Fate - Paperback

by Marcus Hogan (Author)

Set in France and Italy during the spiralling age of the early Renaissance, the CAPULET series is a passionate predecessor to the world's most famous love story, a genesis tale of how Romeo and Juliet's families came to be at each other's throats.

In 1434 two innocent children, Armand and Ilaria are promised at birth. She is a merchant princess. He is the premiere son of a martial house. Despite the rising influence of passionate writers who advocate couples should now marry for love, no one expects this pair to grow to love each other. All expect them to marry and lead a warlike faction - the mighty French House of Capulet. And so, drawn together by fate and familial design, while France remains on a knife edge with their English enemies, they must learn to survive the glamorous but ruthless world of elite ambition, passion and power they're destined to navigate together.

CAPULET is their sprawling tale, often humorous, elegant and heartfelt, sometimes gritty, brutal and relentless, while Ilaria's predilection to experience premonitions and cross the path of foresighted mystics, creates expectations that lead the couple on to heart-stopping moments and volatile outcomes.

Book 1 - FATE begins in Lyon with the events that lead to the betrothal of Armand and Ilaria. The saga completes at the end of Book 6 - FOLLY on a day when the sweeping events of a bitter feud, ignited with another faction, cause the reins of power to be handed over to Armand's brother (Juliet's father). At that moment, Armand and Ilaria's son Thibault is ten years old and their daughter Rosaline just eight. Eight years later, two months before their cousin Juliet turns fourteen, Rosaline will meet Romeo before her younger cousin and the history of love will be altered forever.

But CAPULET is also the story of how a third mighty faction, led by a fiery young Duchess, joins in their rivalry. The feminine powerbroker swears the loyalty of her house to one side but adds fresh powder to their rivalry that threatens to ignite in both directions at once.

Their epic tale is told by Armand and Ilaria's longest serving employee, a sharp-tongued, roguish musician. Marcel Poquelin finds himself in their company by chance, as both begin their final training for adulthood. At first the wily entertainer has little time or respect for either one, considering Armand no more than an elite muscular oaf and Ilaria a pampered coquette. Nor is he responsible to either one directly, intent on his own plan to return from whence he came to Paris, far from their indolent company, and make a mark for himself. But you know what the ancients say? Men and women make their ambitious plans just so fate can play havoc with them.