Showing results for "the champions" in Historical Fiction

Alexander and Hervi de Montroi, half-brothers with no inheritance, meet in France. Hervi is a professional jouster and Alexander, fleeing the beatings of an English monastery, needs a trade. Despite misgivings, Hervi takes him on as his squire, introducing him to the travelers' immoral lifestyle. He befriends a girl, Monday, taking care of her after her parents die until, pregnant with Alexander's child, she leaves, finding shelter in a castle as a seamstress. Noticed by King John, she becomes his mistress in England, bearing his son and gaining a house.

1296 AD: the whole of Western Europe trembles on the brink of war. South of the Pyrenees, the Christian and Moorish kingdoms fight and scheme against each for control of Hispania. To the north, the rival kings of England and France feverishly enlist allies as they battle for supremacy on the Continent. Even as the armies clash, spies and double agents fight their own bloody war in the shadows. From the safety of old age, En Pascal of Valencia recalls his own exploits in this brutal and treacherous era.

1297 AD: the kings of England and France have struck a truce, but elsewhere conflict still rages. In Scotland, the armies of Edward Longshanks have been driven out by a mysterious champion named William Wallace. Meanwhile, on the continent, the Holy Roman Empire is torn apart by civil war. En Pascal of Valencia, the poor knight of Aragon, tells the tale of these bloody wars. Fresh from his exploits in Flanders and Aquitaine, he is now an agent of the English king. As warrior, spy, and assassin, he must rely on his wits and his sword to survive. If those fail, there is always blind luck...

The Empress has given England a male heir but that single action creates rebels in Scotland and in Normandy who try to wrest Normandy and England from King Henry. When the Earl of Cleveland becomes his champion, it unleashes a storm of murder and treachery at the very heart of the Earl's world. In a fast-moving novel with battles and combats from the borders of Scotland to France itself, we see a world heading towards anarchy and civil war.

When Penny and John are taken against their will by a shadowy figure looking for evidence they don't have, both realize they've stumbled into something dangerous and complicated. With their friends and family desperately searching for them, Penny and John must make a daring escape. When they emerge back into the real world, they are confronted with a kidnapper who just won't stop.

Cynthia Breeding presents book three in the Children of the Mist series.

1300 AD: the armies of Edward Longshanks and the Guardians of Scotland confront each other. The final battle for control of northern Britain looms. Meanwhile Robert de Bruce, the young lord of Carrick, waits in the background to seize his opportunity. Bruce dreams of taking the Scottish crown for himself, and will stop at nothing to seize it. En Pascal of Valencia, the poor knight of Aragon, tells the tale of these bloody wars. After surviving the carnage of Göllheim and Falkirk, he now serves the English as warrior, spy and assassin.

Miriam Minger presents Book 5 in the Warriors of the Highlands series.

The fickle god Mabon, loose again in the human world, searches for the 13 treasures of Britain. With each one he collects, his power grows. Knowing that time grows short, Cade sends out his champions to draw lords from throughout the land together for a final stand against Mabon - before it is too late. The Pendragon’s Champions is the fifth book in the Last Pendragon Saga.

Finally, fortune appears to have smiled on the Fitzwarren brothers. Richard and Jack are back in England, and Richard's loyalty to Elizabeth looks like it is about to finally be repaid. Jack is afforded an opportunity to meet with his father on equal terms. Will all go well?

From the moment his father was executed in the arena for an act of treason, former military tribune and condemned gladiator Marcus Valerius Pavo has burned with the desire for revenge. Now all that stands between Pavo and victory is a man considered by many to be the greatest gladiator to have ever lived: Hermes. But even with Optio Macro as his trainer and the help of the snakish imperial secretary, defeating Hermes appears an impossible task.

Daniel is a young Métis man searching for a way to exist in a world of lateral violence, intergenerational trauma and systemic racism. Facing obstacles of his own at every turn, he observes and learns from the lived realities of his family members, friends, teachers and lovers. He finds hope in the inherent connection of Indigenous Peoples to the land, and the permanence of culture, language and ceremony in the face of displacement.

Karin and Pavel have become separated by war and the destruction of his family's home. When Pavel hears of Karin's predicament, he rushes to his beloved. But what will he find? Will the pull to remain by her side be stronger than the tug to return to the front lines? Zdenek and Eva are blissfully happy after finding one another. Then his father summons him home. It is a reunion Zdenek dreads. How will his father react to Zdenek's involvement with a merchant's daughter? More...what will Zdenek do if the man does not accept her?

It’s been four long years since Arianna MacLeod Cunningham’s ancestor opened a portal in the past to free lost souls and inadvertently pulled Arianna through from the future into her time. Arianna desperately wants to save her ill father and return to him, and when she travels to the Highland Games being held so near her childhood home, that desire is one she can no longer deny.

The World is Full of Champions spans more than thirty years from the ’60s to the late ’90s in race-torn Philadelphia as two proud Black families—one wealthy, the other not—confront major change when tragedy strikes and the daughter of the working-class Smythe family falls in love with the son of the affluent Whitman family.

Gaston has had his fill of war and the Latin Kingdoms when he learns that he has inherited his father's estate in France. He accepts one last quest for the Templars, the order he has served for 15 years, and agrees to deliver a package to Paris on his way home. A practical man, Gaston knows he now has need of a wife and an heir, so when a lovely widowed noblewoman on pilgrimage catches his eye, he believes he can see matters solved to their mutual convenience.

In Forever Her Champion, we meet one of those descendants, Rianna Coultier. For years, Rianna Coultier has searched for her father while trying to solve the mystery of why he abandoned her and her mother - and to understand her disturbing dreams. Or are they truly memories? Coincidence - or fate - puts Aiden Macgullane in her path at the moment she is about to discover the truth. He is not the same sweet boy she remembers from her childhood.

Solace is booming out of control. An important temple dedication is bringing merchants, dignitaries, and a host of ne’er-do-wells and surprise visitors to the fabled treetop town. And lately there have been a series of mysterious incidents. Palin has sworn off magic and nowadays acts as town mayor. He desperately needs a new sheriff, as the last one has just been murdered by malefactors unknown. Fortunately, Gerard has quit the knighthood after a quarrel with his father, and arrives just in time to don a sheriff’s badge.

Mediados del siglo XX. En el norte de Chile, un niño aprende a nadar en las aguas del río Loa junto a sus amigos y al poco tiempo se convierte en buzo pescador en una pequeña caleta aledaña, donde comparte faenas y convive con una pequeña comunidad de boteros. Martínez, el muchacho, posee un talento y una resistencia respiratoria inusuales que lo llevan a destacar en las competencias de caza submarina y a lucirse en un mundial de la disciplina que se organiza en el país.