Outside the gates of Rome, baying on the moonlit expanses of the Campagna, there is a mysterious dark wolf whose scent makes the animal in Regeane tremble with desire. Yet Regeane finds allies as well: Lucilla, rumored to be the private courtesan of Pope Hadrian himself Antonius, a wise and gentle soul trapped within a body grotesquely disfigured by disease and the little Saxon girl Elfgifa, brave beyond her years, with a tongue as sharp as a blade. And if the Church discovers her secret, Regeane will burn at the stake. The most notorious, her depraved uncle and guardian, will not scruple to betray her to the Church unless she aids him in his sinister schemes. Possessed of preternatural agility and strength, primal memories extending back thousands of years, and senses so keen they can pierce the veil of death itself, Regeane is a shapeshifter: woman and wolf, hunter and hunted.īetrothed by Charlemagne's command to a barbarian lord she has never seen, Regeane is surrounded by enemies.
But unknown to those plotting against her, the blood she has inherited from her murdered father makes her much more than a child of royalty. Regeane's regal blood renders her an unwilling pawn in the struggle for political power. Now, into the Eternal City comes Regeane, a beautiful young woman distantly related, through her dead mother, to Charlemagne. With intricate detailing and hypnotic prose, Alice Borchardt unleashes a new world to readers.In this new historical romantic fantasy of stunning originality and scope, Alice Borchardt breathes life into a bygone age, brilliantly recreating a sensuous, violent world-and the men and women whose grand ambitions, betrayals, and passions shape the era in which they live and die.ĭecadent Rome at the dawn of the Dark Ages is mired in crumbling grandeur. "A fascinating tale-brutal, ribald, engrossing, poignantly beautiful."-New York Times bestselling author Johanna Lindsay Now, as deadly plots tighten like a noose around her neck, Regeane must fight to live with dignity as the proud creature she is: civilized and savage, partaking of both, yet infinitely more than either.
But outside the gates of Rome, baying at the moon, there is a mysterious dark wolf whose scent awakens the animal in Regeane. Regeane is a shapeshifter-woman and wolf, hunter and hunted-possessed of preternatural agility and strength, primal memories extending back thousands of years, and senses so keen they can pierce the veil of death itself.īetrothed to a barbarian lord she has never seen, Regeane is surrounded by enemies. But the blood she has inherited from her murdered father makes her much more than a child of royalty. Into decadent Rome of the Dark Ages comes Regeane, an enigmatic young woman distantly related to Charlemagne. a stunning initiation into a dark and dazzlig realm."-Anne Rice "A daring and vibrant new voice on the female literary frontier.
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