Author Appearance: Hana Samek Norton

A transporting debut novel set in thirteenth century France-a time when chivalry reigned and treachery ruled.

In the last years of her eventful life, queen-duchess Aliénor of Aquitaine launches a deadly dynastic chess game to safeguard the crowns of Normandy and England for John Plantagenet, her last surviving son.

To that end, Aliénor coerces into matrimony two pawns-Juliana de Charnais, a plain and pious novice determined to regain her inheritance, and Guérin de lasalle, a cynical, war-worn mercenary equally resolved to renounce his.

The womanizing Lasalle and the proud Juliana are perfectly matched for battle not love-until spies and assassins conspire to reverse their romantic fortunes.

Populated by spirited and intelligent women and executed in flawless period detail, The Sixth Surrender is a compelling love story that heralds the arrival of a major new talent in historical fiction.

About the author: Hana Samek Norton was born in the former Czechoslovakia, a small country with a long tradition of being overrun by larger ones. That tradition led to her family coming as political refugees to Canada. She thought there had to be a rhyme or reason to it all and so she studied history.

She currently lives in New Mexico. She sometimes teaches her favorite subject, delves into its more serious parts, and now writes the sort of history she grew up on and likes to read in her off-duty hours.