When a visitor comes with news of her intended betrothed instead of waiting quietly in her room she storms into her parents’ hall and demands to know the name of the man she will marry. She does not follow the conventions of her day and is not a sweet and retiring young 11 year old. Young Isabel de Vermandois is a spitfire. Learn more about Lisa and her writing at the website My Opinion: Her personal blog is The Brooklyn Scribbler.

She is also a regular contributor at Historical Novel Reviews and History and Women. She is also an avid blogger and moderates at Unusual Historicals. Born in Barbados, Lisa currently lives in New York City. She has written contemporary fiction including her first novella, Long Way Home, in which a young couple learns valuable lessons about love, loss and forgiveness, just before tragedy strikes. Lisa has also written Sultana and Sultana’s Legacy, novels set during a turbulent period of thirteenth century Spain, where rivalries and ambitions threaten the fragile bonds between members of a powerful family. She is the author of two historical novels set in medieval England and Normandy, The Burning Candle, based on the life of Isabel de Vermandois, and On Falcon’s Wings, chronicling the star-crossed romance between Norman and Saxon lovers. Yarde writes fiction inspired by real-life events. Based on the life of a remarkable medieval woman forgotten by time, The Burning Candle is a story of duty and honor, love and betrayal. In a kingdom where love holds no sway over marital relations, Isabel must choose where her loyalties and her heart lie. Her duties as a wife and mother compel her, but an undeniable attraction to the young William de Warenne, Earl of Surrey, tempts her. As Robert’s secrets are unraveled, Isabel finds her heart divided. Cruel and kind by contrast, he draws her into the decadent court of King Henry I. A hero of the Norman victory at Hastings and loyal counselor to successive English kings, Robert is not all Isabel had expected. He is Robert de Beaumont, Comte de Meulan. In eleventh-century France on the eve of the First Crusade, Isabel de Vermandois becomes the wife of a man old enough to be her father.

Sultana by Lisa J. Yarde