Creole Intentions — J.E. Spears

 In the sultry heart of antebellum New Orleans, where silk whispers secrets and magnolias bloom beside gallows, one woman dares to write her own destiny.Sold at seventeen into the gilded cage of a French Quarter brothel, Celestine Duval transforms from powerless orphan to courtesan of extraordinary influence. In a world built on owning people, she learns that beauty can be both weapon and curse, that survival demands more than submission—it requires the cunning to turn desire into power.From the perfumed parlors where she entangles planters and generals in her web, to the mystical guidance of Voodoo Queen Marie Laveau, to the passionate arms of her Confederate lover and Creole paramour, Celestine's story unfolds against a civilization in its death throes. When genuine love blooms only to be shattered by war, she faces an impossible choice that will teach her the brutal cost of freedom.As the old world burns and slavery crumbles, Celestine must navigate the treacherous waters between survival and conscience, between the safety of beautiful bondage and the terrifying promise of true liberation. Haunted by the ghosts of dead lovers and lost innocence, she builds something revolutionary from the ashes—a house where women choose their own chains, or break them entirely.Told through the unflinching voice of an older Celestine recalling her extraordinary life, Creole Intentions is confession, seduction, and reckoning. It is the untold memoir of a woman who refused to let others write her story—a blazing testament to those who dare to live on their own terms, through empire, through fire, and through love.Some stories are too dangerous to tell while the teller still lives. This is one of them.A sweeping historical epic of survival, sexuality, and the revolutionary power of claiming your own narrative.