The Shadow Queen (CD Audiobook) - 9781482970227

Paris, 1660. As the daughter of itinerant actors who once lit up Parisian stages, Claudette always thought her future lay in the theater. But a series of chance encounters pulls her into the orbit of the most beautiful woman in France: Athâenaèis de Montespan, the mistress to Louis XIV and reigning "Shadow Queen." Impetuous Athâenaèis wields a disconcerting amount of power--a fact that has ruffled many of the Sun King's key advisors. Needing someone to act as her eyes and ears, Athâenaèis hires Claudetteas a personal attendant. She fears political enemies are plotting her ruin while young courtesans angle to take the coveted spot in the king's bed. As Athâenaèis begins to lose her grip on the Sun King, her plots and fascination with the magical arts take a dark turn. Set against the gilded opulence of a newly constructed Versailles and the blood-stained fields of the Franco-Dutch War, The Shadow Queen is a seductive, gripping novel about lust, power, loyalty, and the increasingly uneasy relationship between two strong-willed women whose actions could shape the future of France.