In Stealing Athena, Karen Essex chronicles the Marbles amazing journey through the dynamic narratives of Mary Nisbet, wife of the Earl of Elgin, the British ambassador to Constantinople, and Aspasia, the mistress of Perikles, the most powerful man in Athens during that city s Golden Age. The Elgin Marbles have been displayed in the British Museum for nearly two hundred years, and for just as long they have been the center of a raging controversy. The author of the bestselling Leonardo’s Swans traverses the centuries into the hearts of two extraordinary women to reveal the passions, ambitions, and controversies surrounding the Elgin Marbles.

A haunting novel of rivalry, love, and betrayal that transports readers back to Renaissance Italy, Leonardo s Swans will have you dashing to the works of the great painter not for clues to a mystery but to contemplate the secrets of the human heart. It portrays a genius ahead of his time who can rarely escape the demands of his noble patrons long enough to express his own artistic vision. Leonardo s Swans is an exceptionally vivid evocation of the artist during his years in the glittering court of Milan, re creating the thrilling moments when he conceived The Last Supper and the Mona Lisa. But when Ludovico s grand plan to control Europe begins to crumble, immortality through art becomes a luxury, and the two sisters must choose between familial loyalty and survival in the treacherous political climate. The two sisters compete for supremacy in the illustrious courts of Europe, and Isabella vows that she will not rest until she wrestles back her true fate and plays temptress to the sensuous Ludovico and muse to the great Leonardo. Though Isabella weds the Marquis of Mantua, a man she has loved since childhood, Beatrice s fortunes rise effortlessly through her marriage to Ludovico. Only he would allow her to fulfill her destiny: to reign over one of the world s most powerful and enlightened realms and be immortalized in oil by the genius Leonardo da Vinci. Although he is more than twice their age, openly lives with his mistress, and is reputedly trying to eliminate the current duke by nefarious means, Ludovico Sforza is Isabella’s match in intellect and passion for all things of beauty.

Worldly and ambitious, she has never envied her less attractive sister, the spirited but na ve Beatrice, until, by a quirk of fate, Beatrice is betrothed to the future Duke of Milan. Isabella d Este, daughter of the Duke of Ferrara, born into privilege and the political and artistic turbulence of Renaissance Italy, is a stunning black eyed blonde and a precocious lover and collector of art.

Dracula in love by karen essex