Author Description

The author of the internationally acclaimed Josephine B. trilogy returns with another deeply enchanting historical novel, this one based on the life of an extraordinary horsewoman, Louise de la Vallière, the brave and spirited child of minor nobility who, against all odds, grows up to become one of the most mysterious consorts of France’s King Louis XIV, the charismatic Sun King. Set against the magnificent decadence of the 17th-century court of the Sun King, Mistress of the Sun begins when the eccentric young Louise falls in love with a wild white stallion and uses ancient magic to tame him. This one desperate action of youth shadows her throughout her life, changing it in ways she could never imagine. Unmarriageable and too poor to join a convent, she enters the court of the Sun King as a maid of honour, where she captures— and then tragically loses—the King’s heart. Mistress of the Sun illuminates, through the resurrection of a fascinating female figure from the dark corners of history, both the power of true love and the rash actions we take to capture and tame it.Sandra Gulland’s previous work brought Josephine Bonaparte magnificently to life in three immediately addictive bestselling novels. Beginning with The Many Lives & Secret Sorrows of Josephine B.,Gulland established an entirely new gold standard for the art of historical fiction. Mistress of the Sun—a riveting love story with a captivating mystery at its centre—is a welcome reward for all those who have waited so patiently for its arrival.