No Man's Chattel

The thought of trading her subservient role in her father’s home for that of being the dutiful wife of someone she had never met caused her to shudder with revulsion. No she thought to herself what I crave is the opportunity to adventure across the sea to behold strange and wondrous sights far beyond the city walls of Lubeck. To do that even once would almost be worth submitting herself to a loveless marriage based solely on familial advantage. But not quite she admitted to herself. For if there was one thing of which Christina Kohl was certain it was that she wanted her independence even more than adventure. Yet these can only be childish dreams for a daughter of a wealthy merchant in 14th century Lubeck Germany. Even at sixteen-years-old Christina grudgingly accepts her existence is to be shaped and limited by the men who do and will control her life. When unexpected tragedies befall her family however she is presented with an unlikely opportunity to at last become her own person. The freedom of her new life is fraught with peril as she attempts to succeed in a role for which she is ill-prepared all the while keeping secrets that if exposed will certainly bring shame financial ruin and perhaps even death. No Man’s Chattel is a rollicking coming-of-age novel set in the medieval commercial centers of Lubeck and London England. It is not so much a story of the societal norms of the era as of one young woman’s struggle to defy them.