Friday Celebration: Butterfly Games Is on Multiple Amazon UK Best Seller Lists
Posted on July 10, 2026 in Behind the Scenes, Book News, Butterfly Games
I just got some wonderful book news from the UK.
Today, Butterfly Games appeared on multiple Amazon UK Best Seller lists, with both the Kindle edition and paperback reaching readers in categories close to my heart: 19th Century Historical Fiction and Biographical & Autofiction Fiction eBooks.
And here is the part that made me smile: my novel appeared on those lists near authors I have loved, admired, and learned from for years, including Maggie O’Farrell and Philippa Gregory.
For an independent author writing about a little-known Swedish court scandal, this kind of feels impossible. But I’ll tell you about it anyway.
About Butterfly Games
Butterfly Games is a historical fiction novel set in late-Napoleonic and post-Napoleonic Sweden, a world of royal intrigue, dangerous secrets, shifting alliances, and women who were expected to look pretty and obey while carrying the weight of everyone else’s ambitions.
At the center of the novel is Jacquette Gyldenstolpe, a young Swedish countess who enters the glittering but merciless world of the royal court, and Prince Oscar Bernadotte, the French-born heir to Sweden’s new dynasty. Their relationship begins at Drottningholm Palace in the summer of 1811 and grows into something passionate, politically dangerous, and unforgettable.
I wrote Butterfly Games for readers who love historical fiction with real people, real stakes, and emotional consequences that linger long after the last page.
So to see the UK edition finding readers—especially in the same Amazon UK spaces as books by Maggie O’Farrell and Philippa Gregory—is more than a ranking. It makes it all worthwhile.
For Readers Who Love Maggie O’Farrell, Philippa Gregory, and Richly Researched Historical Fiction
I would never compare myself to these bestselling authors, but I do think readers who love literary historical fiction, royal women, intimate scandals, and the private lives behind public power may find something to love in Butterfly Games.
If you are drawn to historical novels about women navigating impossible choices…
If you love fiction that takes real historical figures and asks what their lives may have felt like from the inside…
If you enjoy court politics, forbidden love, family ambition, secrets, betrayals, and emotional damage served in ballrooms and palace gardens…
Then Butterfly Games may be your next read.
Who Are the Real People That Butterfly Games Is About?
Butterfly Games follows Jacquette Gyldenstolpe, a Swedish countess whose life becomes entangled with Prince Oscar Bernadotte, the son of Sweden’s new crown prince, Charles Jean Bernadotte.
Their story begins when Jacquette and Oscar are young, both staying at Drottningholm Palace in the summer of 1811. Jacquette wants nothing to do with the royal court. Oscar, raised in France and suddenly expected to become the future of Sweden, is equally out of place in his own way.
What begins as an unlikely friendship becomes a love story shaped by scandal, monarchy, family ambition, censorship, exile politics, and the dangerous question of who gets to appear in the history books, and what they will say. The answer won’t be the same, of course, for a woman as it will for a man.
It is a novel about love, yes—but also about power. About reputation. About motherhood. About the cost of being useful to people who claim to love you.
A UK Edition Finding Its Readers
One of the joys of publishing the UK edition has been seeing Butterfly Games reach readers who already love European history, royal drama, and literary historical fiction.
The novel is available in both Kindle ebook and paperback on Amazon UK, and today’s rankings suggest that UK readers are discovering Jacquette and Oscar’s story. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for discovering Jacquette and her story.
Amazon rankings change constantly, so I’m treating this as a snapshot—a lovely, astonishing moment in time. But it is a moment I wanted to mark.
Because for a book about a woman nearly erased by scandal, being found by readers feels especially sweet.
Read the UK Edition of Butterfly Games
If you love historical fiction set in Europe, novels inspired by real people, royal scandal, forbidden love, and richly researched fiction about women history tried to make small, I hope you’ll give Butterfly Games a look.
You can find the UK edition here:
And if you’d like more behind-the-scenes stories about the real history behind the novel—Drottningholm Palace, Jacquette and Oscar, Swedish court life, royal gossip, research discoveries, and the strange true details that inspired the fiction—you can join my author newsletter here:
Thank you to every UK reader who has bought, reviewed, shared, or recommended Butterfly Games. You helped make today happen.
And yes, I am absolutely saving the screenshots.
