<p>Winter, 1564. Beautiful young Princess Margot is summoned to her mother's household, where her education begins in earnest. Known across Europe as<i>Madame la Serpente</i>, Catherine de Médicis is an intimidating and unmoving presence in France-a powerful force in a country recovering from the first of many devastating religious wars. Among the crafty nobility of the royal court, Margot learns the intriguing and unspoken rules she must live by to please her manipulative family.</p><p>Eager to be an obedient daughter, Margot accepts her role as a marriage pawn, even as she is charmed by the powerful, charismatic Duc de Guise. Though Margot's heart belongs to Guise, her hand will be offered to Henri of Navarre, a Huguenot leader and a notorious heretic looking to seal a tenuous truce. But the promised peace is a mirage: her mother's schemes are endless, and her brothers plot vengeance in the streets of Paris. When Margot's wedding devolves into the bloodshed of the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre, she will be forced to choose between her family and her soul.</p><p><i>Médicis Daughter</i> is historical fiction at its finest, weaving a unique coming-of-age story and a forbidden love with one of the most dramatic and violent events in French history.</p>