In 1876, eighteen-year-old Loren Ardoin left his home in Louisiana, escaping from the lingering aftermath of the Civil War, heading west with only his worn guitar. After days on the railroad and drifting through towns with his music, Loren ends up in Nogales. In this...

In Richard J. Reese's Thutmose, Soldier Pharaoh, born into the royal court of ancient Egypt, Prince Thutmose grows up under the watch of Queen Hatshepsut while receiving military training beside secret lessons in hypnosis, religion, and politics from High Priest Ptahmose. As he prepares for...

In Bob Van Laerhoven’s The Long Farewell, in 1934, Dresden, fifteen-year-old Hermann Becht's family is affected by Adolf Hitler’s rise to power. His father, Hans, serves the Nazi movement with growing devotion, while his mother, Marina, a Belarusian refugee who escaped revolutionary Russia, believes Germany...

Suzanne Parry’s The Communist’s Secret begins in 1941, where former Leningrad radio worker Katya Karavayeva joins a Soviet volunteer labor squad, expecting to dig defensive trenches against the German invasion. After a disastrous attack near the Luga River destroys the group, Katya escapes into occupied...

In Scott Eveloff’s The Golem’s Holocaust, after Jewish teenager Shayna Essenreich survives a mass execution inside a Nazi death camp in occupied Poland, an elderly rabbi gives her sacred clay tied to an ancient legend about a protector created for persecuted Jewish communities. Buried beneath...

How does one woman find purpose after heartbreak? This question is at the heart of The Cold Heart of War by Juliann Dorell. The story begins just before the Civil War, and centers on Beatrice Bradley, a strong-willed, thoughtful woman dealing with personal loss while...

To the ancient Romans, Vestal virgins represented the very personification of feminine purity. But when one of their number is accused of sex with a man, scandal erupts. In a city dealing with the aftermath of a crushing defeat against Hannibal's army, this shocking revelation...

The Queen of New York by Michael Freed-Thall delivers a sweeping, emotionally engaging story about intergenerational strength that left me spellbound, politically awakened, and painfully aware of the cost of standing against injustice. Seventeen-year-old Esther Garry is an aspiring journalist who moves in with her...

The Raven and the Rose by Adra Mayfield and Leanne Blakemore is a tightly written and well-plotted historical romance set in 1840 in Northumberland, England. Lady Rosalind Englebright is a spirited woman who prefers breeches to ballgowns. She is fierce and untamed. Her father is...

‘It’s a matter of degree, that’s all. We all prostitute ourselves when it suits us; we only differ in how far we’re prepared to go.’ Two stories for the price of one await readers in The Seven Stars, a novel by Simon Leighton-Porter. And in...