The Destiny Code
(2018)(The first book in the Daughters of the Empire series)
A novel by Suzette Hollingsworth
A closet Victorian psychic is outcasted when she has a vision at her presentation ball. Fleeing to foreign lands while wagging tongues find other prey, she encounters the last person she wants to see: the dark lord of her vision.
Miss Alita Stanton's presentation to society at the Queen's Ball in Buckingham Palace ends in ruination. While on the ballroom floor she is involuntarily possessed by a prophetic trance revealing the powerful Black Panther dying on a desultory foreign battlefield. Still dazed from the nightmarish scene, Alita recounts her experience and is outcasted on the most important day of her life, destroying her dreams and confirming her conviction it is necessary to keep her true nature hidden.
Socially shunned, Alita travels to a fashionable foreign venue while wagging tongues find other prey. Once in Egypt, she meets the last person she wants to see: Valerius Huntington, Captain of the Princess Royals' 7th Dragoon Guards, the 5th earl of Ravensdale, the man of her dreams, and the Black Panther of her vision.
Lord Captain Ravensdale, motivated by duty and honor, unknowingly kills an Egyptian friend in the Battle of Tel-El-Kebir, in the process creating two orphans. Val helps win Egypt and the Suez Canal for imperial Britain while simultaneously entering the dark night of the soul.
Alita can see Val's destiny, but procuring his future would be the end to hers. The academic earl of Ravensdale and Princess Royals' captain will not marry a quack or a soothsayer. Her sight is clear on this.
A Victorian "Practical Magic": a failed presentation, an unforgiving society, dreams crushed, foreign travel, danger, an Egyptian mystic, and a dark lord.
And, yes, even a nosy Grandmamma.
"A sensitive and intelligent writing of a beautiful love story against a backdrop of historical events with a delightful happy everafter." - Kathie Montefiore-Gardner
Rating: Sensual and romantic. The focus is on the Romance, adhering to the cultural mores of the time, consistent with historical fiction. Inspired by true events surrounding the Valley of the Kings and the Battle of Tel-el-Kebir in Egypt (winning the Suez Canal for Britain). Historical figures include but are not limited to: Queen Victoria, William Gladstone (Prime Minister of Britain), the Mahdi (leader of the Egyptian forces), John Stuart Mill (advocate for women's rights), Thubten Gyatso (the Dalai Lama of Tibet), Private Robert Tutt who gave a first-hand account of the Battle of Tel-el-Kebir, and Sir Evelyn Baring (British consul and Egypt's shadow pharaoh).
The daughter of each union is the heroine of the next novel in the"Daughters of the Empire" series. #2 in the series, "The Serenade: The Prince and the Siren" is an Edwardian Royal Romance.
Genre: Historical Romance
Miss Alita Stanton's presentation to society at the Queen's Ball in Buckingham Palace ends in ruination. While on the ballroom floor she is involuntarily possessed by a prophetic trance revealing the powerful Black Panther dying on a desultory foreign battlefield. Still dazed from the nightmarish scene, Alita recounts her experience and is outcasted on the most important day of her life, destroying her dreams and confirming her conviction it is necessary to keep her true nature hidden.
Socially shunned, Alita travels to a fashionable foreign venue while wagging tongues find other prey. Once in Egypt, she meets the last person she wants to see: Valerius Huntington, Captain of the Princess Royals' 7th Dragoon Guards, the 5th earl of Ravensdale, the man of her dreams, and the Black Panther of her vision.
Lord Captain Ravensdale, motivated by duty and honor, unknowingly kills an Egyptian friend in the Battle of Tel-El-Kebir, in the process creating two orphans. Val helps win Egypt and the Suez Canal for imperial Britain while simultaneously entering the dark night of the soul.
Alita can see Val's destiny, but procuring his future would be the end to hers. The academic earl of Ravensdale and Princess Royals' captain will not marry a quack or a soothsayer. Her sight is clear on this.
A Victorian "Practical Magic": a failed presentation, an unforgiving society, dreams crushed, foreign travel, danger, an Egyptian mystic, and a dark lord.
And, yes, even a nosy Grandmamma.
"A sensitive and intelligent writing of a beautiful love story against a backdrop of historical events with a delightful happy everafter." - Kathie Montefiore-Gardner
Rating: Sensual and romantic. The focus is on the Romance, adhering to the cultural mores of the time, consistent with historical fiction. Inspired by true events surrounding the Valley of the Kings and the Battle of Tel-el-Kebir in Egypt (winning the Suez Canal for Britain). Historical figures include but are not limited to: Queen Victoria, William Gladstone (Prime Minister of Britain), the Mahdi (leader of the Egyptian forces), John Stuart Mill (advocate for women's rights), Thubten Gyatso (the Dalai Lama of Tibet), Private Robert Tutt who gave a first-hand account of the Battle of Tel-el-Kebir, and Sir Evelyn Baring (British consul and Egypt's shadow pharaoh).
The daughter of each union is the heroine of the next novel in the"Daughters of the Empire" series. #2 in the series, "The Serenade: The Prince and the Siren" is an Edwardian Royal Romance.
Genre: Historical Romance
Used availability for Suzette Hollingsworth's The Destiny Code