To Dance with Kings
Author:
Rosalind Laker
ISBN:
9780385242738
On a May morning in 1664, Jeanne Dremont gave birth to her only child - and to a bold plan to break her newborn daughter's bonds of poverty. For on that fateful day in the humble little village of Versailles, hundreds of resplendent noblemen converged on the simple hunting lodge of young King Louis XIV. Purely by chance, one drunken young musketeer witnessed the peasant's birth and made a reckless promise that Jeanne determined would come true. Though at the moment it might have seemed as improbable as a hunting lodge expanding into a gilded palace, Jeanne vowed that her peasant daughter would grow up to dance with kings.
Thus begins a family saga spanning the reigns of France's most spectacular Bourbon kings. Alive with all the sparkle and scandal of the royal courts, TO DANCE WITH KINGS tells the stories of four passionate and determined women whose fates are bound to the palace and the politics of Versailles.
As promised, Marguerite, Jeanne's daughter, becomes part of the royal life of the Sun King, and eventually mistress of her own chateau. Yet, her fairy tale existence and lifelong love are abruptly ended by a change of political winds.
Jasmin, Marguerite’s daughter, is born to the life of privilege that her mother so carefully nurtured. But for tempting the love of the Sun King's successor, she is banished from her beloved Versailles to a cruel and brutal marriage.
Violette, Marguerite’s granddaughter, willful and reckless, is drawn into the darker side of life at Versailles and faces consequences she had never anticipated.
And Rose: lady-in-waiting and confidante to Marie Antoinette, she is as spirited as the Queen she attends. Through her, a love lost will come full circle even as she is caught up in the chaos of the violent Revolution.
An epic generational tale of loves lost, promises kept, dreams broken, and monarchies shattered, To Dance with Kings is a story of passion and privilege, humble beginnings and limitless ambition.
(Random House)
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