Before Versailles

Louis XIV is one of the best-known monarchs to ever grace the stage. He was the rock star of the seventeenth century, literally, and yet no one has told the story about his beginnings as king and man.

Meticulously researched and gorgeously brought to life by New York Times bestselling author Karleen Koen, Before Versailles focuses on four intense months of King Louis’s young life. It’s the summer of 1661, and after the death of his prime minister, twenty-two-year-old Louis steps into governing France. He’s still a young man, and in a way quite inexperienced and shy, but also very determined, intelligent and headstrong. He’s used to having anything and everything his heart desires—land, women—including his brother’s wife.

As the love affair between the two burns, it sets the kingdom on the road toward unmistakable scandal and conflict with the Vatican. He must face what he is willing to sacrifice for love. At the same time, there are other problems lurking outside the château of Fontainebleau: a boy in an iron mask has been seen in the woods, and the king’s finance minister, Nicolas Fouquet, has proven to be more powerful than Louis ever thought—a man who could make a great ally or become a dangerous foe.

“In this magnificently written and researched novel, Karleen Koen brings to vibrant life the early years and loves of the future Sun King.”

—Jean M. Auel, author of The Clan of the Cave Bear and The Land of Painted Caves

Before Versailles dares to explore the forces that shaped an iconic king and determined the fate of an empire.

Karleen Koen (www.karleenkoen.net) is the New York Times bestselling author of Through a Glass Darkly, Now Face to Face, and Dark Angels, an Indie Next List bestseller and a BookSense pick. She lives in Houston, Texas.