A
stolen crown jewel and an enigmatic portrait force two women to confront the
devastating choices they made for love—and summon the courage to live with the
truth.
1619: Barbara,
Lady Villiers, at the bidding of her brother-in-law, the Duke of Buckingham,
has stolen the dying Queen Anna’s jewels—and kept the greatest prize for
herself. The Queen’s Tears, a brooch of extraordinary value, torments her: too
dangerous to sell, too priceless to discard, and possibly her only means of
securing her children’s future. When the family fortunes are shattered, Barbara
faces an impossible choice: remain loyal to Buckingham—or betray him by
confessing the theft to King Charles.
Present Day: Julia Darke opens her Cotswolds
bookshop to start life over peacefully. Instead, a Van Dyck portrait of
Barbara’s daughter, with tantalising signs of the missing Queen’s Tears hidden
in plain sight, brings her face-to-face with Oliver Villiers, the Oxford art
conservator she once loved and walked away from.
Reluctantly drawn together to uncover Barbara’s secret, Julia and Oliver follow
the trail of the Queen’s Tears—and the closer Julia comes to Barbara’s truth,
the harder it becomes to hide from her own.
Inspired by the true stories of Queen Anna of
Denmark’s stolen jewels and a missing Van Dyck painting, The
Queen’s Tears weaves history, fiction, and family research across the
centuries. Readers of The Lydiard Chronicles will
find old favourites—and a new heroine following in their footsteps.
Buy Link:
Universal Buy Link: https://geni.us/TheQueensTears
This title is available to read on #KindleUnlimited.
Elizabeth St.John's acclaimed historical fiction brings to
life her ancestors—remarkable women linked to England's royalty—offering unique
insights into Medieval, Tudor, and Stuart times. Her novels unfold not just as
traditional series, but as an interlocking web of lives: The Lydiard
Chronicles—including the celebrated The Lady of the Tower—The
Godmother's Secret, and The King's Intelligencer explore everything
from the English Civil War to the mystery of the Princes in the Tower. Her
newest novel, The Queen’s Tears, a dual timeline pursuing a stolen crown
jewel, reunites favourite characters from the seventeenth-century with a
present-day bookstore owner heroine.
At the heart of her writing is the transformation of real
ancestral histories into narratives of historical continuity. She follows
threads of legacy through generations, guided as much by wills, letters,
portraits, country churches, ruined castles, manor houses, and lost gardens as
by imagination. Locations become constant companions through time, while
characters whisper across centuries—their decisions resonating in the lives of
their descendants to reveal how choices shape legacies. Grounded in historic
sites like Lydiard Park and the Tower of London, her work creates a living
archival flow that continues to flourish as the past yields its secrets.
Elizabeth divides her time between California, England, and
the past, surrounded by books, gardens, and animals, with a slightly bewildered,
ever-supportive husband beside her.
Author Links:
Website: https://www.elizabethjstjohn.com/
Twitter / X: https://x.com/ElizStJohn
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ElizabethJStJohn/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/elizabethjstjohn/
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/elizabethstjohn.bsky.social
Book Bub: https://www.bookbub.com/profile/elizabeth-st-john
Threads: https://www.threads.com/@elizabethjstjohn
Amazon Author Page: https://geni.us/AmazonElizabethStJohn
Goodreads: https://geni.us/GoodreadsElizStJohn
Linked In: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elizabethjstjohn/
If
you enjoy powerful historical fiction, you’ll love Forgiving Nero. An
award‑winning novel of betrayal, survival, and redemption set in ancient Rome. https://books2read.com/u/3GOMvQ
Thanks for the beautiful spotlight on The Queen's Tears, Mary Ann!
ReplyDeleteHappy to have you.
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