1150 in Provence, where making love and making paper are both crimes against the Church.
Like Game of Thrones with real history. Book 1 of the multi-award-winning epic medieval Historical Fiction series The Troubadours Quartet.
Estela wants to be Queen Aliénor’s troubadour and ex-crusader Dragonetz los Pros is commanded to teach her. In a world where love and marriage are as divided as Christian, Muslim and Jew, personal and political passions create deadly enemies.

On the run from abuse, Estela wakes in a ditch with only her lute, her amazing voice, and a dagger hidden in her underskirt. Her talent finds a patron in Aliénor of Aquitaine and more than a music tutor in the Queen's finest troubadour and Commander of the Guard, Dragonetz los Pros. Their enemies gather, ready to light the political and religious powder-keg of medieval Narbonne.
Set in the period following the Second Crusade, Jean Gill's spellbinding romantic thrillers evoke medieval France with breathtaking accuracy. The characters leap off the page and include amazing women like Eleanor of Aquitaine and Ermengarda of Narbonne, who shaped history in battles and in bedchambers.
'Historical Fiction at its best.' Karen Charlton, the Detective Lavender Mysteries
'Believable, page-turning and memorable.' Lela Michael, S.P. Review
Historical Novel Society Editor's Choice
Winner of the Global Ebooks Award for Best Historical Fiction
Finalist in the Wishing Shelf Awards and the Chaucer Awards

A Certain Shade of Red