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...

Dual Convergence: Witness to History by Angel Giacomo is one of the most interesting books I have read in a long time. The author has brought to life the history of the Roosevelt family in a very down-to-earth way – warts and all. Internal family...

Anna Belfrage’s Queen of Shadows is set in fourteenth-century Castile, where Alma’s future changes when she is taken into the household of Doña Leonor de Guzmán, the king’s companion whose position draws both favor and hostility. What begins as service becomes responsibility as Alma learns...

Gershwin’s Bess by Lisa K. Winkler follows the ascent of Anne Wiggins Brown, a gifted soprano moving from Baltimore to the intense, competitive music world of New York. Starting with her childhood performances for WWI soldiers, the narrative tracks her through the 1920s as she...

Entertaining and well-researched, A. Piper Burgi’s The Exploress and the Pillars of Eternity is a fine example of historical fiction. Set in the early nineteenth century, at a time when Egypt was just beginning to allow Europeans access to their country and its archaeological treasures,...

The Inhabited Arc by Joe Trabocco is a collection of three short stories, all standalones and each enveloped in the singular consciousness of its narrator. In Epiphany, Lydia is in a coastal house where daily life by the shore slowly awakens an inner awareness, leading...

Beneath the Basilica, the memoirs and confessions of Lucrezia Borgia were discovered in the historical fiction novel, The Lost Diary of Lucrezia Borgia (Deathbed Confessions by the Pope’s Daughter) by Johnny Teague. A devout Christian and archaeologist, Giuseppe is delighted when he is asked to...

I Wash My Hands: The ‘Autobiography’ of Pontius Pilate by P. Drew Warren is a historical novel written in the style of an autobiography from Pontius Pilate's point of view. Pontius Pilate recounts his experiences as the Roman Governor in Judea and his decision during...

Katherine Mezzacappa draws the reader deeply into late 1700’s Ireland in her impeccably researched novel, The Ballad of Mary Kearney. In a tumultuous period of social and religious unrest, we witness the story of a simple serving girl named Mary Kearney, who, against all cultural...

Anne Boleyn is off on another adventure. Having left her training at Margaret of Austria’s court, Anne is now entering the French court as one of Mary Tudor’s most trusted ladies’ maids. In Rozsa Gaston’s The Queen’s Maid, Anne, with her fluency in French, is...