Six authors, six amazing women, and one unforgettable story.
The Book Cellar is thrilled to welcome Laura Kamoie (America's First Daughter, My Dear Hamilton), Sophie Perinot (Medicis Daughter), and E. Knight (My Lady Viper) as they discuss their new book Ribbons of Scarlet: A Novel of the French Revolution's Women.

About Ribbons of Scarlet:
Six bestselling and award-winning authors bring to life a breathtaking epic novel illuminating the hopes, desires, and destinies of princesses and peasants, harlots and wives, fanatics and philosophers—six unforgettable women whose paths cross during one of the most tumultuous and transformative events in history: the French Revolution.

Ribbons of Scarlet is a timely story of the power of women to start a revolution—and change the world.

In late eighteenth-century France, women do not have a place in politics. But as the tide of revolution rises, women from gilded salons to the streets of Paris decide otherwise—upending a world order that has long oppressed them.

Blue-blooded Sophie de Grouchy believes in democracy, education, and equal rights for women, and marries the only man in Paris who agrees. Emboldened to fight the injustices of King Louis XVI, Sophie aims to prove that an educated populace can govern itself--but one of her students, fruit-seller Louise :, is hungrier for bread and vengeance than learning. When the Bastille falls and Louise leads a women’s march to Versailles, the monarchy is forced to bend, but not without a fight. The king’s pious sister Princess Elisabeth takes a stand to defend her brother, spirit her family to safety, and restore the old order, even at the risk of her head.

But when fanatics use the newspapers to twist the revolution’s ideals into a new tyranny, even the women who toppled the monarchy are threatened by the guillotine. Putting her faith in the pen, brilliant political wife Manon Roland tries to write a way out of France’s blood-soaked Reign of Terror while pike-bearing Pauline Leon and steely Charlotte Corday embrace violence as the only way to save the nation. With justice corrupted by revenge, all the women must make impossible choices to survive--unless unlikely heroine and courtesan’s daughter Emilie de Sainte-Amaranthe can sway the man who controls France’s fate: the fearsome Robespierre.


LAURA KAMOIE:
A New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and USA Today bestselling author of historical fiction, LAURA KAMOIE has always been fascinated by the people, stories, and physical presence of the past, which led her to a lifetime of historical and archaeological study and training. She holds a doctoral degree in early American history from The College of William and Mary, published two non-fiction books on early America, and most recently held the position of Associate Professor of History at the U.S. Naval Academy before transitioning to a full-time career writing genre fiction. She is the author of AMERICA'S FIRST DAUGHTER and MY DEAR HAMILTON, co-authored with Stephanie Dray, allowing her the exciting opportunity to combine her love of history with her passion for storytelling. Laura lives among the colonial charm of Annapolis, Maryland with her husband and two daughters.
In Ribbons of Scarlet, Laura wrote from the perspective of Emilie de Sainte-Amaranthe Sartine, a courtesan’s daughter whose renowned beauty won her admirers and the jealousy of those she rebuffed, both of which became important to her fate--and that of the Revolution itself-- during the bloody Reign of Terror.

ELIZA KNIGHT:
E. KNIGHT is a USA Today bestselling author of of historical women’s fiction. Her love of history began as a young girl when she traipsed the halls of Versailles and ran through the fields in Southern France. She can still remember standing before the great golden palace, and imagining what life must have been like—themes she got to thoroughly explore with a group of bestselling authors in the forthcoming novel, Ribbons of Scarlet. She is author of the acclaimed Tales from the Tudor Court series, including My Lady Viper and Prisoner of the Queen. She is the owner of the acclaimed blog History Undressed. Eliza lives in Maryland atop a small mountain with a knight, three princesses and two very naughty newfies. Visit Eliza at www.eknightauthor.com/eknight, or her historical blog, History Undressed,
www.historyundressed.com.
In Ribbons of Scarlet, Eliza wrote from the perspectives of Pauline Léon, a chocolatier and radical organizer, and Charlotte Corday, a gently bred woman turned assassin, who wanted France to gain its freedom from tyranny. At their core, Charlotte and Pauline, polar opposites in almost every way, wanted a better France; however, their beliefs on achieving their goals clashed epically.

SOPHIE PERINOT:
SOPHIE PERINOT is an award-winning author of female-centered historical novels The Sister Queens and Médicis Daughter (a Goodreads Best Book of the Month). Sophie was one of six writers who authored the ground-breaking historical novel-in-six-parts, A Day of Fire: Stories of Pompeii, a group which also included current Ribbons of Scarlet collaborators, Kate Quinn, Stephanie Dray and Eliza Knight. Sophie has both a BA in history and a law degree. Crazy for history from a young age, she enjoys setting her stories against a fully-realized past while simultaneously exploring issues and feelings so essentially human that they transcend any particular era. When Sophie isn’t visiting corners of the past, she lives in Virginia with her three children, two dogs, two cats, and one husband.
In Ribbons of Scarlet, Sophie wrote from the perspective of the novel’s only Royalist—Princess Élisabeth—a woman driven by a deep faith in God and an unconditional loyalty to her doomed brother, King Louis XVI.