Meg resolves to give the two would-be sweethearts their most hoped-for Christmas wish by returning the letters to the pockets of the intended recipients, not the senders. Together with her roguish troupe master, Meg opens them and discovers they are love letters-never sent-between a merchant's son and a landowner's daughter, who do not know of their shared affection.

But on this particularly cold winter's night, Meg notices two curious, sealed letters in the discard pile. In between performances of their newest play in the bustling town of Leeds, the troupe is picking the pockets of rich lords and ladies in preparation for their own ragtag Christmas.Īt the end of each long day's haul, the troupe's spoils are divided up, with the useless bits cast aside.

It's December 1558 in England and a new Queen is about to be crowned, but thief and amateur actress Meg Fellowes and her Golden Rose acting troupe are focused on survival, not politics. If you like this book, I have more like it.Who better to steal a heart for Christmas than a thief? In this e-short story and prequel to Maid of Secrets, an actress plays matchmaker for two young lovers. Bellocq convinces Thatcher/Ezzedine to spy on James to answer the question, is James Protestant like he says he is, or is he secretly Catholic? Phillips keeps things moving through plenty of backstory and we feel Thatcher/Ezzedine's contempt for the foggy, faithless, filthy place that was Britannia at the beginning of the 17th century in this dramatic, suspenseful tale. Bellocq finds Matthew Thatcher, born Mahmoud Ezzedine, an exiled physician to the Sultan of the Ottomans and resigned to never going home. The question troubling spy Geoffrey Bellocq and his masters is whether James will plunge England into the religious strife that blanketed the country prior to Elizabeth taking the throne. Intrigue was rife, even for the royal courts of the time, and it has proven great fodder for novelists, including Arthur Phillips, whose recently published The King at the Edge of the World takes place when the queen is obviously dying, and it looks like James VI of Scotland will be her heir. In this lively and fast-paced debut with plenty of action and plot twists (Kirkus Reviews), a secret society of young women make up Elizabeth I’s most trusted royal guard. The fact that she remained unmarried and childless was a cause of much concern. Behind the mask of Gloriana, however, Good Queen Bess ran a police state that quickly stamped out the slightest opposition. England's Elizabeth I was virtually deified during her reign, known as Britain's Golden Age. Maid of Secrets by Jennifer McGowan In this breathtaking start to a series, a secret society of young women make up Elizabeth.

Maid of secrets by jennifer mcgowan