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I, IAGO

I, Iago
is an ingenious, brilliantly crafted novel that allows one of literature's greatest villains—the deceitful schemer Iago from Shakespeare's immortal tragedy,
Othello
—to take center stage in order to reveal his “true” motivations.

From earliest childhood, the precocious boy called Iago had inconvenient tendencies toward honesty—a failing that made him an embarrassment to his family and an outcast in the corrupt culture of glittering Renaissance Venice. Embracing military life as an antidote to the frippery of Venetian society, Iago won the love of the beautiful Emilia and the regard of Venice's revered General Othello. After years of abuse and rejection, Iago was poised to achieve everything he had ever fought for and dreamed of. . . .

But a cascade of unexpected deceptions propels him on a catastrophic quest for righteous vengeance, contorting his moral compass until he has betrayed his closest friends and family and has sealed his own fate as one of the most notorious villains of all time.

Inspired by William Shakespeare's classic tragedy,
Othello
—a timeless
tale of friendship and treachery, love and jealousy—Galland's
I, Iago
sheds fascinating new light on a complex soul, and on the conditions and fateful events that helped to create a monster.

GODIVA

Godiva
is a crafty retelling of the legend of Lady Godiva.

According to legend, Lady Godiva lifted the unfair taxation of her people by her husband, Leofric, Earl of Mercia, by riding through the streets of Coventry wearing only a smile. It's a story that's kept tongues wagging for nearly a thousand years. But what would drive a lady of the court to take off everything and risk her reputation, her life, even her wardrobe—all for a few peasants' pennies?

In this daringly original, charmingly twisted take on an oft-imagined tale, Nicole Galland exposes a provocative view of Godiva not only in the flesh, but in all her glory. With history exonerating her dear husband, Godiva, helped along by her steadfast companion the abbess Edgiva, defies the tyranny of a new royal villain. Never before has Countess Godiva's ride into infamy—and into an unexpected adventure of romance, deceit, and naked intrigue—been told quite like this.

THE FOOL'S TALE

Wales, 1198. A time of treachery, passion, and uncertainty. Maelgwyn ap Cadwallon struggles to protect his small kingdom from foes outside and inside his borders. Pressured into a marriage of political convenience, he weds the headstrong young Isabel Mortimer, niece of his powerful English nemesis. Gwirion, the king's oldest and oddest friend, has a particular reason to hate Mortimer, and immediately employs his royally sanctioned mischief to disquiet the new queen.

Through strength of character, Isabel wins her husband's grudging respect, but finds the Welsh court backward and barbaric—especially Gwirion, against whom she engages in a relentless battle of wills. When Gwirion and Isabel's mutual animosity is abruptly transformed, the king finds himself as threatened by loved ones as he is threatened by the many enemies who menace his crown.

A masterful debut by a gifted storyteller,
The Fool's Tale
combines vivid historical fiction, compelling political intrigue, and passionate romance to create an intimate drama of three individuals bound—and undone—by love and loyalty.

REVENGE OF THE ROSE

An impoverished, idealistic young knight in rural Burgundy, Willem of Dole, greets with astonishment his summons to the court of Konrad, Holy Roman Emperor, whose realm spans half of Europe. Immediately overwhelmed by court affairs, Willem submits to the relentless tutelage of Konrad's minstrel—the mischievous, mysterious Jouglet. With Jouglet's help, Willem quickly rises in the emperor's esteem . . .

. . . But when Willem's sister Lienor becomes a prospect for the role of empress, the sudden elevation of two sibling “nobodies” causes panic in a royal court fueled by gossip, secrets, treachery, and lies. Three desperate men in Konrad's inner circle frantically vie to control the game of politics, yet Jouglet the minstrel is somehow always one step ahead of them.

Astutely reimagining the lush, conniving heart of thirteenth-century Europe's greatest empire,
Revenge of the Rose
is a novel rich in irony and wit that revels in the politics, passions, and peccadilloes of the medieval court.

CROSSED: A TALE OF THE FOURTH CRUSADE

In the year 1202, thousands of Crusaders gather in Venice, preparing to embark for Jerusalem to free the Holy City from Muslim rule. Among them is an irreverent British vagabond who has literally lost his way, rescued from damnation by a pious German knight. Despite the vagabond's objections, they set sail with dedicated companions and a beautiful, mysterious Arab “princess.”

But the divine light guiding this “righteous” campaign soon darkens as the mission sinks ever deeper into disgrace, moral turpitude, and almost farcical catastrophe. As Catholics murder Catholics in the Adriatic port city of Zara, tragic events are set in motion that will ultimately lead to the shocking and shameful fall of Constantinople.

Impeccably researched and beautifully told, Nicole Galland's
Crossed
is a sly tale of the disastrous Fourth Crusade—and of the hopeful, brave, and driven people who were trapped by a corrupt cause and a furious battle that were beyond their comprehension or control.

This book is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, and dialogue are drawn from the author's imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

P.S.™ is a trademark of HarperCollins Publishers.

STEPDOG
. Copyright © 2015 by Nicole Galland. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

FIRST EDITION

Photograph on title page and part openers by © greg801 via iStock.com

Golden Retriever Dog Photograph on title page and part openers by © Mikkel Bigandt via Shutterstock, Inc.

EPub Edition August 2015 ISBN 9780062369482

ISBN 978-0-06-236947-5

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