The Stolen Girl

The Veil and the Crown #1

by Zia Wesley

The Incredible True Story of Two Girls in the Seventeen-Hundreds Who Become the Powers Behind the Thrones of the World's Greatest EmpiresThe fulfillment of an outrageous prediction seals the fates of two cousins in this true story that begins on a Caribbean sugar plantation and careens wildly towards the thrones of two empires. Innocent Aimée refuses to believe she might ever have to face the intrigue and evil that lurks beneath the exotic beauty and opulence of the Ottoman Empire. Rose mistakenly believes that her marriage to an aristocratic French lieutenant will insure her place in Parisian society. Both will be proven wrong.This first book in Zia Wesley’s The Veil and the Crown series tells the beginning of the extraordinary true story of Aimée Dubucq de Rivery and her cousin, Rose Tascher de La Pagerie…both destined to be queens.Publisher's This is an extraordinarily well-researched novel that is true to the period. As such, there is explicit sexual and violent content that, while typical to the era, is most appropriate for adult readers.The Veil and the Crown, in series Stolen GirlThe French Sultana“I lingered over and savored the vivid descriptions and found it absorbing, historically interesting, well researched and constantly enticing. It was as if Zia took me by the hand and we followed the heroine through all her adventures. Scheherazade, eat your heart out!” - Lorain Fox Davis, Grammy winner and educator

Genres: Historical Fiction, Historical, 18th Century, Fiction, France, Harem, Paris

357 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 24, 2014

About the author

I was born dancing until the age of 16 when I started singing. It didn't take long to find my way into the musical HAIR where I could dance and sing at the same time! Writing was something I did almost every day in a journal, or as a poem, a song, a script or a story.I wrote my first book when I was 35, Being Beautiful, based on my discoveries in the field of healing and anti-aging. Five other non fiction books in the genre of beauty/health/well being followed...some of them best-sellers. It was a natural next step for me to found the first natural skin care company in the US, Zia Cosmetics, Inc.It is now defunct after being purchased by the Hain Celestial Group in 2005.

I always loved reading the stories of unknown women who managed to make a difference in our world and one such story captivated my interest enough to write it myself. At the age of 69 I entered the world of historical fiction and the next phase of my professional life.


I published the second book in my historical series The Veil and the Crown, The French Sultana, in September of 2015 and one year later, both books began selling at an incredible rate on amazon. The next step is selling the rights to film and seeing it made into a television series

My latest book, Notes From A Broad: my uncensored year in Italy, just published and I am currently working on the autobiography of The Honorable Michael Butler.

Reviews

[Toni · Rating 1 out of 5]

SO disappointing. I had such high hopes. The Stolen Girl is a very interesting true story about Aimée Dubucq de Rivery the cousin and best friend of Rose Tascher la Pagerie..the future wife of Napoleon, Empress Josephine of France. Historical fact has it that both girls went to a voodoo woman or obeah on their island of Martinique to have heir future read in coffee grounds and bones. The obeah foretold both would be queens which came true. While much is known of Josephine, less is known of Aimée though historians believe that she was captured by corsairs and sold to the Sultan of Turkey where she became his favorite and was mother to his son and heir. Her lineage changed history. There is much to be said to support these claims and a wonderful book could've been been written about such an exciting topic. However, although this book had s good start, it crashed and burned big time. Aimée's character undergoes a 180 after she's captured and this book turns into a joke. It's absolutely as unbelievable as can be. I was shocked! I can't imagine anyone being captured by pirates and sold into a harem and being 100% fine with it, even excited. Especially after the first half of the book specifically paints Aimée to be fearful, unsure of herself, chaste, and deeply religious. Five minutes of a self conversation and she's a completely different person. I also couldn't get over the fact that the writer tried to make the reader buy that this beautiful virginal 18 year old girl was intimate with the 70 + year old Sultan (who the writer described as being hideous to look at with a withering nether region) and took such pleasure in it that she couldn't wait to be intimate with him again. She was sexually attracted to him. Oh come on!!! It's like once this girl was captured and sold into sexual slavery her life became amazing, nothing bad ever happened, and everything was hunky dory. Sorry, I don't buy it! If I'm going to read a fairytale I'll read Cinderella (which actually has a heck of a lot more realism and conflict!) . Plus if I had to hear about the perfumed water she bathed in and the excellent food Aimée enjoyed one more time I'd have lost it. Then again those two things were according to the writer a huge part of Aimée's reasons for loving being captured and enslaved-a good bath and a hot meal. I'm sure that was hard for her to attain in her old life AS AN HEIRESS AND NOBLEWOMAN!! In the prologue the writer, Zia Wesley, a former writer of books on anti aging skin care, explains that this whole story just 'came to her'. She believes that Aimée's last progeny on the throne before the collapse of the Ottoman Empire was trying to tell her the story telepathically. Apparently Wesley found out that the last Sultan died on the day she was born or something like that. So basically as an afterward I found out some loon felt she was the reincarnation of a Sultan and told a true story with little to no research. Seriously?! Yeah I'll be skipping the sequel that I'm assuming Ms. Wesley got from rubbing an old lamp and discovering a genie.

[Monica Hills · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a wonderful hidden gem! It starts out by introducing us to Aimee and her cousin Rose. They live on an island in the Caribbean. Aimee wishes for a different life an so this begins an incredible story. I thoroughly enjoyed this historical fiction novel. I recommend it to anyone who is a fan of historical fiction.

[Ronnie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This review was originally posted on my blog, Paradise Found.

I received a free ebook copy of this book from the publishers via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The legend of Aimée Dubucq de Rivery is quite extraordinary. She was a distant cousin of Joséphine de Beuharnais (Empress Joséphine later) with whom she spent her childhood together on the island of Martinique.

According to the story both their futures had been foretold by a wise obeah woman and everything she said came to pass up to the last detail. The woman had said they would both become queens one day. The teenage girls squealed and clapped taking in the thought first, but the rest of the tale the woman told them began to trouble them as time went by. It seems neither of them could avoid what fate had in store for them eventually.

Aimée's destiny didn't lie in Paris as she first wished and imagined, although after she visited the city she didn't mind it very much after all. She didn't become a nun either, no matter how much her young mind had pondered the idea. Instead she was abducted by Turkish pirates and was gifted to the Sultan to be the jewel of his seraglio (harem). Tough luck, you'd say. Well, according to Zia Wesley and her book Aimée didn't have a miserable life in the harem at all. Interestingly Aimée's new way of life suited her sensual nature, excited and challanged her at the same time. What a twist!

Obviously the tale told in this book is romanticized to no end. Not by the author only, but by many other storytellers before her and by history itself. We are talking about a legend (there are theories that say that Aimée died on sea when the ship she was travelling with sank), and legends are very often sweetened up as time goes by. Let's not forget that the original happenings of this story took place short before the romantic era, so yeah... rely on the people of the 19th century to come up with fantastic stories about a beautiful white girl who gets abducted by pirates and gets to live an actually very comfortable life in an exotic place among hundreds of naked women.

Anyway, I live for heavily romanticized fiction (it's a weakness of mine...) and therefore it felt like this book was written for me. There's a lot of adventure in it: Aimée is born in Martinique where she is friends with Joséphine, she goes to France, visits Paris, lives in a convent, gets stolen by pirates, is taken to Turkey to be put in a harem... So much travelling, so much danger, so much... fun! She is also a virgin and a deeply catholic girl and it is interesting how she sees the situations she ends up in.

Aimée starts out as an extremely naive character. With her willingness to obey everyone and her obsession with religion made her a bit annoying first, however later I warmed up to her a lot because she learns and accomodates easily to whatever goes on around her. The way she slowly pushed her christianity in the background and took on muslim habits was a bit surprising however, given how much her earlier years were determined by the religion she grew up with. She doesn't turn away from God completely I guess (no one asks her in the harem to give up her religion and she is often troubled by how much what she is asked to do goes against the word of the Bible), but she makes a conscious decision to adopt to the new habits of the people around her in order to survive.

The writing flows so well, I was lost in the story. The exotic setting and the rich descriptions delighted me. There was a lot of research put in this project, you can feel it while reading the book. I learned a lot about how a harem functioned at the time, what the women had to do, what they weren't allowed to do, how their days passed there. It was very fascinating.

I'm grateful this novel drew my attention to Aimée and her connection to Joséphine. I'll definitely read the sequel to learn how Ms Wesley imagnes Aimée's story continued.

[Bonnie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an amazing and entertaining tale of a young girl from Martinique, who's sent to France to find a husband, but fails due to her crude behavior (which we would find normal, but for the 18th century French was terrible). Before she joins the convent, she opts to return home, and is captured by a Turkish pirate who sees her as the perfect way to ensure his favor with the Sultan, by giving her for his harem.

This is the first of a series that must follow her life. This much was fascinating, describing her life on Martinique, in a French convent and also among the French aristocracy, and then being inducted into the life of the harem. I'm not sure I'll read the rest, especially as now I see there is disagreement over the truth of the tale. The author and others say yes, others say there's no evidence to the connection to the woman in the harem.

[Ralphlill · Rating 4 out of 5]

I probably wouldn't have picked up this book because I do judge covers, (altho, the graphics are really good), and I'm into fiction, thrillers, and sci-fi. When my wife tossed me this one right after she read it and said it's got everything I like, I didn't believe her. I still didn't believe her, until I got into it and, damn, realized she was right, again. It's an engaging historical story, it has fascinating characters and the tension--that could be pumped up with a Hollywood scriptwriter's treatment--of an action movie. You're not going to find the Jason Bourne action, but it's a adventure you won't want to miss.

[Mary Chase · Rating 5 out of 5]

A really fascinating historical novel that is significant, sexy and well-written. The story of the cousins who became queens is almost unbelievable -- except it is true! I was captivated from the very beginning and can't wait to read the sequel.

[Diane Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book!
It was creatively written with great character development. Very descriptive , exotic and erotic.
I am looking looking forward to reading the next book in the series!

[Beverly · Rating 5 out of 5]

An intriguing story that begins in Martinique as Aimee Dubuq du Rivery snuck off with her cousin Rose to hear their fortune told by an African Obeah predicting they will both be Queens. The author masterfully weaves this prediction into the story of Amiee who tries without success to enter Parisian society to find a husband and decides to become a nun. Sailing home before she enters the convent, she is abducted by pirates and is ultimately sold into the harem of the Sultan of Turkey. The character of Aimee is well developed as the reader experiences both her fears and her joys. In the first part of this totally engaging story, Aimee is conflicted by her actions which are violations of the rules of her Catholic faith but she ultimately adopts with utmost pleasure the culture and expectations of the Ottoman Sultan and Empire. The story moves at a lively pace and kept me enthralled to the end. The author provides excellent historical detail in the descriptions of Martinique, Paris and life in the Ottoman Sultan’s palace.

[Raymond W. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Zia Wesley does an amazing job of bringing to lifie a piece of history unknown to most. A fascinating tale of a young girl anamored by the lure of Paris and the prospect of finding love and mariage but disappointed with the snobery of the upper class. Then the trauma of piracy at sea, the abduction to A;giers and the unknown culture of the wealthy Dey of Algiiers. Her education at the instruction of the Dey for the ulitimate benefit of the Sultan of Turkey shows the sophistication of the culture of that regiion. Great read, exciting action packed adventure and surprising story that his guy was not exspecting. Can't wait for the next adventure coming soon.

[Suzanne · Rating 2 out of 5]

Eh.

So I read this faster than I would have expected.
I do love historical fiction.
This combination of first person inner monologue yet third person POV proved confusing at some points.
I’m glad to have had some kind of historical references to put this story into context.
I thought the sexy bits were weirdly chaste, especially after such a build up. The use of ‘sensual’ and other synonyms made me believe we were gonna get something steamy, but in the end it was PG-13 at most.
This one could be a standalone if necessary but since I do have the second book downloaded I’m on to the rest of Aimee’s story.

[Tamara Wilson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this book!! What a fascinating story about a young woman who pursues her dreams only to full her destiny instead. While I am sure there is creative license taken by the author as she brings to life the few true facts of Aimee's story, the result is a rich and amazing historical novel that includes convents, orphans, pirates, intrigue, wealth and poverty and harems and power. If you love historical fiction, I think you'll love this book.

[David Kahn · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a story that is quite fascinating. The writing is engrossing and this is one of those books in which one just gets lost in the reading.
I sat down to just kind of peruse the book and ended up reading for two hours straight w/o a break. I can't remember when this last happened to me.
Bravo to the author. Evidently, a first novel. Incredible talented storyteller. Bring on more

[F.Strand · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Veil and the Crown takes the already half-legendary lives of Joséphine and her cousin and childhood friend Aimée du Buc de Rivéry and simply surrenders to the romance of them. One ends up at the heart of Napoleonic France, the other is swept eastward into the Ottoman world, and somewhere between Martinique, Paris and Constantinople, History appears to have drunk several glasses of champagne and decided plausibility was a concern for lesser evenings. How has nobody properly novelised this before?

Historically, the execution is rather wobbly. The research often feels superficial, the settings are blurry, and the historian in me occasionally escaped the narrative altogether to mutter objections about quite a few details. This is emphatically not where I would send someone wanting to learn about early 19th century history, the Directory and French Empire or the court of Sultan Abdul Hamid I and the Harem of Topkapi or even pirates and life in the French sugar plantations or the social expectations for girls in that time.

And yet I had a marvellous time.

What sold me was Wesley’s decision to keep the bond between the two women at the heart of both books. Two extraordinary futures and one friendship stretched across continents and revolutions. Their supposedly prophesied destinies, whether one believes the legend or regards it with a very Napoleonic raised eyebrow, give the story exactly the sort of grand, improbable sweep it needs. Subtle it is not. Irresistible it rather is.

The execution never quite matches the material, but the material is so delicious that I happily forgave a great deal. This was the story I desperately wanted someone to turn into fiction, and I take whatever is available.

Would watch the film adaptation any time though preferably with someone else writing the screenplay.

[Wytzia Raspe · Rating 4 out of 5]

"The Stolen girl" and "the French sultana" both explore the legend of Naksidil the French woman in the Turkish imperial harem

According to legends two French girls in the West Indies had their fortune told and were both assured they would be queens. Years later one of them becomes the wife of the French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte. Her niece however disappears during a sea voyage. She ends up being sold into the imperial harem in Istanbul. Although there is hardly any historical evidence to this legend it is told in many books.

The first novel is a story about a French woman who became the favourite of two sultans and the mother of a third. The history of that era is known and described in book 2. This however is the romanticised prequel to real history and it is a delight to read if you like historical romance novels. The first wife however would in real life have ended up on the bottom of the Bosporus.

The second novel in the series somehow reads different. Maybe because the writer had to stick to history and maybe because it spans many years. I am quite familiar with this era in Turkish history what influenced the suspense side of the story. In general it feels more like a history book than a novel. What makes Selim so attractive? How do the women react on sharing the same man? Not that much explored. The people do not really come to life. But if you are interested in history it is a lovely way to catch up on Napoleon and France and on the lives of the sultans.

More then 20 years ago I read another novel about this legend - serialised in a magazine - and that was a lot better.


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[Virginia Tican · Rating 4 out of 5]

The ordinary beginnings of two girl cousins in the island of Martinique fated for extra~ordinary destinies. One awakened to her own sexuality almost as soon as she had her period and celebrated it with the son of a tradesman. She is destined to be the Empress Josephine of France. The other was yet to be aware of her own sensual nature by virtue of her Catholic upbringing as well as her orphaned state which naturally makes her crave constant approval by being Good and following her elders' rules. This first book deals with Aimee, the Good Catholic girl who dreamed of a husband and children on account of her having no one of her own blood to love and vice~versa. From Martinique to a convent in Nantes to a disastrous debut in Paris back to the convent and to being taken as pirate booty and sold to a Dey and given as a gift to the Sultan of Turkey thus ending in his seraglio (as foretold by her island's obeah) to the start of her career as a Sultan's Favorite ~ this is where Book 1 ends. Aimee's story told in vivid descriptions and with stark simplicity makes this a never ending page~turner and leaves the reader wanting to know more.

P.S. ~ " I received this book for free from eBook Discovery. I voluntarily review this book. This is my honest review."

[Rebecca Huston]

What can I say? Part one of two. Young Marie-Marthe Aimee Dubucq de Rivery is the 'good' girl, shy, but the more beautiful of the two cousins. Rose is slightly older , but far more impetuous and daring. Both girls leave Martinique for France and while Rose marries an impoverished nobleman, poor Aimee can't catch a break, fumbling about in high society and wreaking her chances for marriage. She returns to a convent and decides to take the veil, but first wants to return to Martinique. The voyage home is interrupted by an attack by Barbary pirates and Aimee finds herself a captive, ultimately to arrive in Istanbul and the Ottoman Sultan's seraglio....

I did find parts of this interesting, mostly because it is based in history, but parts of this left me rolling my eyes. The biggest fault lays in Aimee herself. She's damn near perfect, praised by everyone, not a scrap of bad temper, and loved by damn near everyone. In other words she's a Mary-Sue. I really hated that. While there are plenty of descriptions of clothing and the like, the author fumbled in that she says the Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque are the same. They are not. I give is one about three stars.

[Cecilia · Rating 1 out of 5]

I simply could not finish this book. The description did say that it was well researched and true to the period but I did not expect that the author would spend pages and pages describing in the most tiny detail every costume, room and focus almost solely on one of the two women about which the tale is written.

And yes, I know it is part of a series but I found myself scanning page after page after page and I finally had enough by chapter 28. Looking at the index I see that I was nearly at the end of the book, sorry I wasted two days trying to slog through it. I hoped it would move on to Aimee's adventures-but it didn't.

Basically, it's two girls who go to a fortune teller who proves to be very accurate. One girl marries unhappily the other is kidnapped by Turkish pirates, learns to be a favored girl of the all-powerful sultan. The author treats you to all the details, focusing on the sexual training and execution. I found this part of the book tedious and gratuitous. How many ways can you describe a Turkish bath with naked slaves tending to the girls - I mean really! If there was a BLAH rating, I would have chosen that.

[Fajriy · Rating 3 out of 5]

An enjoyable historical fiction read.

This fast paced book took me a while to get into the story. Though I found the transition between characters' point of view confusing in some parts, this book is well written and it got easier to follow as the plot advances. This book also has vivid, rich world building, details of characters' appearances, places, food, and clothes that make the story lively and the cultures differences strongly felt. However, I found such kind of barrier that prevented me to really get into MC's feeling. I also a bit disappointed with the cliffhanger ending.

**I received this book for free from eBook Discovery. I voluntarily review this book. This is my honest review.**

[Becca Wilds · Rating 3 out of 5]

Confession...I read this not because it seemed like a good book but because I was in the middle of a 1200 page cement block of a novel and I needed a fluffy sexy little bit of historical fiction to break it up.

Not bad! I didn't know this story - Josephine Bonaparte's cousin who gets kidnapped by pirates, sold into a harem and then becomes this famous Sultana. Apparently true, although I suspect highly embellished. Incorporates plenty of history and heaving bosoms. Marred by some inconsistent character issues and credibility problems, but it did what it was supposed to do - clear the palate so I could get back to my epic. Which till has 100 cursed pages left.

Did read the sequel, which picks up more of the Bonaparte story. Was bit of a snooze compared to the first, but still ok.

[Allison O'Malli · Rating 5 out of 5]

I very much liked this book. The last few years I have been on a European historical fiction kick, usually I know a little about what it is that I am reading. With this book, I had no idea who I was reading about, if what I was reading was based on real events? If it was historically correct? What did the author do for research? So, as you can see I was a bit skeptical when I started it. But after reading the first 2 chapters I could not put it down! As I got into the book I was completely caught off guard as the transformations started to unfold. I still had some questions......either way I did not care because I was entrapped by the story and what was going to happen next.....
When I finished the book and read how the author came about writing it. I was absolutely fascinated! I don't want to give anything away in this review, but I am a believer in how she came about to write this story.
I am in the middle of book #2 and I love it. I very much recommend this book.

[Bruce Campbell · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have recently found this book and its sequel. I thoroughly enjoyed both of them and recommend them as good reads.

But, I have a bad habit of checking historical facts after reading an historical fiction book. That search indicates that the overall story of these books is most unlikely to be true. It is, however, based on a myth that has been around for nearly 200 years. It has never been positively debunked. It is most likely that Nakshidil was actually born in Georgia (the country, not the state) and abducted at age 2.

So, read the books, enjoy them (as I did) but don't assume that they are based on any known facts.

[Alan Snow · Rating 4 out of 5]

A thoroughly enjoyable book and I had to immediately start on the second in the series.

It is allegedly a true story that is based on the extraordinary life adventures of two cousins, Aimée Dubucq de Rivery and Rose Tascher de La Pagerie, although this book centres on the adventures of Aimee and her rise to fame.

It has all the elements, adventure on the high seas, life in a seraglio, life in Turkey during the Ottoman empire under the Sultan, intrigue, and jealousy.

It is fast moving and included some wonderful descriptions of the palace in Constantinople.

A very interesting book

[KC · Rating 2 out of 5]

Historical fiction chronicling the experience of a French girl, raised in Martinique, through her ridiculous failure of Parisian society, her capture by pirates, to her meteoric rise in a sultan's harem to the much-coveted position of "favorite." I found the writing juvenile and simplistic, and I didn't really care about the protagonist one way or another. It was surface level at best, with huge shifts in personal religion, philosophy, and life goals taking place over just a couple of sentences.

[Fiona · Rating 4 out of 5]

Amazing true story of Aimee a young girl who is born on the island of Martinique and her cousin who later becomes Josephine wife of Napoleon. The two young girls have their fortune told and gradually over time amazing things happen and Aimee ends up in a harem in Turkey. This book is intriguing and the descriptions beautiful. There are adult passages in this book so if you are not happy with that dont read it! I will read book two to learn more but i had never heard of her before and now I want to learn a lot more. Incredible lives. Beautifully written, much to enjoy and savour in this book.

[Ralph Nissley · Rating 4 out of 5]

There is nothing like a good story

I chose four stars because, I hope to some day to read a book that is worth five stars; although, I was mightily tempted to do that exact thing after reading this absorbing, entrancing book. I loved the protagonist's evolution into womanhood, the sweetness of her nature, her determination to succeed and the improbability of her story. Who would I recommend, reading this book? Everyone!

[Christine · Rating 4 out of 5]

I absolutely loved this book. There was a wonderful amount of detail. It moved along without getting bogged down with boring parts. I couldn't put it down and learned a lot at the same time. The only reason I didn't give five stars was because I didn't feel like I was in the time period while I was reading it. More details about life itself might have made the difference.

[Dianne Landry · Rating 4 out of 5]

The main character Aimee Dubucq is a real person who was lost at sea on her way home to Martinique from France. Legend has it, however, that she was actually taken by corsairs and given to the Sultan as a gift. It probably isn't true but wjo doesn't love a good legend? This book tells the first part of her story from innocent convent girl to Sudan's favourite. I can't wait to read part II.

[Wendy · Rating 5 out of 5]

A likable story

I enjoyed this book. The characters are interesting and fun to read. Aimee might be a little too kind and likable for realty but she’s not too over the top. I enjoy the story enough that I am willing to try the second book.

[Cherry McKenzie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Transported in time back to the 1700's, I lived with Aimee through all her trials and triumphs in Martinique, France and Turkey . Entranced and absorbed by the journey of a mystical prediction for her and cousin Rose I entered a world I never knew existed. That it is based on the actual lives of two women that became Queens made it even more appealing.

[Linda L. Brand · Rating 4 out of 5]

Aimee's became quit different from what she expected!

Aimee was kidnapped by pirates. Then she was given to a man who started her training to be a concubine for the sultan. She had many experiencrs .