Jeanne Kalogridis - The Borgia Bride

This sweeping historical novel tells the dramatic tale of that most intriguing of Renaissance women, Lucrezia Borgia. In 1502, the Borgia Terror is at its height. Pope Alexander VI and his infamous son, Cesare, have murdered their way to power: no one is safe. The poor are starving to death, the rich are terrified for their lives. Rome is under seige and the River Tiber is full of new bodies every day. Born into the most powerful and corrupt family at the heart of the snake-pit that is Renaissance Italy, Lucrezia Borgia is destined to be remembered by history as an evil, scheming seductress and poisoner. If a woman in Lucrezia's unenviable position is to survive, she must use the weapons at her disposal: sex, poison and intelligence. Having been raped by her father, the Pope, on her wedding night at the age of thirteen, Lucrezia is then faced with the murder of her first husband by her lecherous brother Cesare, who lusts after her himself. When a second marriage is proposed she fears she will be separated from her child, Giovanni, the result of her father's incestuous attentions. She is surprised and delighted to find herself falling in love with her second husband. But will she have the will and the courage to protect him when he becomes a threat to Alexander and Cesare's schemes?