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...

Taboo & Transcending Tales by Rich Disilvio comprises five highly entertaining, deeply meaningful stories that explore themes and motifs of a philosophical and spiritual nature. From the problem of faith and art to arrogance and discoveries in science, the main characters face their histories and...

Love sometimes appears in the most mysterious places. In The Stranger I Love by Anneka R. Walker, Estelle Lowry makes the bold decision to leave home. Set in England in the 1850s, her choice becomes clear after her brother arranges a marriage for her to...