"The Serpent and the Rose" -- A Historical Novel

                   It was a mother-daughter battle for the ages.

Marguerite de Valois was the daughter of the infamous Catherine de Medici, often called "the Serpent Queen," in early Renaissance France, and spent much of her life trying to survive her mother's machinations.  A devout Catholic, Marguerite was forced into marriage with Henri de Navarre, the leader of the Huguenot resistance, to quell the religious wars that were raging at the time. But Marguerite, unlike her other brothers and sister, had spirit, smarts, and great beauty. She alone managed to survive her mother's plots, but at great personal cost.