Renaissance Rivals, the long-awaited sequel to the global bestseller Leonardo’s Swans, brings to life the brutal rivalry between two of history’s most fascinating women: Isabella d’Este, Marchesa of Mantua, celebrated in her own lifetime as “The First Lady of the World,” and Lucrezia Borgia, Duchess of Ferrara, daughter of the infamous Pope Alexander VI and one of the most maligned women in history.
Before the doomed duchess of Maggie O'Farrel's The Marriage Portrait, there were women who built the courts, forged the alliances, and turned power into art. Renaissance Rivals invites readers to step back one generation into the glittering, dangerous world that shaped the Italy of Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, and Niccolò Machiavelli.
Pitted against each other by the ruthless political landscape and by the men they loved, Isabella and Lucrezia must learn how to survive in a world where women are treated as prizes, pawns, and weapons. Their battle is intimate, brilliant, and borders on the fatal, a war fought with jewels, letters, seduction, betrayal, and the strategic intelligence of women who refuse to disappear.
Publication Date: July 18th, 2026
Publisher: Kleopatra Books
Pages: 311
Genre: Historical Fiction
A conversation with Karen Essex
What inspired you to start writing?
I have always been a voracious reader. Family lore, which I only partially believe, holds that I taught myself to read before my third birthday. In any case, I have no memory of learning. Reading simply seemed to be part of me from the beginning.
I did not seriously consider writing as a career until I was nearly thirty. Then stories began burning inside me, and I found I could not rest until I had put them on paper. It felt less like a conscious decision than an instinct I finally obeyed.
What was the hardest part about writing this book?
As with any work of historical fiction, the challenge was to acquire as much knowledge as possible about the period and then make that research disappear into the narrative.
The writer must know the politics, clothing, customs, architecture, religion, social codes, and daily realities of the world. The reader should experience all of that without feeling trapped inside a history lesson.
My inclination is to research obsessively, but when I begin to write, I keep a lid on that knowledge! The hardest work often lies in deciding what to leave out. Research gives the novel depth, while restraint gives it life and movement.
Does one of the main characters hold a special place in your heart? If so, why?
I began the project firmly on Team Isabella. I had already spent years researching Isabella d’Este for Leonardo’s Swans, the standalone prequel to Renaissance Rivals, and I admired her intelligence, ambition, political skill, and determination to shape her own legacy.
What surprised me was the compassion I developed for Lucrezia Borgia. The historical Lucrezia endured political marriages, betrayal, public scandal, personal loss, and a reputation largely created by her family’s enemies. She was repeatedly used as an instrument of her father’s and brother’s ambitions, yet she survived and eventually became a respected duchess, administrator, patron, wife, and mother.
As I wrote, I became less interested in choosing between them. Each woman is brilliant, flawed, vulnerable, and formidable. Their complexity is what made the rivalry so compelling.
If your book were made into a movie, which actors would you like to see in it?
Oh, this is the fun part! Anne Hathaway or Jodie Comer could be extraordinary in either role. Both possess the intelligence, emotional range, and steel these women require.
I could also imagine Emma Stone, Anya Taylor-Joy, Jennifer Lawrence, Scarlett Johansson, or Alicia Vikander bringing something fascinating to the characters. Alicia Vikander, in particular, can do almost anything in my book.
These are wonderfully rich roles for actresses because Isabella and Lucrezia are never simply heroines or villains. They are ambitious, strategic, passionate women forced to operate within a dangerous political world.
What do you hope readers take away from this book?
Naturally, I hope they enjoy it enough to recommend it enthusiastically to everyone they know.
More seriously, I hope readers come away with a renewed understanding that extraordinary women have always found ways to exercise power, even in societies designed to deny them formal authority.
Lucrezia Borgia has inspired several modern biographies and novels, while Isabella d’Este and her sister Beatrice had largely faded from public imagination. When Leonardo’s Swans was published in Italy, readers repeatedly thanked me for bringing the Este sisters back to life. Many told me that these women had been nearly forgotten even in their native country. That meant a great deal to me.
So many important women have been minimized, distorted, or erased from history. I hope Renaissance Rivals encourages readers to look again at Isabella and Lucrezia, to question the old labels, and to see them as complicated human beings rather than saints, monsters, or ornaments in the stories of powerful men.
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Karen Essex
Karen Essex is the national and international bestselling author of Run, Darling, Kleopatra, Pharaoh, Leonardo's Swans, Stealing Athena, Dracula in Love, and Bettie Page: Life of a PinUp Legend.
All feature iconic women—powerful women that seduced the world and ruled it. Essex is also an active screenwriter and speaker, and an award-winning journalist.
She divides her time between Los Angeles, New Orleans, and Europe. Her novels are published in twenty-nine languages.
Leonardo’s Swans, the prequel to Renaissance Rivals, was a runaway bestseller in Italy and won the prestigious Premio Roma for Foreign Fiction.
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Thank you for inviting Karen Essex in for such an insightful chat about her intriguing new novel, Renaissance Rivals. We appreciate your time.
ReplyDeleteTake care,
Cathie xx
The Coffee Pot Book Club