A Prince of Lovers: A Romance
1905
In the bloodied wake of the Thirty Years' War, Germany's fractured princedoms simmer with political ambition and buried desires. Princess Ruperta finds herself betrothed to Prince Ludwig, a man who regards her with indifference, while her father Duke Theodor frets privately over her happiness and the scheming Chancellor Rollmar brushes aside such sentimental concerns. Into this world of arranged futures and courtly calculation rides Lieutenant Ludovic von Bertheim, a young officer whose daring intervention rescues Ruperta from a fortune-telling charlatan and ignites something far more dangerous than politics: genuine feeling. As Rollmar's ambitions close around the Duchy and the princess must choose between duty and desire, Magnay weaves a tale of love as rebellion against a world that would trade women's hearts for territorial gain. The novel captures an era when Germany's nobility still navigated the aftershocks of religious war, and one spirited princess discovers that some battles cannot be fought with armies alone.
