The Empress’s Cape

In a dazzling futuristic empire descended from Cleopatra’s legacy, Domina Elissa Valeria is the Empress’s favorite designer, a woman whose creations shape desire, status, and obedience across the realm. But when Elissa begins to suspect that the exquisite garments she has helped make famous are also tools of surveillance and control, her perfect world starts to unravel. Will she serve the empress, or will she risk all to bring her down?

The Empress’s Cape launches The Silk Rebellion, a seductive dystopian romantasy series about glamour as propaganda, love as rebellion, and one woman’s transformation from imperial icon to the face of revolution.

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MORE ABOUT THIS BOOK

Leonardo’s Swans

Renaissance Rivals

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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)