The Royal Trades Series

Dollmaker Claudette Laurent fled Paris for London after tragedy destroyed the life she once had. But life is not easy in a new country that despises the French. Nevertheless, she establishes her doll shop again and soon has English society wild for her fanciful creations. Moreover, Claudette finds a surprising new customer in Queen Marie Antoinette, an avid doll collector herself.

That royal favor, though, will prove to be dangerous for Claudette when she decides to journey back to France for an audience with the queen despite the growing fanaticism and civil unrest in her home country. Soon swept up in a web of political intrigue by unknown malevolent forces, Claudette finds herself deemed an enemy of France. Her fate is either disloyalty…or death.

Glittering with atmospheric period detail, The Queen’s Dollmaker is the first in the Royal Trades series.

As heiress to the famous Laurent Fashion Dolls business, Marguerite Ashby's future seems secure. But France still seethes with violence in the wake of the Revolution. And when Marguerite's husband is killed during a riot, the young widow travels to Edinburgh and becomes apprentice to her old friend, Marie Tussaud, who has established a wax exhibition.
When Prime Minister William Pitt commissions a wax figure of Admiral Nelson, Marguerite becomes immersed in a dangerous adventure - and earns the admiration of two very different men. And as Britain battles to overthrow Napoleon, Marguerite will find her loyalties under fire from all sides.
With a masterful eye for details, Christine Trent brings one of history's most fascinating eras to life in of a story of desire, ambition, treachery, and courage.
A Royal Likeness is the second book in the Royal Trades series.

Strong-willed Annabelle Stirling is more than capable of running the family draper shop after the untimely death of her parents. Under her father's tutelage, she became a talented cloth merchant, while her brother Wesley, the true heir, was busy philandering about Yorkshire. Knowing she must change with the times to survive, Belle installs new machinery that finishes twice the fabric in half the time it takes by hand. But not everyone is so enthusiastic.

Soon, riled up by Belle's competitors, the outmoded workers seek violent revenge. Her shop destroyed, Belle travels to London to seek redress from Parliament. While there, the Prince Regent, future King George IV, commissions her to provide fabrics for his Royal Pavilion. As Belle's renown spreads, she meets handsome cabinetmaker Putnam Boyce, but worries that marriage will mean sacrificing her now flourishing shop. And after Wesley plots to kidnap the newly-crowned King--whose indiscretions are surfacing--she finds herself entangled in a duplicitous world of shifting allegiances.

Painting a vivid portrait of life in the British Regency, Christine Trent spins a harrowing tale of ambition, vengeance, love, and complex loyalties against the dynamic backdrop of the early Industrial Revolution.