be damsels in distress, trapped in a high tower, and waiting for knights to rescue them, all while wearing traffic-cones for a hat. After rescue, their lives improved little. Their career choices were to be either docile queens, housewives, or be burned at the stake for witchcraft. But what if this image of medieval women is a complete fiction? It turns out that it is. Powerful female rulers fill the Middle Ages.

Where do human societies come from? The drive to answer this question took on a new urgency in the nineteenth century, when a generation of archaeologists began to look beyond the bible for the origins of different cultures and civilizations. Zelia Nuttall threw herself into the study of Aztec customs and cosmology, eager to use the tools of the emerging science of anthropology to prove that modern Mexico was built over the ruins of ancient civilizations.

Unlock the secrets of castor oil — a remarkable natural remedy with a rich history, powerful healing properties, and countless uses. This comprehensive guide offers everything you need to know about castor oil, from its ancient origins to its cutting-edge applications in modern wellness and beauty. Jam packed with over 150 pages just devoted to beauty secrets and formulas. Inside, discover: 🌱 Origins and Early Use of Castor Oil Trace castor oil’s roots back to its earliest applications and traditional uses. 🔬 The Chemistry of Castor Oil Understand the unique chemical structure ...

In the heart of a bustling city, Amber, a talented and ambitious art curator, stumbles upon a mysterious, ancient artifact—the Queen's Chalice. Little does she know, this enchanted relic holds the essence of Oshun, the Goddess of love, beauty, and sensuality. When Amber accidentally unleashes its power, she is drawn into a seductive world where the boundaries between desire and danger blur. Oshun, in all her playful and irresistible glory, becomes Amber's guide through a whirlwind of love, creativity, and passion. As Amber is swept into an intoxicating dance of sensuality and power, she ...

The great city of Troy is under siege as Greek heroes Achilles and Agamemnon wage bloody war over a stolen woman. In the Greek camp, another woman is watching and waiting: Briseis. She was a queen of this land until Achilles sacked her city and murdered her husband and sons. Now she is Achilles' concubine: a prize of battle. Briseis is just one among thousands of women backstage in this war - the slaves and prostitutes, the nurses, the women who lay out the dead - all of them voiceless in history.

A Woman of No Importance takes place in a 24-hour period during a house party hosted by Lady Hunstanton at her country estate. The upper echelons of English society mix, mingle and flirt, including Lady Caroline Pontefract (who is on her fourth husband), the witty and ironic Mrs. Allonby and the dandyish Lord Illingworth. Wilde balances these worldly characters with a visiting young American woman, Hester Worsley.

In the ruthless world of 8th-century Constantinople, where alliances shift like the tides and betrayal lurks behind every gilded door, Irini of Athens fights to secure her place as Empress of the Byzantine Empire. But power comes at a deadly cost. Surrounded by enemies within her own palace—her scheming mother-in-law, five treacherous step-brothers, and a husband who sees her as a threat—Irini knows that survival is not guaranteed. With childbirth looming, she summons the only person she can trust: Abbess Thekla, the knife-wielding woman who owes her a life debt.