C W Gortner Books In Order

Spymaster Chronicles Books In Order

  1. The Secret Lion (2004)
  2. The Tudor Conspiracy (2013)
  3. The Tudor Vendetta (2014)

Ania Throne Books In Order

  1. The Steal (2021)
  2. The Bait (2022)
  3. The Heist (2022)

Novels

  1. The Last Queen (2006)
  2. The Confessions of Catherine de Medici (2010)
  3. The Queen’s Vow (2012)
  4. Mademoiselle Chanel (2015)
  5. The Vatican Princess (2016)
  6. Marlene (2016)
  7. The Romanov Empress (2018)
  8. The First Actress (2020)
  9. The American Adventuress (2022)

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C W Gortner Books Overview

The Secret Lion

In this rousing historical adventure set in the Tudor court, we are swept back to the final days of Edward VI’s reign, and a time of danger, deceit, and courage. Brendan Prescott, a foundling reared in Dudley household, arrives at court to serve as a squire to the arrogant Lord Robert Dudley. Keen and ambitious, Brendan hopes to gain advancement in his new post until Lord Robert dispatches him on an illicit mission to the King’s enigmatic sister, the Princess Elizabeth, and Brendan discovers that nothing in his world is as it appears. A dark plot brews around Elizabeth’s quest to unravel the truth about her brother King Edward VI’s disappearance. Lured into her service as a spy, with only a bold stable boy and audacious lady in waiting at his side, Brendan plunges into a ruthless gambit of half truths and lies, pitted against the wiles of a vengeful opponent who may hold the secret of his own mysterious birth a secret that could shatter everything he believes in, and cast an inescapable shadow over him, Elizabeth, and the future of England itself. Filled with the intrigue and pageantry of Tudor England, The Secret Lion is the first book in The Spymaster Chronicles. This new edition features the Two Bridges Press Reader’s Group Guide.

The Last Queen

Juana of Castile, The Last Queen of Spanish blood to inherit her country’s throne, has been for centuries an enigmatic figure shrouded in lurid myth. Was she the bereft widow of legend who was driven mad by her loss, or has history misjudged a woman who was ahead of her time? In his stunning new novel, C. W. Gortner challenges the myths about Queen Juana, unraveling the mystery surrounding her to reveal a brave, determined woman we can only now begin to fully understand. The third child of Queen Isabel and King Ferdinand of Spain, Juana is born amid her parents ruthless struggle to unify their kingdom, bearing witness to the fall of Granada and Columbus s discoveries. At the age of sixteen, she is sent to wed Philip, the archduke of Flanders, as part of her parents strategy to strengthen Spain, just as her youngest sister, Catherine of Aragon, is sent to England to become the first wife of Henry VIII. Juana finds unexpected love and passion with her handsome young husband, the sole heir to the Habsburg Empire. At first she is content with her children and her life in Flanders. But when tragedy strikes and she inherits the Spanish throne, Juana finds herself plunged into a battle for power against her husband that grows to involve the major monarchs of Europe. Besieged by foes on all sides, her intelligence and pride used as weapons against her, Juana vows to secure her crown and save Spain from ruin, even if it could cost her everything. With brilliant, lyrical prose, novelist and historian C. W. Gortner conjures Juana through her own words, taking the reader from the somber majesty of Spain to the glittering and lethal courts of Flanders, France, and Tudor England. The Last Queen brings to life all the grandeur and drama of an incomparable era, and the singular humanity of this courageous, passionate princess whose fight to claim her birthright captivated the world.

The Confessions of Catherine de Medici

From C. W. Gortner, acclaimed author of The Last Queen, comes an ambitious and gripping new novel about the dramatic, tragic, and misunderstood life of one of history’s most powerful and influential women: Catherine de Medici. To some, she was the ruthless queen who led France into an era of savage violence. To others, she was the passionate savior of the French monarchy. In this brilliantly imagined novel, acclaimed author C. W. Gortner brings Catherine to life in her own voice, allowing us to enter the intimate world of a woman whose determination to protect her family’s throne and realm plunged her into a lethal struggle for power. The last legitimate descendant of the illustrious Medici line, Catherine suffers the expulsion of her family from her native Florence and narrowly escapes death at the hands of an enraged mob. While still a teenager, she is betrothed to Henri, son of Francois I of France, and sent from Italy to an unfamiliar realm where she is overshadowed and humiliated by her husband’s lifelong mistress. Ever resilient, Catherine strives to create a role for herself through her patronage of the famous clairvoyant Nostradamus and her own innate gift as a seer. But in her fortieth year, Catherine is widowed, left alone with six young children as regent of a kingdom torn apart by religious discord and the ambitions of a treacherous nobility. Relying on her tenacity, wit, and uncanny gift for compromise, Catherine seizes power, intent on securing the throne for her sons. She allies herself with the enigmatic Protestant leader Coligny, with whom she shares an intimate secret, and implacably carves a path toward peace, unaware that her own dark fate looms before her a fate that, if she is to save France, will demand the sacrifice of her ideals, her reputation, and the passion of her embattled heart. From the fairy tale chateaux of the Loire Valley to the battlefields of the wars of religion to the mob filled streets of Paris, The Confessions of Catherine de Medici is the extraordinary untold journey of one of the most maligned and misunderstood women ever to be queen.

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