Karleen Koen Books In Order

Tamworth Saga Books In Order

  1. Dark Angels (2006)
  2. Through a Glass Darkly (1986)
  3. Now Face to Face (1996)

Novels

  1. Before Versailles (2011)

Tamworth Saga Book Covers

Novels Book Covers

Karleen Koen Books Overview

Dark Angels

Alice Verney is a young woman intent on achieving her dreams. Having left Restoration England in the midst of a messy scandal, she has been living in Louis XIV’s Baroque, mannered France for two years. Now she is returning home to England and anxious to re establish herself quickly. First, she will regain her former position as a maid of honor to Charles II s queen. Then she will marry the most celebrated duke of the Restoration, putting herself in a position to attain power she s only dreamed of. As a duchess, Alice will be able to make or break her friends and enemies at will.

But all is not as it seems in the rowdy, merry court of Charles II. Since the Restoration, old political alliances have frayed, and there are whispers that the king is moving to divorce his barren queen, who some wouldn t mind seeing dead. But Alice, loyal only to a select few, is devoted to the queen, and so sets out to discover who might be making sinister plans, and if her own father is one of them. When a member of the royal family dies unexpectedly, and poison is suspected, the stakes are raised. Alice steps up her efforts to find out who is and isn t true to the queen, learns of shocking betrayals throughout court, and meets a man that she may be falling in love with and who will spoil all of her plans. With the suspected arrival of a known poison maker, the atmosphere in the court electrifies, and suddenly the safety of the king himself seems uncertain. Secret plots are at play, and war is on the horizon but will it be with the Dutch or the French? And has King Charles himself betrayed his country for greed?

The long awaited prequel to Koen s beloved Through a Glass Darkly, Dark Angels is a feast of a novel that sparkles with all the passion, extravagance, danger, and scandal of seventeenth century England. Unforgettable in its dramatic force, here is a novel of love and politics, of romance and betrayal, of power and succession and of a resourceful young woman who risks everything for pride and status in an era in which women were afforded little of either.

From the Hardcover edition.

Through a Glass Darkly

‘Lives up to every expectation. It’s magnificent!’
Cleveland Plain Dealer

Sourcebooks Landmark proudly reintroduces this classic historical novel.

Karleen Koen’s sweeping saga contains unforgettable characters consumed with passion: the extraordinarily beautiful fifteen year old noblewoman, Barbara Alderley; the man she adores, the wickedly handsome Roger MontGeoffry; her grandmother, the duchess, who rules the family with cunning and wit; and her mother, the ineffably cruel, self centered and licentious Diana. Like no other work, Through a Glass Darkly is infused with intrigue, sweetened by romance and awash in the black ink of betrayal.

Sold 130,000 hardcover and 600,000 mass paperback
New York Times bestseller for five consecutive months
A former Book of the Month Club Main Selection

PRAISE FOR Through a Glass Darkly:

‘A completely involving story…
power, greed, family conflict, burning ambition and passion kindle the plot. Readers will be captivated!’

Publishers Weekly

‘Fast paced and fun to read!’
Glamour

‘Engaging, elegant, chock full of sex and gossip.’
Philadelphia Inquirer

Now Face to Face

The unforgettable sequel to Karleen Koen’s beloved debut, Through a Glass Darkly

A Book of the Month Club main selection

A bride at fteen, widowed at the tender age of twenty, Barbara, Countess Devane, embarks for colonial Virginia nancially ruined by the death of her husband in scandalous circumstances. Dressed in mourning as is proper for a woman, she is patronizingly described as a fragile black butterfly, but the fragility is deceiving. She makes a place for herself in the new world, takes lovers and friends across political divides, and questions the established traditions of slavery. Facing enemies she never suspected, she must return to England and deal face to face with the problems created by her husband, who haunts her even in death. Back in London, she quickly nds herself pulled into Jacobite plotting, and the treachery of powerful men suddenly threatens her family, her friends and a new love.

Now Face to Face sweeps readers from eighteenth century America to London and brings both worlds to vivid life. It is a magni cent evocation of an era, from the plantations of Virginia to Hanoverian England.

Before Versailles

New York Times bestselling author Karleen Koen offers another delightful historical novel that will transport you to another time and place. Before Versailles is the luscious, sweeping story of the young Louis XIV in his first year as king of France. Told in the alternating perspectives of the young king and his first love, the woman who would become his mistress, Karleen Koen’s newest weaves a portrait of court and country in turmoil with the legends of this colorful period in history, including that of the mysterious man in the iron mask.

Related Authors

Leave a Comment