In 1829, Sam Houston was the thirty-six-year-old governor of Tennessee, a “beautiful…imperious giant genius of a man,” whose political horizons seemed limitless. The marriage of this charismatic, ambitious statesman to twenty-year-old Eliza Allen, the daughter of a prominent landholder, seemed to form the perfect social foundation on which Houston would build his glittering career. But just eleven weeks after the wedding, Eliza suddenly and inexplicably left her new husband, creating a scandal that caused the governor to resign his office in disgrace and embark on an exile that would ultimately deliver him to Texas, and a destiny even grander and more improbable than anyone could have imagined. Through decades of rumor and speculation, Sam Houston and Eliza Allen never revealed the source of their unhappiness, and carried the secret with them to their graves. The Raven’s Bride is a brilliantly original novel that unravels this dark romantic mystery while illuminating a vivid and fascinating moment in America’s past. In these pages, Sam Houston is presented as he must have been—a heroic figure (called the Raven by the Cherokee), vain, flamboyant, magnetic, his outsized personality fueled by a desperate need for love. And Eliza Allen is his match: a prideful, magnificent young woman, both drawn to and disturbed by her husband’s grand aspirations. With the investigative acuity of a historian and the profound empathy of a gifted novelist, Elizabeth Crook has created an enthralling portrait of these star-crossed lovers and the vibrant, restless world that brought them together. Richly detailed and splendidly imagined, The Raven’s Bride turns a baffling historical conundrum into a complex and deeply affecting love story.

When eight-year-old Virginia "Sissy" Clemm meets her handsome cousin, Eddy, she sees the perfect husband she's conjured up in childhood games. Thirteen years her elder, he's soft-spoken, brooding, and handsome. Eddy fails his way through West Point and the army yet each time he returns to Baltimore, their friendship grows. As Sissy trains for a musical career, her childhood crush turns to love. When she's thirteen, Eddy proposes. But as their happy life darkens, Sissy endures Poe's abrupt disappearances, self-destructive moods, and alcoholic binges. When she falls ill, his greatest fear– that he'll lose the woman he loves– drives him both madness, and to his greatest literary achievement. Part ghost story, part love story, this provocative novel explores the mysterious, shocking relationship between Edgar Allan Poe and young Sissy Clemm, his cousin, muse and great love. Lenore Hart, author of Becky, imagines the beating heart of the woman who inspired American literature's most demonized literary figure– and who ultimately destroyed him.

FICTION-HISTORICAL

She tried to rob him. And then she stole his heart. If a mysterious assassin gets his way, Ashton Cordell, the Earl of Ravensby, will die without leaving an heir. Five years ago, that assassin murdered the Earl's wife and unborn child, and Ashton has dodged repeated attempts on his life since then. Now reclusive and wary, he takes no chances when two highwaymen attempt to rob him one dark night. Killing one of them, he takes the other prisoner, only to discover a beautiful and sharp-witted young woman beneath a robber's hood. Glenys Shea is at his mercy, and she knows it--even more so after her devoted young brother, an apprentice street thief, barges in to save her. Ashton quickly realizes that the pair are good-hearted and loyal despite following in the footsteps of their father--the robber Ashton killed. Glenys wins him over with her kindness, intelligence, and empathy for the tortured life he leads. Together they concoct a scheme to lure the assassin to light, but as their plan progresses, danger lurks at every turn, and their growing love only serves to make the stakes even higher.