From the Publisher
Alice Verney is a young woman intent on achieving her dreams.
Having left Restoration England in the midst of a messy scandal,
she has been living in Louis XIV's Baroque, mannered France for two
years. Now she is returning home to England and anxious to
re-establish herself quickly. First, she will regain her former
position as a maid of honor to Charles II's queen. Then she will
marry the most celebrated duke of the Restoration, putting herself
in a position to attain power she's only dreamed of. As a duchess,
Alice will be able to make or break her friends and enemies at
will.
But all is not as it seems in the rowdy, merry court of Charles II.
Since the Restoration, old political alliances have frayed, and
there are whispers that the king is moving to divorce his barren
queen, who some wouldn't mind seeing dead. But Alice, loyal only to
a select few, is devoted to the queen, and so sets out to discover
who might be making sinister plans, and if her own father is one of
them. When a member of the royal family dies unexpectedly, and
poison is suspected, the stakes are raised. Alice steps up her
efforts to find out who is and isn't true to the queen, learns of
shocking betrayals throughout court, and meets a man that she may
be falling in love with-and who will spoil all of her plans. With
the suspected arrival of a known poison-maker, the atmosphere in
the court electrifies, and suddenly the safety of the king himself
seems uncertain. Secret plots are at play, and war is on the
horizon-but will it be with the Dutch or the French? And has King
Charles himself betrayed his country for greed?
The long-awaited prequel to Koen's beloved Through a Glass
Darkly, Dark Angels is a feast of a novel that
sparkles with all the passion, extravagance, danger, and scandal of
seventeenth-century England. Unforgettable in its dramatic force,
here is a novel of love and politics, of romance and betrayal, of
power and succession-and of a resourceful young woman who risks
everything for pride and status in an era in which women were
afforded little of either.
From the Jacket
The long-awaited prequel to Koen's beloved Through a Glass
Darkly, Dark Angels is a feast of a novel that
sparkles with all the passion, extravagance, danger, and scandal of
seventeenth-century England. Unforgettable in its dramatic force,
here is a novel of love and politics, of romance and betrayal, of
power and succession-and of a resourceful young woman who risks
everything for pride and status in an era in which women were
afforded little of either.
The questions in this guide are intended as a framework for your
group's discussion of Dark Angels.
About the Author
Karleen Koen is the author of Now Face to Face and
Through a Glass Darkly, which was a New York
Times bestseller and featured a much older Alice Verney (known
in that novel as the Duchess of Tamworth). The author lives in
Houston, Texas. Visit her online at karleenkoen.com.