The long-awaited paperback edition of the sequel to the best-selling novel The Passion of Mary Magdalen.

Following the internationally acclaimed Gold of Kings, Storm Syrrell returns in the compelling story of The Black Madonna. Antiques expert Storm Syrrell heads to Europe to investigate the clandestine trade in religious artifacts. She dismisses superstitious tales of miraculous healings and divine omens. Yet when an obsessive Russian oligarch calls—just as her friend Harry Bennett vanishes—all assumptions must be cast aside. Storm seeks answers in a medieval monastery. There, the scarred visage of an icon provokes ever more startling questions. Is she prepared to confront both earthly and spiritual powers? Storm remains haunted by lessons in love and betrayal that lie just outside her grasp. But hesitation now holds mortal consequences.

“A riveting adventure for the soul . . . just the kind of evocative historical fiction I love.”—Sara Gruen, author of At the Water’s Edge and Water for Elephants An epic, inspiring novel about one woman’s survival in the hardscrabble Italian countryside and her determination to protect her family throughout the Second World War—by any means possible Maria Vittoria is twenty-five when her father brings home the man who will become her husband. It is 1923 in the austere Italian mountain village where her family has lived for generations, and the man she sees is tall and handsome and has survived the First World War without any noticeable scars. Taking just the linens she has sewn that make up her dowry and a statue of the Madonna that sits by her bedside, Maria leaves the only life she has ever known to begin a family. But her future will not be what she imagines. The Madonna of the Mountains follows Maria over the next three decades, as she moves to the town where she and her husband become shopkeepers, through the birth of their five children, through the hardships and cruelties of the National Fascist Party Rule and the Second World War. Struggling with the cost of survival at a time when food is scarce and allegiances are questioned, Maria trusts no one and fears everyone—her Fascist cousin, the madwoman from her childhood, her watchful neighbors, the Nazis and the Partisans who show up hungry at her door. As Maria’s children grow up and her marriage endures its own hardships, she must hold her family together with resilience, love, and faith, until she makes a fateful decision that will change the course of all their lives. A sweeping saga about womanhood, loyalty, war, religion, family, food, motherhood, and marriage, The Madonna of the Mountains is a poignant look at the span of one woman’s life as the rules change and her world becomes unrecognizable. In depicting the great cost of war and the ineluctable power of time on a life, Elise Valmorbida has created an unforgettable portrait of a woman navigating both the unforeseen and the inevitable. Advance praise for Madonna of the Mountains “The moral and ethical questions raised propel the story beyond the particulars into the universal.”—Kirkus Reviews “It is a bewitching but entirely unsentimental portrait of one woman’s attempt to keep her family safe in turbulent times.”—The Times (UK), Book of the Month “A solid choice for readers who appreciate layered family sagas.”—Library Journal

After a life of passion and adventure that has brought her through slavery to the Resurrection garden, through the controversies of the Early Church to a hermit cave in southern gaul, Maeve, the Celtic Mary Magdalen, returns to the Holy Isles accompanied by Sarah, her daughter with Jesus. Their mission: to find Maeve's first-born child, stolen from her by the druids more than forty years ago. Since then, Maeve's homeland has suffered it's own trials--Roman invasion and occupation. The Celtic tribes to the east and south are under direct rule, and the Romans are determined to rout the resistance of the western tribes, resistance fueled by the druids of Mona. Just before she crosses the channel from Gaul to Britain, Maeve encounters a man she mistakes for Jesus's ghost. This familiar stranger is equally haunted, and the two are drawn into a moonstruck liason that will entwine their lives in "an impossible Celtic knot." For unbeknownst to Maeve at the time, he is none other than General Gaius Suetonius Paulinus, the newly-appointed Roman Governor of Britain. Maeve keeps this troubling tryst a secret even after she finds her long-lost daughter Boudica, the fierce and charismatic queen of the Iceni tribe. Druid-trained in her youth, Boudica married the Iceni king, hoping to rally him to a rebellion for which he has no stomach. Now estranged from her husband, Boudica keeps the old ways, sustained by her pride in her descent form her father (and Maeve's!) the late great druid Lovernios. Seeking to circumvent disaster, Maeve travels back and forth from Iceni country to Mona, from the heart of native resistance to a Roman fort on the Western front, steadfast in her conviction: "Love is as strong as death."

The first in an exciting new adventure series from the award-winning and internationally bestselling author of The Presence whose books have sold more than 6 million copies—Indiana Jones meets The Venetian Betrayal in this thrilling, rollicking read! Storm Syrell sells antiques in Palm Beach, Florida. An art historian, Storm arranges her life as she does her work—into neat, orderly categories. However when her grandfather dies under suspicious circumstances, she struggles to uncover clues he left behind in a frayed leather journal. Leaving behind Palm Beach for the untamed wilds of Cypress, Africa, and beyond, Storm is joined by one Harry Bennett—a scruffy, professional treasure hunter (aka, ex-con) who claims he must be the one to help solve her grandfather’s murder. Can Storm trust Harry? Does she have a choice? Before long the two form an unlikely alliance as they dash across the globe to figure out what Storm’s grandfather had been working on before his death…and get tangled up in a quest for secret historical writings that could spark a new crisis in Middle Eastern politics. Racing from the teeming gold markets of an Arabian souk to the highest ranks of European governments—and even to the depths of the Mediterranean Sea—Storm and Harry set out to find the documents before they fall into the wrong hands. Clearly they’re up against some formidable enemies, shady characters who will kill with impunity… and who won’t hesitate to kill again. And now Storm senses that someone is watching her very closely. With seconds to spare, the CIA, FBI, and then Interpol become involved in this hotblooded game of international intrigue, but Storm and Harry may learn the hard way that the only ones they can rely on are themselves. Gold of Kings is an exhilarating, atmospheric read. Like the best of James Rollins, Dan Brown, and Steve Berry, Davis Bunn combines an intoxicating blend of adventure and romance to keep readers gripping their seats and yearning for more.

"Smart and earthy . . . richly imaginative . . . the epitome of the storyteller's art."—St. Louis Post-Dispatch, named one of "The Year's Best Books" "This amazing book could well become a classic of women's literature."—Booklist, named one of the "Year's Ten Best Fantasy Books" Young Magdalen and Jesus, brimming with youthful charm and arrogance, find each other and fall in love, forging a bond that is stronger than death. Their pleasure is overshadowed by a brilliant but unbalanced druid who knows a perilous secret about Maeve's past. The prequel to The Passion of Mary Magdalen. Now in paperback!

She Is Everywhere! Volume 3 presents a bold, brave, and beautiful compilation of womanist/feminist essays, poems, and artwork showcasing work from an international community of women and men who honor the Sacred Female. The fifty contributors in this anthologyscholars, creative writers, and visual artistsshare their vision for a world that reclaims the inviolability of the Divine Female in all Her many and varied manifestations. She Is Everywhere! Volume 3 is the latest edition of a leading-edge series which, like its predecessors, offers an invaluable contribution to womens spirituality, religion, philosophy, and womens studies. The contemporary voices contained within its pages echo an ancient clarion call to embrace the values of justice with compassion, equality for all people, and transformation. We have a calling in this worldnamely, to prevent the destruction from continuing. Claudia von Werlhof I am in the presence of a divine Mother, and She is fulfilling a deep longing inside of me. Nicole Margiasso-Tran She was, I am, my daughter is because we are all Her. Etoyle McKee Just as dark matter (mother) in space shapes galaxies and holds them together, we are shaped and held by the African Dark Mother who has given us Her life force, and resides in the very depths of our being, where the macrocosm is literally reflected in the microcosm. Leslene della-Madre