Read On
Have You Read? More by N. D. Galland (Writing as Nicole Galland)
THE RISE AND FALL OF D.O.D.O. (COWRITTEN WITH NEAL STEPHENSON)
When Melisande Stokes, an expert in linguistics and languages, accidentally meets military intelligence operator Tristan Lyons in a hallway at Harvard University, it is the beginning of a chain of events that will alter their lives and human history itself. The young man from a shadowy government entity approaches Mel with an incredible offer. The only condition: she must swear herself to secrecy in return for the rather large sum of money.
Tristan needs Mel to translate some very old documents, which, if authentic, are earth-shattering. They prove that magic actually existed and was practiced for centuries. But the arrival of the Scientific Revolution and the Age of Enlightenment weakened its power and endangered its practitioners. Magic stopped working altogether in 1851 amid the rise of industrial technology and commerce. Something about the modern world “jams” the “frequencies” used by magic, and it’s up to Tristan to find out why.
And so the Department of Diachronic Operations—D.O.D.O.—gets cracking on its real mission: to develop a device that can both bring magic back and send Diachronic Operatives back in time to keep it alive . . . and meddle with a little history at the same time.
STEPDOG
Sara Renault fired Rory O’Connor from his part-time job at a Boston art museum, and in response, Rory—an Irish actor secretly nursing a crush on his beautiful boss—threw caution to the wind, leaned over, and kissed her. Now Sara and Rory are madly in love.
When Rory’s visa expires on the cusp of his big Hollywood break, Sara insists that he marry her to get a green card. In a matter of weeks, they’ve gone from being friendly work colleagues to a live-in couple, and it’s all grand . . . except for Sara’s dog, Cody, who was a gift from Sara’s sociopath ex-boyfriend. Sara’s overattachment to her dog is the only thing she and Rory fight about.
When Rory scores both his green card and the lead role in an upcoming TV pilot, he and Sara (and Cody) prepare to move to Los Angeles. But just before their departure, Cody is kidnapped by Sara’s ex—and it is entirely Rory’s fault. Sara is furious and brokenhearted. Desperate to get back into Sara’s good graces, Rory takes off and tracks Cody and the dog-napper to North Carolina. Can Rory rescue Cody and convince Sara that they belong together—with Cody—as a family? But first they’ll need to survive a madcap adventure that takes them all across the heartland of America.
Stepdog is a refreshing and hilarious romantic comedy that asks: What is the difference between puppy love and dogged devotion?
REVENGE OF THE ROSE
An impoverished, idealistic young knight in rural Burgundy, Willem of Dole, greets with astonishment his summons to the court of Konrad, Holy Roman Emperor, whose realm spans half of Europe. Immediately overwhelmed by court affairs, Willem submits to the relentless tutelage of Konrad’s minstrel—the mischievous, mysterious Jouglet. With Jouglet’s help, Willem quickly rises in the emperor’s esteem . . .
. . . But when Willem’s sister Lienor becomes a prospect for the role of empress, the sudden elevation of two sibling “nobodies” causes panic in a royal court fueled by gossip, secrets, treachery, and lies. Three desperate men in Konrad’s inner circle frantically vie to control the game of politics, yet Jouglet the minstrel is somehow always one step ahead of them.
Astutely reimagining the lush, conniving heart of thirteenth-century Europe’s greatest empire, Revenge of the Rose is a novel rich in irony and wit that revels in the politics, passions, and peccadilloes of the medieval court.
I, IAGO
From earliest childhood, the precocious boy called Iago had inconvenient tendencies toward honesty—a failing that made him an embarrassment to his family and an outcast in the corrupt culture of glittering Renaissance Venice. Embracing military life as an antidote to the frippery of Venetian society, Iago won the love of the beautiful Emilia and the regard of Venice’s revered General Othello. After years of abuse and rejection, Iago was poised to achieve everything he had ever fought for and dreamed of. . . .
But a cascade of unexpected deceptions propels him on a catastrophic quest for righteous vengeance, contorting his moral compass until he has betrayed his closest friends and family and has sealed his own fate as one of the most notorious villains of all time.
Inspired by William Shakespeare’s classic tragedy, Othello—a timeless tale of friendship and treachery, love and jealousy—Galland’s I, Iago sheds fascinating new light on a complex soul, and on the conditions and fateful events that helped to create a monster.
THE FOOL’S TALE
Wales, 1198. A time of treachery, passion, and uncertainty. Maelgwyn ap Cadwallon struggles to protect his small kingdom from foes outside and inside his borders. Pressured into a marriage of political convenience, he weds the headstrong young Isabel Mortimer, niece of his powerful English nemesis. Gwirion, the king’s oldest and oddest friend, has a particular reason to hate Mortimer, and immediately employs his royally sanctioned mischief to disquiet the new queen.
Through strength of character, Isabel wins her husband’s grudging respect, but finds the Welsh court backward and barbaric—especially Gwirion, against whom she engages in a relentless battle of wills. When Gwirion and Isabel’s mutual animosity is abruptly transformed, the king finds himself as threatened by loved ones as he is by the many enemies who menace his crown.
A masterful debut by a gifted storyteller, The Fool’s Tale combines vivid historical fiction, compelling political intrigue, and passionate romance to create an intimate drama of three individuals bound—and undone—by love and loyalty.
CROSSED: A TALE OF THE FOURTH CRUSADE
In the year 1202, thousands of Crusaders gather in Venice, preparing to embark for Jerusalem to free the Holy City from Muslim rule. Among them is an irreverent British vagabond who has literally lost his way, rescued from damnation by a pious German knight. Despite the vagabond’s objections, they set sail with dedicated companions and a beautiful, mysterious Arab “princess.”
But the divine light guiding this “righteous” campaign soon darkens as the mission sinks ever deeper into disgrace, moral turpitude, and almost farcical catastrophe. As Catholics murder Catholics in the Adriatic port city of Zara, tragic events are set in motion that will ultimately lead to the shocking and shameful fall of Constantinople.
Impeccably researched and beautifully told, Nicole Galland’s Crossed is a sly tale of the disastrous Fourth Crusade—and of the hopeful, brave, and driven people who were trapped by a corrupt cause and a furious battle that was beyond their comprehension or control.
GODIVA
Godiva is a crafty retelling of the legend of Lady Godiva.
According to legend, Lady Godiva lifted the unfair taxation of her people by her husband, Leofric, Earl of Mercia, by riding through the streets of Coventry wearing only a smile. It’s a story that’s kept tongues wagging for nearly a thousand years. But what would drive a lady of the court to take off everything and risk her reputation, her life, even her wardrobe—all for a few peasants’ pennies?
In this daringly original, charmingly twisted take on an oft-imagined tale, Nicole Galland exposes a provocative view of Godiva not only in the flesh, but in all her glory. With history exonerating her dear husband, Godiva—helped along by her steadfast companion, the abbess Edgiva—defies the tyranny of a new royal villain. Never before has Countess Godiva’s ride into infamy—and into an unexpected adventure of romance, deceit, and naked intrigue—been told quite like this. 