The Importance of Pawns
Chronicles of the House of Valois
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The Importance of Pawns
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Narrated by:
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Susan Ericksen
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By:
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Keira Morgan
About this listen
Claude is queen in name only. Can she outwit her rival, win her husband to her side, save her sister, and assert her power?
Danger lurks beneath the glitter of the 16th-century French court. The queen lies dying; the king has but months to live. Their two daughters, Claude and young Renee, are heiresses to the rich duchy of Brittany. Countess Louise, their guardian, schemes to steal their inheritance.
For years she has envied the dying Queen Anne, the girls' mother. She plots to marry wealthy Claude to her son. Her unexpected guardianship presents a golden opportunity, but only if she can remove their protectress Baronne Michelle, who loves the princesses and safeguards their interests.
As political tensions rise, the futures of Princess Renee and the baronne hang in the balance, threatened by Countess Louise's designs. Will timid Claude untangle the treacherous intrigues Countess Louise is weaving? Can she outflank the wily countess to protect young Princess Renee? And can she find the courage to defend those she loves?
©2021 Keira Morgan (P)2022 TantorListeners also enjoyed...
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- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 265
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 236
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 233
Jane Lambert, the quick-witted and alluring daughter of a silk merchant, is twenty-two and still unmarried. When Jane’s father finally finds her a match, she’s married off to the dull, older silk merchant William Shore. Marriage doesn’t stop Jane from flirtation, however, and when the king’s chamberlain, Will Hastings, comes to her husband’s shop, Will knows King Edward will find her irresistible.
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2 out of 5 stars
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All history, no romance!
- By Erin on 07-05-13
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First of the Tudors
- By: Joanna Hickson
- Narrated by: Tom Clegg, Non Haf
- Length: 14 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 87
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 74
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 73
Jasper Tudor, son of Queen Catherine and her second husband, Owen Tudor, has grown up far from the intrigue of the royal court. But after he and his brother Edmund are summoned to London, their half brother, King Henry VI, takes a keen interest in their future. Bestowing earldoms on them both, Henry also gives them the wardship of the young heiress Margaret Beaufort. Although she is still a child, Jasper becomes devoted to her and is devastated when Henry arranges her betrothal to Edmund.
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5 out of 5 stars
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War of the Roses, Again
- By Laurel on 03-27-17
By: Joanna Hickson
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While Beauty Slept
- By: Elizabeth Blackwell
- Narrated by: Wanda McCaddon
- Length: 12 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 321
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 295
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Story4 out of 5 stars 295
I am not the sort of person about whom stories are told.And so begins Elise Dalriss's story. When she hears her great-granddaughter recount a minstrel's tale about a beautiful princess asleep in a tower, it pushes open a door to the past, a door Elise has long kept locked. For Elise was the companion to the real princess who slumbered-and she is the only one left who knows what actually happened so many years ago. Her story unveils a labyrinth where secrets connect to an inconceivable evil. As only Elise understands all too well, the truth is no fairy tale...
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5 out of 5 stars
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EVIL THOUGHTS TAKE STRENGTH IN THE DARK,
- By Jim "The Impatient" on 02-08-15
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The Many Lives & Secret Sorrows of Josephine B.
- By: Sandra Gulland
- Narrated by: Kim Handysides
- Length: 14 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 60
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 49
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Story4 out of 5 stars 49
In this first of three books inspired by the life of Josephine Bonaparte, Sandra Gulland has created a novel of immense and magical proportions. We meet Josephine in the exotic and lush Martinico, where an old island woman predicts that one day she will be queen. The journey from the remote village of her birth to the height of European elegance is long, but Josephine's fortune proves to be true.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Performance...ugh
- By Lisa on 02-17-18
By: Sandra Gulland
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The Sisters of Versailles
- Mistresses of Versailles Series # 1
- By: Sally Christie
- Narrated by: Elizabeth Wiley
- Length: 15 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 330
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 297
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Story4 out of 5 stars 296
Set against the lavish backdrop of the French Court in the early years of the 18th century, The Sisters of Versailles is the extraordinary tale of the five Nesle sisters - Louise, Pauline, Diane, Hortense, and Marie-Anne - four of whom became mistresses to King Louis XV. Their scandalous story is stranger than fiction but true in every shocking, amusing, and heartbreaking detail.Court intriguers are beginning to sense that young King Louis XV, after seven years of marriage, is tiring of his Polish wife.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Best book I've listened to in ages
- By Dr. A. on 01-09-16
By: Sally Christie
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In the King's Service
- Childe Morgan Trilogy, Book 1
- By: Katherine Kurtz
- Narrated by: Nick Sullivan
- Length: 14 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 72
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 63
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 63
In this first book of an all-new Deryni trilogy, New York Times best-selling author Katherine Kurtz takes listeners back in time - before King Kelson's bride...before King Kelson's birth... when the magical Deryni blood was sought by the most powerful men and women in the kingdom of Gwynedd. Back when a man named Donal ruled over all.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Needs a female reader
- By Shannon on 02-07-19
By: Katherine Kurtz
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Reign of Madness
- By: Lynn Cullen
- Narrated by: Susan Lyons
- Length: 13 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 36
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 35
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 32
Juana of Castile, third child of the Spanish monarchs Isabel and Fernando, grows up with no hope of inheriting her parents' crowns, but as a princess knows her duty: to further her family's ambitions through marriage. Yet stories of courtly love, and of her parents' own legendary romance, surround her. When she weds the Duke of Burgundy, a young man so beautiful that he is known as Philippe the Handsome, she dares to hope that she might have both love and crowns.
By: Lynn Cullen
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The Confessions of Catherine de Medici
- A Novel
- By: C. W. Gortner
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell
- Length: 15 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,151
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 997
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 995
In this brilliantly imagined novel, acclaimed author C. W. Gortner brings Catherine to life in her own voice, allowing us to enter the intimate world of a woman whose determination to protect her family’s throne and realm plunged her into a lethal struggle for power. From the fairy-tale chateaux of the Loire Valley to the battlefields of the wars of religion to the mob-filled streets of Paris, this is the extraordinary untold journey of one of the most maligned and misunderstood women ever to be queen.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Pretty good but historical details are terrible
- By Kindle Customer on 07-10-11
By: C. W. Gortner
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The Last Queen
- A Novel of Juana La Loca
- By: C. W. Gortner
- Narrated by: Marguerite Gavin
- Length: 13 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 482
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 399
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 397
One of history's most enigmatic women tells the haunting, passionate story of her tumultuous life. Juana of Castile is just thirteen when she witnesses the fall of Moorish Granada and the uniting of the fractured kingdoms of Spain under her warrior parents, Isabel and Fernando. Intelligent, beautiful, and proud of her heritage, Juana rebels when she is chosen as a bride for the Hapsburg heir.
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1 out of 5 stars
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A NEUROTIC BIT OF PULP FICTION
- By The Louligan on 11-19-09
By: C. W. Gortner
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The Boleyn King
- Boleyn Trilogy, Book 1
- By: Laura Andersen
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 9 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 333
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 295
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Story4 out of 5 stars 294
Just seventeen years old, Henry IX, known as William, is a king bound by the restraints of the regency yet anxious to prove himself. With the French threatening battle and the Catholics sowing the seeds of rebellion at home, William trusts only three people: his older sister Elizabeth; his best friend and loyal counselor, Dominic; and Minuette, a young orphan raised as a royal ward by William’s mother, Anne Boleyn.
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2 out of 5 stars
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Great idea, bad story
- By S. D. Ristick on 09-22-14
By: Laura Andersen
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Antoinette's Sister
- By: Diana Giovinazzo
- Narrated by: Marisa Calin
- Length: 11 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 291
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 258
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 258
As Marie Antoinette took her last breath as queen of France in Paris, another formidable monarch - Antoinette’s dearly beloved sister, Charlotte - was hundreds of miles away, in Naples, fighting desperately to secure her release from the revolutionaries who would take her life. Little did Charlotte know, however, that her sister’s execution would change the course of history - and bring about the end of her own empire.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Started off good, but I lost interest as time went
- By Tess of the D'urbervilles on 02-02-22
By: Diana Giovinazzo
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Mademoiselle Boleyn
- By: Robin Maxwell
- Narrated by: Suzan Crowley
- Length: 13 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 87
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 79
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Story4 out of 5 stars 79
When her father is assigned the task of spying on the French Court, the charming and sweetly innocent Anne Boleyn is delighted by the thought of a new adventure. And she is not to be disappointed, for her beautiful sister, Mary, has been handed a mission: to let herself be seduced by the King of France in order to uncover his secrets. Mesmerized by the thrilling passion, intrigue, and betrayal that unfolds, Anne discovers the power of being a woman who catches the eye of a powerful king.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Intriguing
- By Anonymous User on 11-10-18
By: Robin Maxwell
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The Memoirs of Mary, Queen of Scots
- By: Carolly Erickson
- Narrated by: Rebekah Germain
- Length: 9 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 60
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 46
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Story4 out of 5 stars 46
Born Queen of Scotland, married as a young girl to the invalid young King of France, Mary took the reins of the unruly kingdom of Scotland as a young widow and fought to keep her throne. A second marriage to her handsome but dissolute cousin Lord Darnley ended in murder and scandal, while a third marriage to the dashing, commanding Lord Bothwell, the love of her life, gave her joy but widened the scandal and surrounded her with enduring ill repute.
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2 out of 5 stars
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Fiction being the key word
- By Bonnie-Ann B on 09-25-09
By: Carolly Erickson
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Green Darkness
- By: Anya Seton
- Narrated by: Heather Wilds
- Length: 23 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 272
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 240
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Story4 out of 5 stars 242
The marriage of the Englishman Richard Marsdon and his young American wife, Celia, slowly turns tragic as Richard withdraws into himself and Celia suffers a debilitating emotional breakdown. A wise mystic realizes that Celia can escape her past only by reliving it. She journeys back four hundred years to her former life as the servant girl Celia de Bohun during the reign of Edward VI - and to her doomed love affair with the chaplain Stephen Marsdon.
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3 out of 5 stars
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A different narrator would have made all the difference.
- By J on 06-04-15
By: Anya Seton
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Push Not the River
- By: James Conroyd Martin
- Narrated by: Dawn Harvey
- Length: 19 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 199
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Performance3.5 out of 5 stars 170
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Story4 out of 5 stars 173
Push Not the River is the rich story of Poland in the late 1700's - a time of heartache and turmoil as the country's once peaceful people are torn apart by neighboring countries and divided loyalties. It is then, at the young and vulnerable age of seventeen, that Lady Anna Maria Berezowska loses both of her parents and must leave the only home she has ever known.
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2 out of 5 stars
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Save your time; buy something else.
- By AMS on 10-22-15
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Abundance
- A Novel of Marie Antoinette
- By: Sena Jeter Naslund
- Narrated by: Susanna Burney
- Length: 11 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 138
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 91
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Story4 out of 5 stars 92
Marie Antoinette was a child of 14 when she was made to leave her family and country to become the wife of another child, France's 15-year-old King Louis the XVI. Far from home and suddenly thrust not only into the role of a woman and wife, but of a queen, Marie Antoinette lived an astonishing, though short, existence.
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2 out of 5 stars
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Not for history fans
- By Cx30 on 12-09-06