Showing results by author "Stephanie Parkyn" in All Categories

France, 1794. In the aftermath of the bloody end to the French Revolution, Rose de Beauharnais stumbles from prison on the day she is to be guillotined. Within a decade, she'll transform into the scandalous socialite who marries Napoleon Bonaparte, becomes Empress Josephine of France and builds a garden of wonders with plants and animals from across the globe. But she must give Bonaparte an heir or she risks losing everything.

Remi Victoire grew up in a theatre troupe based in Paris after being abandoned by his mother. He has a good heart but is a womaniser and a drunkard. His faithful best friend is Pascal, who shares with Remi the experiences of the theatre trouple. Saskia is a Prussian contortionist who joins the two men on their storytelling journeys. They - along with the other young members of the theatre company - are the ‘lost children’, caught up in the trials and tribulations of a chaotic period of war and peace, which also marks the transition from oral to written storytelling.

Abandoned by her lover and fleeing the wrath of her family, Marie-Louise must make a desperate choice: find a man or become one. 1791. In the midst of the French Revolution, unwed mother Marie-Louise Girardin takes one last look at her baby son before entrusting him to her friend, the revolutionary Olympe de Gouges. She must escape, and only the most daring plan will bring her both the anonymity she needs and the independence to return one day for her son.