Summer Palace

Seventeenth-century Russia remains very much a patriarchal society. For the headstrong and willful Katia, daughter of Baron Alexei Sergeyevich Ulenka, life in the terem (a palace sanctuary where the virtue of girls is safeguarded) is unbearable when all she wants to do is experience the freedom of riding a horse. But ride a horse she does. Dressed as a servant girl, Katia meets and goes riding with the darkly intriguing German stable boy Wiley.

The much anticipated sequel to The Summer Palace begins 14 years after Wiley, Katia, and Hans’ flight from the Ukraine in 1682. Foregoing their original destination, they settle in the fortified town of Lvov, then a part of Poland. The struggles and hard life in this exciting time and place in history set the scene and the story continues.

It’s 1698. Paul has gone after a boy taken by slave traders and is befriended by a young Janissary who teaches him valuable lessons in life with and without a saber. Katia makes a fateful decision to follow her uncle to her newly discovered homeland while Wiley and Pavel search for his son. Wiley learns, from his daughter who escaped the treachery at Brumal Castle, the fate of his beloved wife who was taken to Hungary under false pretenses. Blanche incurs problems of her own when she’s pursued by the enemy. They must travel the length of the Ottoman Empire to rescue her.

In the final story of the Summer Palace Series, Wiley Breuder uses his influence to relocate his family to their original destination and find themselves at Cavalier House in Saxony. This pivotal story takes place during The Great. Northern War involving Sweden, Russia, Poland, and Saxony. Entire villages are crushed, countries shift allegiances, and borders change at the whim of the invading forces.