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Historical Fiction May 2025* |
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| 33 Place Brugmann by Alice AustenSet just prior to and during the Nazi occupation of Brussels, Belgium, this thought-provoking debut examines the challenges and choices of an apartment building's residents, who take turns narrating. They include an architect, his art student daughter, an art dealer, his 18-year-old son, a seamstress, a maid, a widowed colonel, and others. Try this next: The Keeper of Lost Art by Laura Morelli. |
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| Broken Country by Clare Leslie HallIn 1955 Dorset, England, teenage Beth falls for wealthy Gabriel, who leaves town. In 1968, Beth, now married to sheep farmer Frank, is still mourning the death of her young son two years before when Gabriel reappears with his own son, setting in motion events that lead to a courtroom trial. This emotionally intense Reese's Book Club pick will please fans of Chris Whitaker's All the Colors of the Dark and Miranda Cowley Heller's The Paper Palace. |
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| The Pretender by Jo HarkinLambert Simnel, a ten-year-old peasant in 1480s England, is tutored and trained, and then declared the hidden heir to the throne. Amid court politics, Lambert becomes part of the Yorkist cause in this witty, "wildly entertaining" (Booklist) novel based on a little-known true story. For fans of: Maggie O'Farrell, Alison Weir, and Hilary Mantel. |
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| A Map to Paradise by Susan MeissnerIn 1956 California, actress Melanie Cole is blacklisted by association, reducing her circle to her European maid Eva, her agoraphobic screenwriter neighbor Elwood, and his sister-in-law caregiver, June. When Elwood disappears, Melanie enlists Eva get to close to June and find Elwood as wildfires draw close. Read-alike: Lee Kelly and Jennifer Thorne's The Starlets. |
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The King's Messenger : (Deluxe Edition)
by Susanna Kearsley
In 1613, Andrew Logan, a messenger for King James, embarks on a mission to frame an innocent advisor for treason, but as he unravels the truth alongside his spirited neighbor Phoebe Westaway, their growing bond challenges loyalty, justice, and the possibilities of love. Simultaneous.
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| The Lost Passenger by Frances QuinnTeenage Elinor marries an earl, finding out afterwards he only wants her money. Belittled and given little access to her young son by his family, she looks forward to the Titanic voyage with no governess. When disaster strikes, her father, husband, and servants die, so Elinor takes her maid's identity to keep her son from her in-laws. "Impressively well-executed and fast-paced," raves Kirkus Reviews. |
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| The Antidote by Karen RussellA severe dust storm devastates a 1930s Nebraska town already suffering due to the burdens of its dark past and the Great Depression. Narrated by a teen basketball star, a Polish farmer, a scarecrow, a prairie witch who keeps memories, and a New Deal photographer with a time-bending camera, this buzzy latest by a Pulitzer finalist weds the supernatural to the historical. Read-alikes: Kali Fajardo-Anstine's Woman of Light; William Kent Krueger's This Tender Land. |
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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