AustLit

'Marie de France, the young wife of an elderly Breton lord, finds the course of her life forever changed by an encounter with a mysterious knight in a deep and dangerous forest filled with magic. A year later, newly widowed, and on her way to her ancestral home, Marie comes face to face with another aspect of her destiny in a passionate encounter with the famous Richard the Lionheart. Like Marie, Richard is a poet and troubadour. But he's also the second son of the king of England, Henry Plantagenet, and his wife, Eleanor d'Aquitaine, not to mention betrothed to the king of France's daughter... But something even more dangerous than the political considerations of kings is stalking Marie, and when long shape-shifting shadows from the past reach out to claim her, she must face their terrifying powers...'.

Source: bookseller's website.

'Marie de France, poet and lover of the famed Richard the Lionheart, is determined to free her faithful knight Llew from the spell that has transformed him into a swan. But to do so she must travel from France to St Non's Well in the magical land of Wales.

'Frustration mounts as the very heavens themselves seem to conspire against Marie's departure from the court of Richard's father, Henry II, at Anjou. And when at last she embarks for Britain, Marie finds she must interrupt her journey again to pay homage to Richard's brilliant, exiled mother, Eleanor of Aquitaine, at Salisbury.

'On reaching Eleanor's court, Marie's strange and vivid dreams of an ethereal lady of the flowers are the first hint of the machinations of the magical Otherworld in Llew's fate. And so begins an extraordinary adventure which will change Marie's life irrevocably'.

Source: bookseller's website.

'In answer to a call from the Otherworld, poet and troubadour Marie de France travels to the borderlands of Wales with her beloved knight and betrothed, Llew. When the travellers are set upon in a plot to steal Marie's ancient necklace, dwellers of the Otherworld of Oakenfast come to their rescue, led by the mysterious Greenleaf.' (Publication summary)