Medallion Honoree 2017 Wishing Shelf Book Awards Bronze MedalFiery Deirdre Brannigan had opinions on everything. She certainly hated the very idea of war in 1914. Childhood pals Jack Oakley and Will Parsons thought it a grand adventure with their friends. But the crushing weight of her guilty conscience pushes Deirdre to leave Ireland and land directly in the fray. Meanwhile the five friends from Newfoundland blithely enlist. After all, the war couldn’t possibly last very long… They learn quickly how wrong they are and each is torn apart by the carnage in France. What began with enthusiastic dreams of parades and dances with handsome young soldiers turned into long days and nights in the hospital wards desperately trying to save lives. And for the good and decent young men in fine new uniforms aching to prove themselves worthy on the field of battle, the horrors of war quickly descended. But it is also the war which brings them together. Deirdre’s path crosses with Jack and Will when they’re brought to her field hospital the first day of the slaughter on the Somme. Their lives part, their journeys forward fraught with physical and emotional scars tossing them through unexpected and often painful twists and turns. But somehow, a sliver of hope, love and redemption emerges. And their paths cross again in St. John’s. When the guns finally fall silent, can Deirdre overcome her secret demons through a new life with battered Jack? Can shell-shocked Will confront his despotic father’s expectations to become the man his young family deserves?

    Power.’From her first clandestine marriage, Joan of Kent’s reputation is one of beauty, rumour and scandal.Her royal blood makes her a desirable bride. Her ambition and passion make her a threat.Joan knows what she must do to protect her reputation…the games to play, the men to marry. She will do anything to get what she wants: The Crown of England.A tale of ambition, treachery and desire, The Shadow Queen tells of a woman’s ascent through the court to command royal power alongside her young son, King Richard II.

    In the waning years of the 14th century, Fiore dei Liberi was a famed master of this art, whose students included some of the most renowned and dangerous fighting men of his day. Credited by fencing historians as the father of Italian swordsmanship, toward the end of his life, Master Fiore preserved his teachings in a series of illustrated manuscripts, four of which have survived to the present day, and have become the basis of a world-wide effort to reconstruct this lost martial art. This magnum opus, il Fior di Bataglia (The Flower of Battle), composed in early 1409, is one of the oldest, most extensive, and most clearly elucidated martial arts treatises from the medieval period. Freelance Academy Press is proud to announce Flowers of Battle, a multi-volume series of lavishly illustrated, hard-cover books, combining full-color facsimiles of the master's original manuscripts; professional, annotated translations; and extensive, peer-reviewed essays. Vol. I: Historical Context and the Getty Manuscript Vol. II: Florius de Luctandi Vol. III: Flos Duellatorum Vol. IV: A tradition with Deep Roots--The Morgan Ms, Later Transmissions and General Concordance Vol. I: Historical Context and the Getty Manuscript presents a complete translation, transcription and reproduction of the largest and most complete of the manuscripts. Serving as a sourcebook for the entire series, it also includes chapters on the life of Fiore dei Liberi, his students, and patrons, arms & armour in the Getty Manuscript, dueling and chivalric culture in Italy at the close of the 14th century, a detailed analysis of the manuscripts' use of pedagogy, number and metaphor and the Flower of Battle's relationship to other medieval combat manuscripts. Not only a record of a complete, medieval martial tradition, this work provides unique insights into the life, mindset and milieu of the professional fighting man at the birth of the Italian Renaissance.