Renaissance Fiction

A pretend relationship gives two friends more than they bargained for in a Renaissance Faire rom com filled with flower crowns, kilts, corsets, and sword fights.

Bologna, 1575. A talented seamstress. A powerful merchant. A fierce battle of wills Elena Morandi has gained a fragile foothold in a master tailor's workshop, despite the profession being barred to women. But then Antonio della Fontana, a powerful man from her past, crosses her path and threatens everything she has built. Fontana has every corner of the city in his pocket and Elena knows all too well of his past abuses, but driven to fight for justice, she hatches a daring plan to get retribution for herself, a lost friend and his other victims.

Their love defied kingdoms. Now, it must defy fate itself. Haunted by the memory of his forbidden love, Prince Everald risks everything to escape the suffocating grip of the English crown. With war looming and betrayal lurking in every corner, he flees the palace in disguise, shedding his title to search for the only woman who ever truly knew his heart—Abigall. Enduring grueling labor in a foreign court’s kitchen, Everald becomes a shadow among the servants, following whispers that may lead him back to her. Lady Abigall, bound to Scottish royalty and torn between loyalty and love, ...

What happens when forbidden love and dangerous intrigue collide in the splendor of Renaissance Venice? In Secrets of the Doge’s Daughter, Caterina Foscari, the fiercely intelligent and determined daughter of Venice’s most powerful ruler, has lived her life in the shadow of duty and expectation. Trapped by the gilded cage of nobility, her world changes forever when she discovers a plot that threatens the fragile stability of her beloved city. But exposing the treachery means risking everything—including her own life. Enter Marco Vendramin, a brooding yet enigmatic agent of the Doge’s...

Eldest daughter of the royal House of York, Elizabeth dreams of a crown to call her own. But when her beloved father, King Edward, dies suddenly, her destiny is rewritten. Her family's enemies close in. Two young princes are murdered in the Tower. Then her uncle seizes power—and vows to make Elizabeth his queen. But another claimant seeks the throne, the upstart son of the rival royal House of Lancaster. Marriage to this Henry Tudor would unite the white rose of York and the red of Lancaster—and change everything.

Anno del Signore 1469. Una tempesta è in arrivo su Firenze, prestigioso crocevia di artisti e mercanti: dopo la morte di Cosimo, carismatico patriarca della potente famiglia Medici, un attentato alla vita di suo figlio Piero ne scoperchia gli inquietanti segreti. Lorenzo, il giovane nipote di Cosimo da sempre destinato a raccoglierne l'eredità spirituale, si trova costretto ad assumersi gravi responsabilità prima del tempo e a dover maturare in fretta l'abilità e la malizia necessarie per confrontarsi con i sotterfugi e le macchinazioni che regolano il grande gioco del potere.

Louise Lloyd is finally living the quiet life she’d longed for, working in a parfumerie by day and spending time with her new friends every night at the Aquarius club in Paris. When a desperate mother asks for help locating her artist daughter, Louise initially refuses to keep her hard-won but fragile peace intact. But the woman comes with a letter of introduction from an old friend in Harlem, and Louise realizes she has no choice but to do what she can to find the missing young woman.

Literature Professor Dr. Addie Cox is living a happy, if sheltered, life in her ivory tower when Harris Lang, the famously eccentric billionaire tech genius, offers her an unusual job. He wants her to guide a mercenary strike team sent to infiltrate his island retreat off the northwest coast of the United States. Addie is puzzled by her role on the mission until she understands what Lang has built: Insula Mirabilis, an isolated resort where tourists will one day pay big bucks for a convincing, high-tech-powered fantasy-world experience, complete with dragons, unicorns, and magic.

Angelic Essie Belle Johnson and devilish Laura Reed both agree that they need to do something to spice up their lives and earn more money. So, they start their own church on the street in front of their Harlem apartment. With Laura's gift for performing and Essie's melodious voice, the two quickly become a hit and must move their services into a renovated theater. But as their congregation grows, a host of misfits enter the scene - some honest, but others who just want a piece of the pie.

The first African American poet to achieve international fame, Paul Laurence Dunbar used his prodigious literary gifts to chronicle and celebrate Black life as he saw it. He utilized both traditional poetic forms and contemporary dialect in a range of styles—lyrical, conversational, and playful—as diverse as his themes. This collection, containing the entirety of Dunbar’s poetry, captures his still vital expressions of love, work, and family. It also serves as a revelatory expression of Dunbar’s frustrations with racial injustice and oppression.

Mia Caiozzi is determined to discover her destiny by studying the science of astronomy. But her stepmother Giulia forbids her to engage in this dangerous occupation, fearing it will lead her into trouble. The ideas of Galileo are banned by the Inquisition, so Mia must study in secret.

Langston Hughes was only twenty-four when he published his debut collection of poetry, The Weary Blues. The poems included here blend vernacular speech and musical rhythms to offer a bracing perspective on the African American experience. Traversing a wide range of settings—including the jazz clubs of Harlem, expansive natural landscapes, and seaside taverns—Hughes’s voice as a poet ties these various places together.

Written in the winter of 1849, The Scarlet Letter unfolds the story of Hester Prynne, a young woman branded as an adulteress in the harsh Puritan world of 17th-century New England. As Hester calls on her inner strength to transcend her shame, the scarlet letter ceases to be a stigma and finally becomes Hester's symbol of self-affirmation. This dramatic reading heightens the sense of lyric poetry that permeates every line of Nathaniel Hawthorne's great novel.

She turned down Henry Tudor. But would she be allowed to marry the man she loved? In 1509 Marguerite d’Angoulême of the royal House of Valois is the King of France’s most valuable unmarried asset. Gaston de Foix is France’s most promising young knight, eager to prove himself on the King’s Italian campaigns. Fanned by chivalric ideals of courtly love, Marguerite and Gaston burn for each other with a secret flame. When Gaston learns that the King intends to marry Marguerite to the Armagnac heir, he is heartbroken. Louis XII needs Armagnac lands for the crown of France. What better ...

New Zealander Second Lieutenant Neil Rankin and his platoon find themselves on the back foot, with limited supplies and dented morale, facing a coup de grâce from the relentless Axis forces... After the fall of Greece in April 1941, the Allies regroup on the island of Crete to make their next stand against the German forces. Bruised and short of weapons and equipment, the story follows New Zealand troops evacuating the mainland and arriving on Crete, the navel of the Mediterranean. Control of Crete was paramount for dominance of sea and air operations, and the defeat in Greece weighed ...

Settled down in his beloved Mortlake once again, philosopher and astronomer John Dee is enjoying the quiet life when Her Majesty’s spymaster Sir Francis Walsingham darkens his door, instructing him to befriend a certain Polish count with an interest in alchemy and angelic communication. But when Dee and the count are caught breaking the law, trying to convene with angels, they are exiled, and must make their way to the court of Rudolf, Holy Roman Emperor, in far-off Prague.

When the predator becomes the prey… blood will run in the gutters of Tudor London. Myles Devereux rules the streets. A ruthless gangster in the lawless underbelly of Tudor London, he controls the brothels, the taverns, the enforcers—and everyone knows not to cross him. But someone just did. His bookkeeper turns up dead. His debtors are being picked off one by one. And now the sheriff’s men are at his door, accusing him of the murders. Then Richard Fitzwarren, the Queen’s cold-eyed emissary, brings worse: a heresy charge—and death by fire This is no random attack. It’s a setup. ...

Lukas wants only two things: to rebuild his castle home in time to make it through the coming winter and to reconnect with the sister who was stolen from him in a plot against his family. But then an astrologer appears with foreboding news: his old adversary, Inquisitor Waldemar von Schönborn, has stolen three royal artifacts, which are required to coronate a new German emperor. With these valuable objects - the sword, the crown, and the scepter - he could blackmail the empire. The treasures are currently hidden in three different places in the old imperial city of Prague.

Zora Neale Hurston is best remembered today for her work as a novelist, but she was also an accomplished dramatist, short story writer, and folklorist. That range of interests and styles is on full display in this collection.

JAPON. 1600. John Blackthorne rêvait d’y accoster. Il n’imaginait pas que, pour y parvenir, il aurait à braver une tempête. Craché par l’océan, l’équipage du pilote anglais touche enfin terre. Mais les marins regrettent bien vite leur découverte, car ils sont maintenant prisonniers de samouraïs aux mœurs très différentes des leurs. Amené devant Toranaga et Ishido, deux daimyō rivaux dont l’ambition secrète est de devenir Shōgun, Blackthorne fera tout pour recouvrer sa liberté. Mais il faudra bien des sacrifices pour survivre sur cette "Terre des Larmes", où la mort est une fatalité.