The Winter Prince — Cheryl Sawyer

Praised for her "lavish use of history...and vividly detailed settings," Cheryl Sawyer sweeps readers back to seventeenth-century England at the time of the Civil War, as a royal duchess and a warrior prince fight to save a riven kingdom....

Mary Villiers, Duchess of Richtmond and Lennox, is a ravishing beauty raised as the adopted daughter of Charles I of England. In 1642 she is shocked to find herself opposed to her king when he decides to declare war on Parliament -- and therefore on his own people. Mary embarks on a dangerous quest to help save the throne of England for its rightful monarch, but first she must deal with the king's charismatic nephew, Prince Rupert of Bohemia....

Possessed of the same fiery intellect as Mary, Rupert is handsome, fearless, and a natural leader. At first it seems they can never form an alliance, but a hidden, illicit passion draws them together in the midst of war. Then catastrophe threatens when Parliament brands them as lovers -- if all Mary's secrets come out, she and Rupert may face execution for treason. From an author who writes "gloriously textured and crafted tales" (Bertrice Small) comes an epic love story that takes us into great halls, intimate chambers, and crucial battlefields among King Charles's beleaguered courtiers, the real people who once held the fate of England in their hands.