Percy St. John's father was murdered in a robbery in Brixley, Surrey, leaving him an orphan. E.A. Allen's The Midnight Boy follows Percy's story as he finds himself placed in Saint Cuthbert's Asylum for Orphaned and Delinquent Boys in London. Percy lives a hard life...

Butterfly Games: A Novel of the Swedish Royal Court by Kelly Scarborough is set in early 19th-century Sweden, where Countess Jacquette Gyldenstolpe becomes involved with Prince Oscar, heir to the throne, while tensions grow around the recently established Bernadotte monarchy. Raised without much parental involvement...

Morris Hoffman's Boy of Heaven follows the story of an Italian orphan boy in the seventeenth century who discovers the missing piece of Leonardo da Vinci's The Last Supper. The ten-year-old boy grew up as an orphan. Facing starvation and homelessness, the boy found sanctuary...

The Obelisk by Georgina Fatseas follows three Austrian youths, Oskar, Jaro, and Kiana, who flee Nazi-occupied Austria after their village resists German forces and is destroyed. Along the way, they meet Lori and Paul, German deserters, and together the group scavenges, evades soldiers, and crosses...

The Pebble in the Pond: A Story of Stuarts Landing by Suzanne S. Groves left me searching for the right words to capture its uniqueness and deep sense of rightness, especially in a world that often feels devoid of compassion, empathy, or love. Miriam has...

The Restless Crucible by Yaw Agawu-Kakraba is an enthralling tale that unfolds across West Africa, Brazil, and Europe (briefly). It introduces readers to the complex life of Pedro de Barbosa, an Afro-Brazilian man and former slave whose opportunistic nature leads him to become a renowned...

Inês: Queens of Portugal Trilogy by Catherine Mathis is a captivating tale of love, jealousy, and loyalty set in Portugal in the 14th century. Pedro’s father became king thanks to the help of his trusted adviser, Gonçalves. But now, he has grand ambitions and wants...

By the Light of the Bluff by Blake Gunnels is a historical novel that takes the reader to the small island of Saint Simons off Georgia’s Atlantic coast just as the South is trying to rebuild after the Civil War. For Jesse Whitmore and her...

The Faithful Ones by Kathleen J. Waites takes place during World War II. The story primarily revolves around Edward F. Hohlfeld, a young Catholic man from a working-class neighborhood in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He loves art, particularly sketching and painting, and has a younger sister, Mary....

Halley's Gathering by William Overstreet is a historical literary novel set in early 20th-century America, where Julia Halley operates a trading post deep within the Navajo Reservation in New Mexico Territory. She has gathered a diverse circle of companions, including a Southern doctor who provides...