Mirror Mirror - A Novel

Gregory Maguire

Summary

“Entertaining…profound….A novel for adults that unearths our buried fascination with the primal fears and truths fairy tales contain.” —Christian Science Monitor 
The acclaimed author who re-imagined a darker, more dangerous Land of Oz in his New York Times bestselling series The Wicked Years, offers a brilliant reinvention of the timeless Snow White fairy tale. Setting the story amid the cultural, political and artistic whirlwind of Renaissance Italy—and casting the notorious Lucrezia Borgia as the Evil Queen—Mirror Mirror will enthrall a wide array of book lovers ranging from adult fans of Harry Potter to readers of the sophisticated stories of Angela Carter. 
The year is 1502, and seven-year-old Bianca de Nevada lives perched high above the rolling hills and valleys of Tuscany and Umbria at Montefiore, the farm of her beloved father, Don Vicente. But one day a noble entourage makes its way up the winding slopes to the farm -- and the world comes to Montefiore. 
In the presence of Cesare Borgia and his sister, the lovely and vain Lucrezia -- decadent children of a wicked pope -- no one can claim innocence for very long. When Borgia sends Don Vicente on a years-long quest, he leaves Bianca under the care -- so to speak -- of Lucrezia. 
She plots a dire fate for the young girl in the woods below the farm, but in the dark forest salvation can be found as well ... 
A lyrical work of stunning creative vision, Mirror Mirror gives fresh life to the classic story of Snow White -- and has a truth and beauty all its own.

Available since: 03/17/2010.

Contemporary Fiction

Other books that might interest you

Never Forget Love

Barbara Cartland

The lovely young Nerissa Stanley, her brother, Harry, and their father, a distinguished academic writer on Elizabethan architecture live a threadbare existence in their family home.
 
So when her beautiful elder sister, Delphine, pays a surprise visit to her and Harry and then offers them a large sum of money, they have no option but to accept.
 
Delphine, who abandoned the family several years earlier to marry the rich elderly Lord Bramwell is now widowed they learn for the first time.
 
But she is now set on marrying another rich and prestigious aristocrat – the imperious and handsome Duke of Lynchester. Ashamed of their meagre lifestyle, she demands that her siblings pose as cook and butler in return for three hundred pounds, while she entertains the Duke in style in her ancestral home.
 
But, after the superb dinner is over, the Duke wanders into the kitchen unexpectedly and, instantly transfixed by the beauty, grace and charm of Nerissa, insists that the whole family joins his house party at his magnificent stately house, Lyn, which is not too far away.
 
There Nerissa discovers the secret curse of the Lynchester Dukes that they will never be happy once they inherit the title and then, through her special perspicacity and a vivid dream, when she talks to the ghost of a long dead Duchess, she puts the curse to rest.
 
The Duke’s heart is now set forever on Nerissa and he risks life itself and their future happiness in a cunning but perilous gamble when both of their hearts are at stake.

Show book

Mystery at the Station Hotel -...

Edward Marston

Shrewsbury, 1866. At the Station Hotel, staff struggle in vain to rouse Mr Julian Lockyer who requested an early wake-up call to catch a train. When they force open the door, they are horrified to discover a bloodied corpse in the bed, a knife still in the dead man's hand.
Inspector Robert Colbeck, the Railway Detective, is dispatched to investigate and soon begins to question whether this is really a case of suicide. For why would a man reaching the pinnacle of his career, about to be named the Chairman of the Great Western Railway, choose to take his own life? And why was his trip to Shrewsbury a secret from his family?
Colbeck and Sergeant Leeming must probe deeply into Lockyer's life and lies to find the answers and to catch the killer.

Show book

The Power and the Prince

Barbara Cartland

Socialite and ‘professional beauty’, Lady Odele Ashford, is taken aback when her lover, the notorious womaniser Prince Ivan Katinouski, asks her to find him a young bride, who will give him the children he has always wanted, specifying that she must be pure and innocent and of noble English birth. At first she thinks that this will surely interfere with her own intimate relationship with the handsome and immensely rich Prince. But then inspiration strikes. Her own innocent eighteen-year-old niece, the blonde, blue-eyed and beautiful Charlotte Storr is the perfect match! When Lady Storr receives a letter demanding that Charlotte is to attend a ball at his huge Castle to meet her unwanted suitor, young Charlotte is horror-stricken because her heart already belongs to Honourable Shane O’Derry, an impoverished Irish aristocrat.Desperate to distract the attention of the Prince, Charlotte’s brother Richard and Shane recruit another young beauty, a music teacher’s daughter, Alana, to pose as a young Noblewoman in the hope of distracting the Prince away from Charlotte.Alana is an ethereal and almost mystical beauty, who is an exceptional musician like her father. Reluctantly entangled in a web of intrigue Alana is at first repelled by the playboy Prince, yet finds herself drawn by some strange magical Power in his possession.

Show book

This is Love

Barbara Cartland

When her chaise is damaged in an accident far from her home, the beautiful young Lady Athina Ling has no choice but to stay at a nearby Posting inn while awaiting its repair. There she is appalled to hear the pitiful screams of a young boy who is being savagely beaten by the ‘gentleman’ who appears to be his Guardian. After bravely going to the child’s rescue, Athina discovers that he is Peter, the nephew of the handsome Marquis of Rockingdale whose estate neighbours her own and that he, Peter, is the heir to a very considerable fortune.Seeing the child’s horrific wounds, the Marquis agrees to help Athina protect and look after him – but he also needs her help with a great problem of his own. Namely that he must become engaged to be married before Queen Victoria will allow him to take up the important position of State he craves of the Master of the Horse. Which the Marquis is superbly qualified to excel at as he has been closely involved with the breeding and training of horses all his life.So to help protect the boy, Athina agrees to a pretend engagement to the Marquis to satisfy the demands of the Queen. But the threat is far worse than either of them could ever have imagined. As they strive together to save the boy from his murderous stepfather, they begin to realise that their engagement is no longer a pretence and that, in fact, this is love!

Show book

Flowers for the God of Love

Barbara Cartland

With Russian, English and Irish blood in her veins and described by her uncle Sir Terence O’Kerry, Head of the India Office, as ‘as mysterious as the Sphinx, but as lovely as Cleopatra must have been at that age’, it is no surprise that the beautiful young Quenella O’Kerry has suitors continually falling at her feet. The trouble is that among them is the lecherous Prince Ferdinand of Schertzenberg, who not only has pursued her relentlessly but has even attempted to force himself on her in her bedroom!It seems the only way for Quenella to escape the Prince’s clutches is a marriage of convenience and to leave England for some time.. And this is just what the dashing Major Rex Daviot requires if he is to accept the huge promotion offered to him by Queen Victoria to become the Lieutenant-Governor of India’s North-West Provinces, when India is under British rule.The prospect of a loveless marriage depresses Rex, who enjoys the attentions of many a Society beauty, but even as they journey to India, Quenella’s curiosity, intelligence and loveliness piques his interest. And very soon, despite himself, Rex finds that his marriage of convenience blossoms into something far, far deeper.

Show book

Mutiny - A Novel of the Bounty

John Boyne

“Enthralling . . . Boyne’s novel can stand comparison with William Golding’s Rites of Passage . . . Mutiny is storytelling at its most accomplished.” —The Independent (UK)

Internationally bestselling author John Boyne has been praised as “one of the best and original of the new generation of Irish writers” by the Irish Examiner. With Mutiny, he’s created an eye-opening story of life—and death—at sea.

Fourteen-year-old pickpocket John Jacob Turnstile has just been caught red-handed and is on his way to prison when an offer is put to him—a ship has been refitted over the last few months and is about to set sail with an important mission. The boy who was expected to serve as the captain’s personal valet has been injured and a replacement must be found immediately.

Given the choice of prison or a life at sea, John soon finds himself on board, meeting the captain, just as the ship sets sail. The ship is the Bounty, the captain is William Bligh, and their destination is Tahiti. Their journey, however, will become one of the most infamous in naval history.

Mutiny is the first novel to explore all the events relating to the Bounty’s voyage, from the long passage across the ocean to their adventures on the island of Tahiti and the subsequent forty-eight-day expedition toward Timor. This vivid retelling of the notorious mutiny is packed with humor, violence, and historical detail, while presenting an intriguingly different portrait of Captain Bligh and Mr. Christian than has ever been presented before.

“The writing grows into a mesmerizing tour-de-force . . . this is a remarkable and compelling piece of storytelling.” —The Irish Times

Show book