In the 1950s, Oscar Hammerstein is asked to write the lyrics to a musical based on the life of a woman named Maria von Trapp. As half of the famous Rodgers & Hammerstein duo, he knows it has big Broadway potential. Yet much of Maria’s life will have to be reinvented for the stage, and with the horrors of war still fresh in people’s minds, Hammerstein can’t let audiences see just how close the von Trapps came to losing their lives. But when Maria sees the script that is supposedly based on her life, she becomes so incensed that she sets off to confront Hammerstein in person. Told that he’s busy, she is asked to express her concerns to his secretary, Fran. The pair strike up an unlikely friendship as Maria tells Fran about her life, contradicting much of what eventually will appear in The Sound of Music.

Paris, 1917. The notorious dancer Mata Hari sits in a cold cell awaiting freedom…or death. Alone and despondent, she is as confused as the rest of the world about the charges she’s been arrested on: treason leading to the deaths of thousands of French soldiers. As she waits for her fate to be decided, she relays the story of her life to a reporter who is allowed to visit her in prison. Beginning with her carefree childhood, Mata Hari recounts her father’s cruel abandonment of her family as well her calamitous marriage to a military officer. Taken to the island of Java, she refuses to be ruled by her abusive husband and instead learns to dance, paving the way to her stardom as Europe’s most infamous dancer.

When the British Empire sets its sights on India in the mid-19th century, it expects a quick and easy conquest. India is fractured and divided into kingdoms, each independent and wary of one another, seemingly no match for the might of the English. But when they arrive in the Kingdom of Jhansi, the British army is met with a surprising challenge. Instead of surrendering, Queen Lakshmi raises two armies and rides into battle, determined to protect her country and her people.

In THE SECOND EMPRESS, Michelle Moran brings us into the lives of the women who knew Napoleon best: Hortense Beauharnais, his stepdaughter from wife Joséphine's previous marriage; Pauline Bonaparte, his infamous and promiscuous sister with whom he likely had an affair; and Marie-Louise, the Austrian wife who cannot wait to be free of him.

The world knows Madame Tussaud as a wax artist extraordinaire...but who was this woman who became one of the most famous sculptresses of all time? In these pages, her tumultuous and amazing story comes to life. The year is 1788, and a revolution is about to begin.

Following the deaths of Marc Antony and Cleopatra, their three orphaned children are taken in chains to Rome, but only two --- the ten-year-old twins Selene and Alexander --- survive the journey. Delivered to the household of Octavian’s sister, the siblings cling to each other and to the hope that they will return one day to their rightful place on the throne of Egypt. As they come of age, they are buffeted by the personal ambitions of Octavian’s family and court, by the ever-present threat of slave rebellion, and by the longings and desires deep within their own hearts.