Queen of Shadows

This book has been a loooong time in the making. For ten years, I’ve struggled with how to tell the story of Alfonso XI of Castile, his wife Maria of Portugal and the fair Leonor de Guzmán.

Alfonso XI lost his father while still a baby, was more or less raised by his impressive grandmother Maria de Molina, had loyal uncles to be his regents (until they died), but decided at age fourteen to take over control of his realm. By then, Maria de Molina was dead, and Alfonso’s first challenge was to handle all those disgruntled nobles who’d grown fat and happy during his minority.

How better to do that than by doing some sundering – or so I assume Alfonso reasoned, when he arranged a marriage with the daughter of one of his belligerent nobles, used this distraction to arrange the assasination of the other major pain up his backside and then divorced the very young bride in favour of a better marriage.

So yes, Alfonso XI could be ruthless and manipulative . . .

His wife, Maria of Portugal, was his first cousin on both sides. They never seem to have hit things off, plus, of course, by then Alfonso had fallen in love with Leonor, labelled the most beautiful woman in the realm.

Was she that beautiful? Well, we don’t know. But there must have been something about Leonor, because with the mandatory visits to his wife to sire an heir, Alfonso remained true to her for teh rest of his life. Le sigh – sounds liek quite the love story, doesn’t it? Well, I don’t think Maria would agree…

Queen of Shadows features two invented protagonists – Alma Ponce de León and Rodrigo de Altamar. I am very fond of both of them, and I invite you to come along on their journey from childhood/youth to adulthood, this in the midst of an era full of turmoil, what with constant rebellions within Castile and the growing threat from the Marinids, determined to win back the formerly Moorish lands from the Christians.

Queen of Shadows is a book about love. And hate. It is a book about broken vows, about treachery and death. It is the story of a kingdom that struggles to defend its borders, of men willing to die for their faith – and their king. It is about loyalty and honour, about women who shape their own fates – to a point.

Welcome to Castile, welcome to cities baking under relentless sun, to days of scorching heat. Welcome to the court of Alfonso XI and the woman he loved – no matter that she should have known better than to step out of the shadows to bask in the sun!

Download an excerpt!
Excerpt Queen of Shadows