A 2019 Watty Winner. For fans of Allison Pataki and Philippa Gregory, THE NYMPH OF VERSAILLES is based on the true story of Madame Montespan's rise and fall at the court of King Louis XIV. Being the Sun King's mistress is a coveted position in a court full of greedy courtiers vying for power and Athénaïs de Montespan won't let anything stand in the way of her stealing the king's heart-not even poison. When the king's interest in his mistress Louise begins to wane, Montespan sees the position as a possible escape from her husband's mounting debts and loveless marriage. Her strained friendship with Louise doesn't stop her from charming the king. However keeping his heart is tricky in a court full of plotting beauties eager to have him for themselves, especially with her jealous husband bent on ending her seduction. Then her children's governess becomes an unexpected rival for the king's heart and the only woman who can contend with Montespan. With the court swirling with rumors of poison, Montespan finds herself caught in the web of accusations. Her position with the king begins to crumble as she fights to hold on to the life she's built. Without the king's love, she fears she will lose everything as she falls from grace.

Katy Fairchild is an orphan and knows that no respectable man will marry her. But when a storm throws her into the arms of a mysterious stranger, will she fight society's opinion of her low status to pursue a forbidden romance? ***** At the age of nine, Katy Fairchild was brought to the small village of Wilshire to live with her distant relations, the Banes family. Brought up as a companion to their daughter, Eliza, Katy has lived a life according to her low rank and limited opportunities, and without complaint. But one day when she is nineteen, she gets caught in a dangerous storm with a handsome man who is unlike anyone she's met before. The encounter throws Katy into a world she never knew. For the first time, a better life may be just around the corner, but is she prepared to fight for it? [[word count: 70,000 - 80,000]] Cover designed by Cil Ojumo

The grown-ups are all gone and children rule the new world. Harry lives in a strange utopia: resources are plentiful, the climate has stabilised, there is peace. His village is watched over by an invisible force that keeps them all from danger - but is it protecting them, or holding them back? Join Harry and his friends as they embark on a journey to unravel the mystery of what happened to the old world, and what is wrong with the new. They might not like what they discover. From the writer of the Watty-winning A Day of Faces and The Mechanical Crown.

An orphan with a dubious pedigree strives to secure her future through marriage, but as she stumbles through the dance of courtship, she begins to question who she truly is -- and who she wants to be. ***** Edith Shepley looks like a Wyrm. She takes after her father, whoever he was, but that doesn't change things. She is a proper Folk lady nonetheless, trained from the cradle to govern as Baroness of Ewert someday. And she knows her duty. Now a woman at sixteen years old, Edith must marry and beget Ewert's next heir. She obediently considers suitor after suitor, some sweet, some baffling, some detestable. But the more she sees of her mother's society, the more Edith questions whether she really is a Folk lady, after all. And the more she's stung by its insults, its injuries and injustices, the more she doubts she really wants to be. Book One of The Unfinished Wyrm! Wattys 2017 "The Storysmiths" winner!