1152: Les Baux de Provence. Medieval France comes to life in a historical page-turner full of intrigue, romance, and adventure!
The visit of the Comte du Barcelone to Les Baux sparks bitter memories of the recent civil war and Lady Etiennette des Baux has no intention of ceding to her overlord. Nor does she plan to remain a widow and she sets her sights on Dragonetz, offering him Provence as an incentive.
Meanwhile, Estela faces her own demons. Confronted with her childhood abusers, threatened and attacked, she confides in her friends. Unfortunately, one of those friends is Dragonetz' worst enemy and Estela has no idea of what he is capable.
In this third volume of the Troubadours Quartet, Jean Gill, the 'master of historical intrigue', continues to weave the gripping adventures of Dragonetz and Estela seamlessly into real historical events.
'Very accomplished historical fiction.' Historical Novel Society Editor's Choice
Winner of the Global Ebooks Award for Best Historical Fiction
Finalist in the Wishing Shelf Awards and the Chaucer Awards
5* 'By far the best historical fiction I have read this year!' - Rabia Tanveer, December 2015, for Readers' Favorite
Book 2 of the multi-award-winning medieval Historical Fiction series The Troubadours Quartet.
'Wonderful. If you love historical adventure and romance, you must pick up this series!' Autumn Birt, The Rise of the Fifth Order
1151: the Holy Land, where one book is worth more than a man's life. Imprisoned in Damascus, Dragonetz suffers the mind games inflicted by his anonymous enemies, as he is forced to remember the traumatic events of the crusade, two years earlier. His military prowess is as valuable and dangerous to the balance of power as the priceless Torah he has to deliver to Jerusalem, and the key players want Dragonetz riding with them - or dead.
Instead of remaining safely at home, Estela is desperate to rescue Dragonetz at all costs. She sets out for the Holy Land, never realising that the person she thinks will be her knight's saviour might actually be his doom. Can Estela get him out alive, despite Nur-ad-Din, the Muslim Atabeg; Mélisende, the Queen of Jerusalem; and an avenger from the past? Will she still want to, when she knows what they've done to him?
Once more, 'the master of historical intrigue' whirls the reader off into medieval mayhem. Jean Gill's details of crusading strategy and riding a camel are as convincing as the pangs of medieval childbirth. She brought medieval France to life in Song at Dawn; now she adds 12th century Damascus and Jerusalem with equal aplomb.
'A Masterpiece. A Historical Feast.' C M T Stibbe
Historical Novel Society Editor's Choice
Winner of the Global Ebooks Award for Best Historical Fiction
Finalist in the Wishing Shelf Awards, HNS Indie Awards and the Chaucer Awards
Discovered Diamond Award
5* 'I like my historical romance heavy on the history, light on the romance, with a strong cupful of action and adventure thrown in. When an author can get all of the elements in exactly the right proportions, we are probably talking bestseller. In Bladesong we have a bestseller.' Ray Simmons for Readers' Favorite
All three books in Jean Gill's award-winning eco-fantasy series, the Natural Forces Trilogy. Included in this collection are Queen of the Warrior Bees, Arrows Tipped with Honey, and The World Beyond the Walls. IPPY Audiobook Award winner, Royal Dragonfly Award winner, finalist in the Kindle Book Awards and the Wishing Shelf Awards
Bee-shifter, bear-shifter, Forest spy and woman-lover; what's second nature to four unlikely friends is a death sentence in the Citadel.
Take a wild flight with Mielitta into the forbidden Forest in this highly original epic eco-fantasy series. As she grows from despised servant to Queen of the Warrior Bees, Mielitta discovers that evil can wear a friend's face and an unlikely alliance is her best chance of healing the rift between sterile Citadel and vibrant Forest.
The mysterious world beyond the walls offers the answer to her identity but she knows her friends could pay a terrible price for crossing the boundary. Her natural forces tested beyond human endurance, Mielitta's bond with her bees is all that offers hope for the future. Is it enough? Can she live up to her destiny? And should she?
Block Nature out and she'll force a way in.
'Jean Gill's Natural Forces series offer a rich, strange, and alluring adventure that buzzes with intrigue and nature.' The Booklife Prize
'Fabulous world-building and spellbinding intrigue,' Karen Inglis
Bee-shifter, bear-shifter, Forest spy and woman-lover; what's second nature to four unlikely friends is a death sentence in the Citadel. The standalone climax to an award-winning series. 2021 IPPY Audiobook Award winner. 2020 Royal Dragonfly Award winner.
2020 Kindle Book Award Fantasy Finalist.
Mage Kermon struggles to stay loyal to Mielitta, the Queen of the Warrior Bees, in the ongoing war between the oppressive Citadel and the vibrant Forest. His secret dual role in the Citadel is threatened when his students trespass into the mysterious world beyond the walls and, in the back-stabbing climate of Citadel politics, he’s the sacrifice everyone is prepared to make. Little do those around him know that the future of both Forest and Citadel depends on his survival.
Mielitta has always relied on Kermon in her fight to restore harmony with Nature and now he needs her help. But to save him and the lives of his two young rebels, the bee-shifter must face the evil that lurks in the Citadel walls. Her natural forces tested beyond human endurance, she discovers that evil can wear a friend’s face and that to keep one promise, Kermon must break another.
This gripping conclusion to the acclaimed Natural Forces trilogy takes the reader on a wild flight into the unexpected as Mielitta learns why she was born. Can she fulfil her destiny?
Block Nature out and she’ll force a way in.
‘Jean Gill's Natural Forces series offer a rich, strange, and alluring adventure that buzzes with intrigue and nature.’ The Booklife Prize
‘Fabulous world-building and spellbinding intrigue,’ Karen Inglis
Four misfit friends and 50,000 bees against the might of the Citadel. 2020 Royal Dragonfly Award Winner. Author Shout Top Pick.
Exiled in the Forest, Mielitta, Queen of the Warrior Bees, could be happy but for her responsibilities to the very people who think her a freak and a traitor. Her hopes for change in the Perfect society of the Citadel rest on one man.
Trapped in a society he loathes and fears, Mage Smith Kermon's mission becomes a test of survival. Can he remain loyal to Mielitta in the double life he leads as her spy in the Citadel? He is quickly embroiled in deceit and subterfuge, forcing him into actions that make him doubt himself and everything he values.
Nobody can be trusted. Least of all the Mages bound to Mielitta's treaty by blood oath. When the dead don't stay dead, a broken oath could be Mielitta's doom.
Block Nature out and she'll force a way in.
2020 FINALIST in the Kindle Book Awards
Book 2 in an award-winning trilogy.
'Jean Gill's Natural Forces series offer a rich, strange, and alluring adventure that buzzes with intrigue and nature.' The Booklife Prize 2020
'An epic fight for nature,' Deb McEwan, the Afterlife series
Epic eco-fantasy. 2020 Kindle Book Awards Finalist. Standalone Bk 1 in an award-winning trilogy. 2020 Royal Dragonfly Award winner.
One misfit girl and 50,000 bees against the might of the Citadel.
Mielitta, a despised servant of dubious parentage, yearns to be an adult and fit into Citadel society but the all-powerful mages won't even consider her for the Maturity Test. As they fight amongst themselves, Mielitta overhears their secrets and plans to escape.
Bastien and Jannlou, the boys who terrorised her as a child, have grown into their status as Mages and she cannot escape them forever.
In desperation, she flees to the forbidden Forest and its dangerous attractions. Her scent angers thousands of bees and, although she survives their attack, she has changed. As a bee-shifter, Mielitta sees the world differently.
This bond works both ways and the bees need Mielitta's help as the rift widens between Forest and Citadel. Can Mielitta find the fulfilment she craves or will the Mages crush every cell of her second nature?
Block Nature out and she'll force a way in.
'Gill's work stands apart through its strikingly inventive concept, distinctive sense of place, and masterful use of imagery.' 10 out of 10, The Booklife Prize
'A brilliantly imagined fantasy with a strong environmental message.' Ashley Dyer
1150 in Provence, where making love and making paper are both crimes against the Church.
Like 'Game of Thrones' with real history. Book 1 of the multi-award-winning epic medieval Historical Fiction series 'The Troubadours'.
Estela wants to be Queen Aliénor’s troubadour and ex-crusader Dragonetz los Pros is commanded to teach her. In a world where love and marriage are as divided as Christian, Muslim and Jew, personal and political passions create deadly enemies.
On the run from abuse, Estela wakes in a ditch with only her lute, her amazing voice, and a dagger hidden in her underskirt. Her talent finds a patron in Aliénor of Aquitaine and more than a music tutor in the Queen's finest troubadour and Commander of the Guard, Dragonetz los Pros. Their enemies gather, ready to light the political and religious powder-keg of medieval Narbonne.
Set in the period following the Second Crusade, Jean Gill's spellbinding romantic thrillers evoke medieval France with breathtaking accuracy. The characters leap off the page and include amazing women like Eleanor of Aquitaine and Ermengarda of Narbonne, who shaped history in battles and in bedchambers.
'Historical Fiction at its best.' Karen Charlton, author of the Detective Lavender Mysteries
'Believable, page-turning and memorable.' Lela Michael, S.P. Review
Historical Novel Society Editor's Choice
Winner of the Global Ebooks Award for Best Historical Fiction
Finalist in the Wishing Shelf Awards and the Chaucer Awards
Humorous travel book about moving to France from IPPY and Global Ebook Award Winner Jean Gill
'Laugh out loud ... this autobiography from Welsh writer and photographer Jean Gill tells the tale of her first year in Provence - complete with challenging situations and thought-provoking musings. Jean takes readers on a tour of the beautiful Drome area, painting such a vivid picture of the fields of lavender, sunflowers and olive trees that you could almost be there with her.' - Living France Magazine
The true scents of Provence? Lavender, thyme and septic tank.
There are hundreds of interesting things you can do in a bath but washing dishes is not one of them, nor what writer Jean Gill had in mind when she swopped her Welsh Valley for a French one.
Keen to move out of the elephant's stomach, that stew of grey mists called weather in Wales, she offered her swimming certificate to a bemused Provencale estate agent and bought a house with good stars and its own spring-water. Or rather, as it turns out, a neighbour's spring-water that is the only supply to the kitchen, which, according to the nice men from the Water Board, is emptying its dirty water directly and illegally onto the main road... and there's worse ...
But how can you resist a village called Dieulefit, `God created it', the village 'where everyone belongs'.
Discover the real Provence in good company ...
Watch the trailer youtube.com/watch?v=o_Rrn4CGw5A..
