The Bee and the Orange Tree by Melissa Ashley

The story of the woman who invented fairy tales . . .

It's 1966 and the salons of Paris are bursting with the creative energy of fierce, independently minded women. But outside those doors, the patriarchal forces of Louis XIV and the Catholic Church are moving to curb women's freedoms. In this battle for equality, Baroness Marie Catherine D'Aulnoy invents a powerful weapon: fairy tales.

When Marie Catherine's daughter Angelina arrives in Paris for the first time, she is swept up in the glamour and sensuality of the city, where a woman may live outside the confines of the church or marriage. But this is a fragile freedom, as she discovers when Marie Catherine's close friend Nicola Tiquet is arrested, accused of conspiring to murder her abusive husband. In the race to rescue Nicola, illusions will be shattered and dark secrets revealed as all three women learn how far they will go to preserve their liberty in a society determined to control them.

Genres: Historical Fiction - France - LGBT - Romance - Women's - Drama
Condition: Very good
Published: First published in 2020. This edition published in 2021 by Affirm Press
Pages: 369
ISBN: 9781922400321 
Weight: 355g