Washoe County Library System

When one of his trading vessels returns to eighteenth-century London with the remarkable body of a mermaid, Jonah gains entry into high society and falls in love with a highly accomplished courtesan, with unexpected consequences.

Disguising herself as a courtesan to get the attention of her husband, who she has not seen in eight years, the Duchess of Colton arrives in 1816 Venice in where she sets her plan of seduction in motion and is shocked to discover that the man she married just could be the love of her life.

Set in France in 1682, during the time of Louis XIV, this novel tells the story of Yvette, a courtier in Versailles. After using her secret fencing skills to save one of the king's Musketeers, she continues her life disguised as a man, but her double life and insider knowledge also puts her in danger.

"Comtesse Valtesse de la Bigne was a celebrated nineteenth-century Parisian courtesan. She was painted by Manet and inspired Emile Zola, who immortalized her in his scandalous novel Nana. Her rumored affairs with Napoleon III and the future Edward VII kept gossip columns full. But her glamorous existence hid a dark secret: she was no Comtesse. She was born into abject poverty, raised on a squalid Paris backstreet; the lowest of the low. Yet she transformed...