The Kings' Mistresses: The Liberated Lives of Marie Mancini, Princess Colonna, and Her Sister Hortense, Duchess Mazarin by Elizabeth Goldsmith (nonfiction)

A book about independent women before there were feminists, this is an adventure.  Apparently the media of the 1800s made up all kinds of stories about these sisters, even though the truth was amazing.  This book was almost like a novel although it is nonfiction.