Salt & Honey by Candi Miller is a well-researched historical novel set in South Africa in the 1950s and 60s. I knew very little about this piece of history, and it is exactly as sad as I thought it would be. The story follows Koba,...

In Spanktown Papers by Jane Hulse, Sarah constantly finds herself caught between opposing viewpoints and difficult choices. She is an ambitious young newspaper employee during a time when women are rarely welcomed into public affairs. As the American Revolution unfolds and British forces approach Philadelphia,...

Shakespeare once wrote, “The course of true love never did run smooth.” That quote perfectly captures the heartbreak, betrayal, and lasting love at the center of Sarah by Shanna Hatfield. This World War I historical romance centers on Sarah, her longtime love Brett, and his...

In Irene Latham’s Some Starry Night, in 1886, struggling painter Vincent van Gogh arrives in Paris, hoping the city can finally give him the artistic future that has escaped him for years. At the same time, Emily Dickinson secretly leaves Amherst after learning that Bright’s...

In Joshua Becker’s Soul Mission, Ephraim teaches Spanish in Milwaukee while living with mental health issues that detach him from his wife Rachel, their young son Ari, and the ordinary rhythm of daily life. After horrifying visions connected to the Holocaust death camps begin pulling...

Laurence Hutson’s Shattered Faces is set during the First World War, when American sculptor Anna Ladd leaves Boston for Europe after learning that soldiers with severe facial injuries are hiding themselves from families and society. In London, she studies a new process that uses sculpture,...

In Showboat Soubrette by Brodie Curtis, the story begins with Stella Parrot, a talented, popular Native American showboat singer, performing aboard Lady J along the Mississippi River. Taking place in the years leading up to the Civil War, she travels from town to town, captivating...

Saving Marietta: Journey to Freedom by Joy E. Held opens with a violent attack on the Applewood family in Kentucky, where young Romney and his little sister, Sarah Jane, are abducted from their home and separated. Years later, Romney—now living among the Delawares and known...

In Alexander Semenyuk’s Sea Diary of Johnny Unknown, Johnny, an orphaned factory worker hoping for a fresh start, boards a passenger ship filled with migrants, businessmen, and families on their way to a distant shore. On his very first night at sea, he hears the...

Snakeroot & Cohosh by Cathy Schieffelin begins when Eva Hoskins leaves her husband, Luther, after years of escalating violence in mid-century Kentucky, disappearing into the hills near Creech. In Helton, she assumes a new identity and gets government work guiding researchers through Appalachian forests, drawing...