Sandra Gulland

The Shadow Queen Sandra Gulland Unabridged edition

[Read by Meredith Mitchell]

Set against the gilded opulence of a newly constructed Versailles and the bloodstained fields of the FrancoDutch War, The Shadow Queen is a seductive, gripping novel about lust, power, loyalty, and the increasingly uneasy relationship between two strongwilled women whose actions could shape the future of France. From the author of the beloved 'Josephine B.' series comes a spellbinding historical novel about a young woman who rises to become the confidante to the most powerful, provocative, and dangerous woman in the seventeenthcentury French Court: the mistress of the charismatic Sun King. Paris, 1660. As the daughter of itinerant actors who once lit up the Parisian stages, Claudette always thought her future lay in the theater. But a series of chance encounters pulls her into the alluring orbit of the most beautiful woman in all of France: Athénaïs de Montespan, the mistress to Louis XIV and reigning ''Shadow Queen.'' Impetuous by nature, Athénaïs wields a disconcerting amount of power a fact that has ruffled many of the Sun King's key advisors. Needing someone to act as her eyes and ears, Athénaïs hires Claudette as a personal attendant. The young stagehand leaves the world of theater only to find that court is very much like a stage, with outward shows of loyalty masking more devious intentions. This parallel is not lost on Athénaïs, who fears political enemies are plotting her ruin while young courtesans angle to take the coveted spot in the king's bed. Indeed, Claudette's supposedly respectable new position is marked by spying, rumormongering, illicit trysts, and titanic power struggles. As Athénaïs begins to lose her grip on the Sun King, her plots and fascination with the magical arts take a dark turn that makes Claudette question her allegiance to this mercurial figure and puts the young maid's life in jeopardy.