Nonfiction

From a life spent studying powerful women, surviving cutthroat industries, and learning to command a room.

Nonfiction

History, Sex, Power

The Lost Playbook of Dangerous Women

Part memoir, part cultural history, this is the story of one woman learning from history’s most powerful women, then putting their lessons to work in her own life.

Welcome to Hollywood

Your Agent is Dead

A wickedly candid survival guide to entertainment and publishing, where careers rise, deals vanish, and today’s indispensable genius stops getting return calls tomorrow.

The Speaking Event Handbook

Everything both hosts and speakers need to create memorable lectures, salons, book clubs, and cultural events, with confidence, polish, and far fewer last-minute surprises.

Bettie Page: Life of a Pinup Legend.

Karen Essex is the first and only journalist with whom the reclusive Ms. Page has ever agreed to meet and cooperate.

Signed Books, Gifts, and Merchandise

Shop signed books directly from Karen, discover special editions, gifts, and merchandise, and arrange book orders for clubs, salons, and speaking events.

History. Sex. Power.

Enter the world behind the books: history’s dangerous women, untold stories of sex and power, new releases, private essays, speaking news, and invitations from Karen Essex.

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Testimonials

“Essex’s work overflows with war, sex, political intrigue and the fruits of her assiduous research.”

Publishers Weekly

“Karen Essex has a gift for humanizing the so-called bad girls of history, and she does it again in Run, Darling, the fascinating, untold story of the glamorous Gabor harrowing sisters’ escape during WWII”

Stephanie Dray, NYT Bestselling author of The Women of Chateau Lafayette
& co-author of A Founding Mother

“Run, Darling is a splashy soap opera romp of a good time, with surprisingly serious themes of sisterhood, family, and the danger of being a woman who knows her own mind.”

Kate Quinn, NYT Bestselling author of The Rose Code,
The Briar Club, The Diamond Eye

“Kleopatra is keenly researched and brimming with exotic, erotic detail. Essex’s style is as seductive as her subject.”

Dallas Morning News

“Pharaoh, the stunning sequel to Kleopatra completes the story of one of the most celebrated, audacious, and admired women the world has ever known.”

Library Journal

“Stealing Athena firmly entrenches Karen Essex as one of the top historical novel writers of our time.”

Bookreporter.com

“Brilliant. Sweeping. Breath-taking. Dracula in Love, Essex’s journey into the social expectations of Victorian women through the telling of the Dracula story is genius.”

Book Banter

“Leonardo’s Swans is historical fiction at its finest.”

St. Petersburg Times

“Renaissance Rivals is a riveting sequel to Leonardo’s Swans, featuring two of history’s most powerful and alluring women.”

Laura Lane McNeal, Bestselling author of Dollbaby

“Karen Essex has performed a mesmerizing feat. Kleopatra is both deeply informed and irresistibly sexy.”

Bruce Feiler, NYT Bestselling author of Walking the Bible & A Time to Gather

“In Leonardo’s Swans, acclaimed author Karen Essex spins a wild yarn about sexual politics and the struggle for immortality.”

Harper’s Bazaar (“Hot Reads” pick)