Join Duchess Katie & Lady Sadie this week as they cover a highly anticipated romance from one of C&C's favorite authors!

I will say that this is one of the densest books we have covered since we restarted C and C. All the Las Leonas feature some pretty intense moments and topics, and all take place during or right after The Exposition Universelle of 1889 better known as the 1889 Paris Exposition, was a world's fair held in Paris, France, from 6 May to 31 October 1889. It was the fifth of ten major expositions held in the city between 1855 and 1937. It attracted more than thirty-two million visitors. The most famous structure created for the exposition, and still remaining, is the Eiffel Tower.

This Leona specifically is a medical doctor who predominantly treats women, and tries to advocate for and support women who are disenfranchised, women who have recently immigrated or women who have no one to be their champion. She also provides abortions which have always been a form of healthcare. This does of course put Aurora in places that are dangerous and puts her in the cross hairs of those that would prevent those with uteruses from receiving the healthcare they required. A lot of this is actually based on documented groups that ran safe abortion clinics through the end of the 1960s. Though it isn’t unlikely that similar things existed earlier in history.

Adriana also touches on some truly horrifying and bananas history that is feeling a little too real in 2025. Such as hymenology - yeah… that is a real thing…

I also want to give a shoutout to Unsuccessful Book Club and The Naptime Reader on instagram - because they created an awesome historical reference post for this whole series and I will post those in our story when this episode comes out.

Sources:

La Tour Eiffel

Project Muse: Ambivalent Argentina Nationalism, Exoticism, and Latin Americanism at the 1889 Paris Universal Exposition Alvaro Fernández Bravo

Modern Latin American Art - Latin American Countries Represented at World’s Fairs and other Exhibitions

Intro Music: Musopen; Violin Concerto in F major, RV 293 'Autumn' - III. Allegro https://musopen.org/music/14910-the-four-seasons-op-8/

Join the Duchess and Lady on their latest read, The Runaway Duchess!

Ok so this takes place in the late 1800s - specifically 1883. This was the height of colonialism and a lot of that colonialism looked like - stealing things from other places. In this book, Neal was essentially a botanical adventurer.

Botanical expeditions during the 18th and 19th centuries were often state-sponsored endeavors aimed at cataloging and exploiting the flora of colonized territories. These collections were not merely scientific pursuits but were deeply intertwined with colonial objectives, including economic exploitation and the assertion of imperial dominance.

In the 1800s, the demand for exotic bird feathers in Europe spurred extensive hunting and trade, often involving Indigenous peoples and enslaved individuals as collectors. This trade was integral to the fashion industry, with feathers adorning hats and garments, symbolizing status and exoticism. The exploitation of bird populations led to significant ecological disruptions and the endangerment of various species.​ And a shoutout to one of my favorite nonbookish pods - True Crime Campfire which did a wicked cool case about a feather heist. I will put it in our sources.

Sources:

True Crime Campfire, Bird Brain: The Great Feather Heist

Biodiversity Heritage Blog - No Egrets: The Story of Fashion and Feathers Through Books

Cornell Library - Fashion and Feathers

Museum Victoria - Flight of fashion: when feathers were worth twice their weight in gold

In the 1800s, the fashion industry’s obsession with feathers drove some bird species to extinction.

I didn’t use this source but found this article super interesting: The Guardian - ‘We need other logics for our approach to nature’: the woman uprooting colonialism in botany.

Intro Music: Musopen; Violin Concerto in F major, RV 293 'Autumn' - III. Allegro https://musopen.org/music/14910-the-four-seasons-op-8/

Join Duchess Katie & Lady Sadie as the venture in to the world of medieval historical romance!

• New author background
  • Susan King was born in 1951 and has been publishing since the 1990s
  • Has also published under the nom de plume Sarah Gabriel, Susan Fraser King
  • Has worked as a lecturer in medieval history with a background in studio art, medieval english and now is a teacher at a private school.
  • Runs a very fun blog called the Word Wenches with some other more 90s romance authors
• Historic highlights
  • Takes place between Scotland and England during the 1300s
  • Set during what is known as the First Scottish War of Independence. This lasted from 1296 under 1328. Yes - a total of 32 years and 34 days. The wars were caused by the attempts of the English kings to grab territory by claiming sovereignty over Scotland while Scots fought to keep English rule and authority out of Scotland. I know it is shocking that the English never walked into places and declared that they were now in charge… the committed brutal atrocities and treated many of the prisoners of war so badly that they were actually censured by the Pope.
  • This is the same war that has Robert the Bruce - a side character in this book and William Wallace of Braveheart fame. Because nothing says Scottish patriotism like an anti semitic Australian? So I don’t recommended you watch that if you haven’t seen it, but I will recommend the Netflix film Outlaw King from 2018. It has a pretty awesome cast of Chris Pine and Florence Pugh.

FantasticFiction - Susan King

WordWenches

SusanFraserKing.com

OutlawKingIMDB

NQHigherScottishWarsofIndependence

BBC-WarsofIndepdence

Intro Music: Musopen; Violin Concerto in F major, RV 293 'Autumn' - III. Allegro https://musopen.org/music/14910-the-four-seasons-op-8/