Marguerite Laurent, a Parisian needlewoman, is summoned to the Imperial Court of Empress Elizabeth to work as the Empress' personal embroiderer. She travels as part of a retinue of talented foreigners, several of whom worked in the same atelier as Marguerite. Each of the women has her own reasons for wishing to flee France, and they embark upon their adventure in a spirit of excitement mixed with trepidation, for the Empress' reputation is fearsome....

A fictional portrait of the last empress of China follows Orchid, a beautiful teenager from an aristocratic family, who is chosen to become a low-ranking concubine of the emperor and rises to a position of power in the Chinese court.

The uneasy stalemate between vampires and humans is over. Adele and Gareth are bringing order to a free Britain, but bloody murders in London raise the specter that Adele's geomancy is failing and the vampires might return. A new power could tilt the balance back to the vampire clans. A deranged human called the Witchfinder has surfaced on the Continent, serving new vampire lords. This geomancer has found a way to make vampires immune to geomancy...

Trapped in a loveless political marriage to the dissolute nephew of the ailing Russian Empress Elizabeth, young German princess Sophia Fredericka bides her time, chooses her lovers carefully and plots her path to the throne. Skillfully manipulating the Russian triumvirate of church, army and aristocracy, she adroitly rides the shifting currents of social change and unrest to become one of Russia's most unforgettable and beloved rulers, Catherine the...

It is a satirical, comedic drama, based on the occasional historical fact, about the rise of Catherine the Great. An idealistic romantic young girl, she arrives from Prussia for an arranged marriage to the mercurial Emperor Peter hoping for love and sunshine and finds instead a dangerous, depraved, backward world that she resolves to change. All she has to do is kill her husband, beat the church, baffle the military, and get the court on her side....

At the moment of the Emperor's death, everything changes in the palace. Mei, his former concubine, is free, and Pheasant, the heir and Mei's lover, is proclaimed as the new Emperor, heralding a new era in China. But just when Mei believes she's closer to her dream, Pheasant's chief wife, Lady Wang, powerful and unpredictable, turns against Mei and takes unthinkable measures to stop her. The power struggle that ensues will determine Mei's fate-- and...

"While on honeymoon in Vienna in June, 1998, Gerald Daniel Blanchard, an accomplished thief, happened upon the greatest challenge of his life when he spotted the last remaining "Sisi Star." Named after its former owner, Empress Elisabeth, the ten-pointed diamond and pearl star was originally one of 27 that Sisi wore in her extravagantly long hair"--

"Captain Marcus Weatherford arrives in Russia on a secret mission with a ballerina posing as his fiancée, but his sense of duty battles his desire to return home to Clare. Clare Danner fears losing her daughter to the father's heartless family, but only Marcus can provide the proof to save her. Can she trust Marcus, or will he shatter her world yet again?"--