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Palace of Spies

Sarah Zettel · back to the book

What’s in it

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24 books with the same feel

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❤️

The Traitor in the Tunnel

Y.S. Lee · 373 pages

Queen Victoria has a little problem: there's a petty thief at work in Buckingham Palace. Charged with discretion, the Agency puts quickwitted Mary Quinn on the case, where she must pose as a domestic while fending off the attentions of a feckless Prince of Wales. But when the prince witnesses the murder of one of his friends in an opium den, the potential for scandal looms large. And Mary faces an

Historical MysteryHidden IdentityEspionageLondon
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The Tudor Secret

C.W. Gortner · 327 pages

Summer 1553: A time of danger and deceit. Brendan Prescott, an orphan, is reared in the household of the powerful Dudley family. Brought to court, he finds himself sent on an illicit mission to the King s brilliant but enigmatic sister, Princess Elizabeth.

OrphansRoyal CourtHidden IdentityEspionage
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Prisoners in the Palace

Michaela MacColl · 362 pages

Recently orphaned and destitute, seventeen-year-old Liza Hastings earns a position as a lady's maid to sixteen-year-old Princess Victoria at Kensington Palace in 1836, the year before Victoria becomes Queen of England.

OrphansRoyal CourtLondonPolitical Intrigue
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India Black and the Widow of Windsor

Carol K. Carr · 320 pages

Spy for Queen Victoria, India Black, disguises herself as a servant to protect Her Highness from a possible assassination attempt by Scottish nationalists while spending the Christmas holidays in Balmoral.

Historical MysteryEspionageHidden IdentityLondon
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Maid of Secrets

Jennifer McGowan · 406 pages

In 1559 England, Meg, an orphaned thief, is pressed into service and trained as a member of the Maids of Honor, Queen Elizabeth I's secret all-female guard, but her loyalty is tested when she falls in love with a Spanish courtier who may be a threat.

Royal CourtOrphansEspionageLondon
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Poison Study

Maria V. Snyder · 409 pages

About to be executed for murder, Yelena is offered an extraordinary reprieve. She'll eat the best meals, have rooms in the palace-and risk assassination by anyone trying to kill the Commander of Ixia.And so Yelena chooses to become a food taster. But the chief of security, leaving nothing to chance, deliberately feeds her Butterfly's Dust and only by appearing for her daily antidote will she delay

Royal CourtPolitical IntrigueOrphansEspionage
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Trickster's Queen

Tamora Pierce · 537 pages

Aly's adventure continues. . . . No longer a slave, Alanna's daughter is now spying as part of an underground rebellion against the colonial rulers of the Copper Isles. The people in the rebellion believe that a prophecy in which a new queen will rise up to take the throne is about to be realized. Aly is busy keeping the potential teenage queen and her younger siblings safe, while also keeping her

Royal CourtEspionageHidden IdentityPolitical Intrigue
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The False Prince

Jennifer A. Nielsen · 352 pages

In the country of Carthya, a devious nobleman engages four orphans in a brutal competition to be selected to impersonate the king's long-missing son in an effort to avoid a civil war.

OrphansRoyal CourtHidden IdentityPolitical Intrigue
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Seraphina

Rachel Hartman · 465 pages

In a world where dragons and humans coexist in an uneasy truce and dragons can assume human form, Seraphina, whose mother died giving birth to her, grapples with her own identity amid magical secrets and royal scandals, while she struggles to accept and develop her extraordinary musical talents.

Hidden IdentityRoyal CourtPolitical IntrigueTeen Protagonist
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Conspiracy

S.J. Parris

Historical MysteryEspionageRoyal CourtPolitical Intrigue
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The Case of the Bizarre Bouquets

Nancy Springer · 192 pages

Historical MysteryHidden IdentityLondonMystery
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The Winner's Curse

Marie Rutkoski · 355 pages

An aristocratic girl who is a member of a warmongering and enslaving empire purchases a slave, an act that sets in motion a rebellion that might overthrow her world as well as her heart.

Royal CourtHidden IdentityEspionagePolitical Intrigue
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Malice at the Palace

Rhys Bowen · 451 pages

Being thirty-fifth in line for the British throne has its advantages, but money isn't one of them. To make ends meet, Lady Georgiana Rannoch sometimes investigates a little royal wrongdoing. While her beau Darcy is off on a mysterious mission, Lady Georgiana Rannoch receives a new assignment from the queen. Princess Marina of Greece is to wed the king's youngest son, George, and will need a compan

Historical MysteryRoyal CourtLondonMystery
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Grave Mercy

Robin LaFevers · 549 pages

*Why be the sheep, when you can be the wolf?* Seventeen-year-old Ismae escapes from the brutality of an arranged marriage into the sanctuary of the convent of St. Mortain, where the sisters still serve the gods of old. Here she learns that the god of Death Himself has blessed her with dangerous gifts—and a violent destiny. If she chooses to stay at the convent, she will be trained as an assassi

EspionageRoyal CourtPolitical IntrigueTeen Protagonist
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My Bonny Light Horseman: Being an Account of the Further Adventures of Jacky Faber, in Love and War

L.A. Meyer

The infamous pirate, riverboat seductress, master of disguise, and street-urchin-turned-sailor Jacky Faber has been captured by the French and beheaded in full view of her friends and crew.Inconceivable? Yes! The truth is she’s secretly forced to pose as an American dancer behind enemy lines in Paris, where she entices a French general into revealing military secrets—all to save her dear friends.

OrphansHidden IdentityEspionageHistorical Fiction
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To Shield the Queen

Fiona Buckley · 328 pages

**In this compelling debut of her historical mystery series, Fiona Buckley introduces Ursula Blanchard, a widowed young mother who has become lady-in-waiting to Queen Elizabeth I. Armed with a sharp eye, dangerous curiosity, and uncanny intelligence, Ursula pledges...** **TO SHIELD THE QUEEN** Rumor has linked Queen Elizabeth I to her master of horse, Robin Dudley. As gossip would have it, o

Historical MysteryRoyal CourtEspionageMystery
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The Gilded Chamber : A Novel of Queen Esther

Rebecca Kohn · 368 pages

"Orphaned and terrified, Esther journeys across the River Tigris to start a new life with her cousin - a man well positioned in the court, and to whom she is betrothed. Her transformation from girl to woman unfolds against a lavish backdrop of the royal court and harem, rife with intrigue and daring alliances. Esther wins much of what she seeks: the heart of a king, and the deliverance of her peop

Royal CourtOrphansHidden IdentityPolitical Intrigue
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Kushiel's Dart

Jacqueline Carey · 702 pages

The land of Terre d'Ange is a place of unsurpassing beauty and grace. It is said that angels found the land and saw it was good... and the ensuing race that rose from the seed of angels and men live by one simple rule: Love as thou wilt. Phèdre nó Delaunay is a young woman who was born with a scarlet mote in her left eye. Sold into indentured servitude as a child, her bond is purchased by Anafi

Royal CourtEspionageOrphansPolitical Intrigue
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The Seeker

S.G. MacLean · 432 pages

Historical MysteryEspionageLondonPolitical Intrigue
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Red Queen

Victoria Aveyard · 388 pages

Mare Barrow's world is divided by blood--those with red and those with silver. Mare and her family are lowly Reds, destined to serve the Silver elite whose supernatural abilities make them nearly gods. Mare steals what she can to help her family survive, but when her best friend is conscripted into the army she gambles everything to win his freedom. A twist of fate leads her to the royal palace it

Royal CourtHidden IdentityPolitical IntrigueTeen Protagonist
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The Devlin Diary

Christi Phillips · 352 pages

In 1672, London, although women enjoy greater freedom, they are not allowed to practice medicine, a restriction that Hannah Devlin evades by treating patients that most other doctors shun: the city's poor. But Hannah has a special knowledge, and she's drawn into a murder investigation that may conceal a conspiracy as far-reaching as the king himself. She leaves a diary that Claire Donovan, a histo

Historical MysteryLondonRoyal CourtPolitical Intrigue
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Eon: Dragoneye Reborn

Alison Goodman · 576 pages

Sixteen-year-old Eon has a dream, and a mission. For years, he's been studying sword-work and magic, toward one end. He and his master hope that he will be chosen as a Dragoneye-an apprentice to one of the twelve energy dragons of good fortune. But Eon has a dangerous secret. He is actually Eona, a sixteen-year-old girl who has been masquerading as a twelve-year-old boy. Females are forbidden t

Royal CourtHidden IdentityPolitical IntrigueTeen Protagonist
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Cruel as the Grave

Sharon Kay Penman · 272 pages

Historical MysteryRoyal CourtPolitical IntrigueLondon
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Betrayal at Lisson Grove

Anne Perry · 314 pages

It's 1895 and an increasingly violent tide of political unrest is rising fast all over Europe. Special Branch's Inspector Thomas Pitt knows that they must find those responsible before England is overrun by reformists intent on overthrowing the government. When he finds himself in pursuit of a suspected terrorist, Pitt has no hesitation in following the chase all the way to France. But events take

Historical MysteryEspionageLondonPolitical Intrigue
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