AustLit

'The necessity of leaving the only home she had ever known was daunting so soon after the death of her beloved mother, but the new life she was about to embark on was to prove both exciting and challenging to Patience Kilpatrick. Daughter of a father who had abandoned his family to fight and die for Bonnie Prince Charlie at the Battle of Culloden, and granddaughter of the earl who had given his life in the earlier Stuart cause, she had lived a life far beneath her station and was happy to become governess to the young son of Milady Costain. Her growing confidence in herself and the twists and turns her life takes as she becomes embroiled in the fortunes of her contemporaries in the glittering world of London's aristocracy leads her into a future she could only have dreamed of.' (Publication summary)

'From poverty-stricken beginnings to untold riches, from the wilds of the Swedish Empire to the fabulous court of Tsar Peter the Great, within the grim and fabled walls of the Kremlin, Tanya de la Verriere is swept along in a world where women are the pawns and playthings of men, where she must use her wits and her beauty to survive. Desired by many, she gives her heart to one man only, fighting against all odds to finally win happiness.' (Publication summary)