Virtuous Trickery: A Historical Romantic Adventure

By Alaina Stanford

In 900 AD, Italy is torn by power, pride, and peril.

Twin sisters Gabrielle and Francesca share the same face but not the same fate. Gabrielle, bold and untamed, is heir to the throne. She was born minutes before her gentle sister. Those minutes sealed Francesca's destiny as the spare. Francesca is promised to a fearsome Viking prince from the frozen north. Gabrielle knows her delicate sister would never survive the journey or the brutal world awaiting her. Fiercely protective, Gabrielle cannot bear to lose the one person who sees past her crown. Driven by love and by her need to prove she is more than her title, Gabrielle faces a wrenching choice. She must choose between loyalty to her family and the life she has always imagined for herself.

To save Francesca, Gabrielle takes her place. She dons her sister's veil and enters a marriage built on deception. Their tangled web soon catches passion and betrayal. The Viking prince is fierce yet unexpectedly noble, stirring a love Gabrielle never intended. Meanwhile, Francesca's secret lover-a menacing man fueled by ambition and obsession-will stop at nothing to possess her. When he discovers their ruse, his vengeance threatens to shatter them all.

Virtuous Trickery is a sweeping tale of courage, forbidden love, and the perilous cost of loyalty. The gilded halls and sun-drenched hills of Italy breed fierce ambition and rivalry. But in the warmth and intrigue of Italy, every choice the sisters make weaves a chain of disaster, danger, and death that engulfs those around them. Their desperate attempts to outwit fate lead not to escape, but to a reckoning none can avoid. In the end, Italy's beauty becomes a battleground where love, ambition, and betrayal converge-with consequences that will haunt them all.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1089584814
• ISBN13: 9781089584810
• Release Date: August 2019
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Length: 372 Pages
• Weight: 1.09 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.0" x 9.0"