Catherine Butterfield

THE SERPENT AND THE ROSE is a historical novel told in diary form by Marguerite de Valois, a French princess whose life was so sensational that William Shakespeare was inspired to write "Love's Labour's Lost" about her. Beautiful, brilliant, and accomplished, Marguerite was in a lifelong battle with her mother, the infamous Catherine de Medici. She was also the victim of a politically motivated smear campaign defaming her as a sexual deviant; a reputation...