Mistresses of Versailles #1
Atria
September 2015
On Sale: September 1, 2015
Featuring: Pauline Nesle; Louise Nesle; Diane Nesle
432 pages ISBN: 1501102966 EAN: 9781501102967 Kindle: B00UDCI430 Paperback / e-Book Add to Wish List
A sumptuous and sensual tale of power, romance, family, and betrayal centered around four sisters and one King. Carefully researched and ornately detailed, The Sisters of Versailles is the first book in an exciting new historical fiction trilogy about King Louis XV, Franceโs most โwell-belovedโ monarch, and the women who shared his heart and his bed.
Goodness, but sisters are a thing to fear.
Set against the lavish backdrop of the French Court in the early years of the 18th century, The Sisters of Versailles is the extraordinary tale of the five Nesle sistersโLouise, Pauline, Diane, Hortense, and Marie-Anneโfour of whom became mistresses to King Louis XV. Their scandalous story is stranger than fiction but true in every shocking, amusing, and heartbreaking detail.
Court intriguers are beginning to sense that young King Louis XV, after seven years of marriage, is tiring of his Polish wife. The race is on to find a mistress for the royal bed as various factions put their best footโand womenโforward. The Kingโs scheming ministers push Louise, the eldest of the aristocratic Nesle sisters, into the arms of the King. Over the following decade, the four sistersโsweet, naรฏve Louise; ambitious Pauline; complacent Diane, and cunning Marie Anneโwill conspire, betray, suffer, and triumph in a desperate fight for both love and power.
In the tradition of The Other Boleyn Girl, The Sisters of Versailles is a clever, intelligent, and absorbing novel that historical fiction fans will devour. Based on meticulous research on a group of women never before written about in English, Sally Christieโs stunning debut is a complex exploration of power and sisterhoodโof the admiration, competition, and even hatred that can coexist within a family when the stakes are high enough.