A VIVID AND DRAMATIC STORY OF LOVE, CONFLICT AND REBELLION IN NINETEENTH CENTURY MEXICO In the late 1860’s the royal families of Europe collaborated with the French in an ingenious plan to take over Mexico. They set up Maximilian von Hapsburg and his wife Carlóta as the Emperor and Empress of Mexico. In accepting this crown Maximilian bowed to the ambitions of his wife, a disturbed yet disturbingly beautiful woman. Unfortunately Maximilian was inept as a ruler and the whole adventure ended in disaster as the people of Mexico, led by Juarez, rose to overthrow him. Told against a background of imperial splendour and ever increasing tension, this novel has three themes—the making of a girl into a woman, the making of a man into a doctor, and the making of a nation—developed through the stories of two young Americans, Dr. Andrew Lorimer and his sister Sally, and Pierre Franchet, a soldier in the French Expeditionary Corps. The Cactus and the Crown, which was first published in 1962, is an exceptionally well-researched historical novel from Catherine Gavin, set during the beginnings of the Mexican nation, when Maximilian was Emperor and the guerrilla forces of Benito Juarez were fighting against French troops.

This is a new release of the original 1962 edition.

One of NPR's 50 Favorite Sci-Fi and Fantasy Books of the Past Decade In the follow-up to the "delightful" Regency fantasy novel (NPR.org) Sorcerer to the Crown, a young woman with no memories of her past finds herself embroiled in dangerous politics in England and the land of the fae. When sisters Muna and Sakti wake up on the peaceful beach of the island of Janda Baik, they can’t remember anything, except that they are bound as only sisters can be. They have been cursed by an unknown enchanter, and slowly Sakti starts to fade away. The only hope of saving her is to go to distant Britain, where the Sorceress Royal has established an academy to train women in magic. If Muna is to save her sister, she must learn to navigate high society, and trick the English magicians into believing she is a magical prodigy. As she's drawn into their intrigues, she must uncover the secrets of her past, and journey into a world with more magic than she had ever dreamed.