Historical Fiction
Spring 2025
Recent Releases
The Story She Left Behind : A Novel
by Patti Callahan Henry

In 1927, eight-year-old Clara Harrington’s magical childhood shatters when her mother, renowned author, Bronwyn Newcastle Fordham, disappears off the coast of South Carolina. Bronwyn stunned the world with a book written in an invented language that became a national sensation when she was just twelve years old. Her departure leaves behind not only a devoted husband and heartbroken daughter, but also the hope of ever translating the sequel to her landmark work. As the headlines focus on the missing author, Clara yearns for something far deeper and more her beautiful mother.
By 1952, Clara is an illustrator raising her own daughter, Wynnie. When a stranger named Charlie Jameson contacts her from London claiming to have discovered a handwritten dictionary of her mother’s lost language. Clara is skeptical. Compelled by the tragedy of her mother’s vanishing, she crosses the Atlantic with Wynnie only to arrive during one of London’s most deadly natural disasters—the Great Smog. With asthmatic Wynnie in peril, they escape the city with Charlie and find refuge in the Jameson’s family retreat nestled in the Lake District. It is there that Clara must find the courage to uncover the truth about her mother and the story she left behind.
One Good Thing : A Novel
by Georgia Hunter

Lili and Esti have been best friends since meeting at the University of Ferrara; when Esti's son Theo is born, they become as close as sisters. There is a war being fought across borders, and in Italy, Mussolini's Racial Laws have deemed Lili and Esti descendants of an 'inferior' Jewish race, but life somehow goes on-until Germany invades northern Italy, and the friends find themselves in occupied territory. Esti, older and fiercely self-assured, convinces Lili to flee first to a villa in the countryside to help hide a group of young war orphans, then to a convent in Florence, where they pose as nuns and forge false identification papers for the Underground. When disaster strikes at the convent, a critically wounded Esti asks Lili to take a much bigger step: To go on the run with Theo. Protect him while Esti can't. Terrified to travel on her own, Lili sets out on an epic journey south toward Allied territory, through Nazi-occupied villages and bombed-out cities, doing everything she can to keep Theo safe.
The Sable Cloak
by Gail Milissa Grant

Jordan Sable, a prosperous undertaker turned political boss, has controlled the Black vote in St. Louis for decades. Sara, his equally formidable wife, runs the renowned funeral establishment that put the Sable name on the map. Agile and pragmatic, she is known for the careful, deliberate way in which she powders, dresses, and embalms the community's dead. Together, in a true partnership built on trust, mutual respect, and a shared vision for a better future, they have pushed through several obstacles in order to create a legacy for their children through a business that serves as a source of unity and stability for their friends and neighbors.
When tragedy bursts their carefully constructed empire of dignity and safety, the family rallies around an unconventional solution. But at what cost?  
The Eights
by Joanna Miller

Oxford, 1920. For the first time in its 1000-year history, the world's most famous university has admitted female students. Giddy with dreams of equality, education and emancipation, four young women move into neighbouring rooms. Beatrice, Dora, Marianne and Otto (collectively known as The Eights) have come here from all walks of life, and they are thrown into an unlikely, life-affirming friendship.
Dora was never meant to go to university, but, after losing both her brother and her fiancé on the battlefield, has arrived in their place. Politically-minded Beatrice, daughter of a famous suffragette, sees Oxford as a chance to make her own way - and some friends her own age. Otto was a nurse during the war but is excited to return to her socialite lifestyle in Oxford - where she hopes to find distraction from the memories that haunt her. And finally Marianne, the quiet, clever daughter of a village pastor, who has a shocking secret she must hide from everyone, even her new friends, if she is to succeed.
But Oxford's dreaming spires cast a dark shadow: in 1920, misogyny is still rife, influenza is still a threat, and the ghosts of the Great War are still very real indeed. And as the group navigate this tumultuous moment in time, their friendship will become more important than ever.
A Map to Paradise
by Susan Meissner

1956, Malibu, California. Something is not right on Paradise Circle With her name on the Hollywood blacklist and her life on hold, out-of-work starlet Melanie Cole has little choice in company. There is her next-door neighbor and successful screenwriter, Elwood, but his agoraphobia only allows for short conversations through the windows. He's the closest thing she has to a friend in her exile, however, as she and her maid, Eva, an immigrant from Eastern Europe, rarely make conversation. Until they both happen to spot Elwood's sister-in-law and caretaker, June, digging in his rose garden one morning just before dawn. After that, they don't see Elwood at all anymore. Where could a man who never leaves the house possibly have gone? Has something happened to Elwood? The two women can't help trying to find out. But as they sneak up on and into June's life, they discover an unexpected secret, and then a shared goal that's even more startling.
The Paris Express : A Novel
by Emma Donoghue

Based on an 1895 disaster that went down in history when it was captured in a series of surreal, extraordinary photographs, The Paris Express is a propulsive novel set on a train packed with a fascinating cast of characters who hail from as close as Brittany and as far as Russia, Ireland, Algeria, Pennsylvania, and Cambodia. Members of parliament hurry back to Paris to vote; a medical student suspects a girl may be dying; a secretary tries to convince her boss of the potential of moving pictures; two of the train’s crew build a life away from their wives; a young anarchist makes a terrifying plan, and much more.
Junie : A Novel
by Erin Crosby Eckstine

A strong-willed enslaved girl is haunted by her sister's ghost as she grapples with circumstances beyond her control, risking her life as the Civil War looms in this lush and tenderhearted debut. Junie has always yearned for more. Born and raised on the Bellereine plantation in the Alabama countryside, the sixteen-year-old spends her days working for the McQueens and serving as a maid for their daughter Violet, her oldest and closest friend. In the daytime, she entertains herself with poetry and imagines grand romances and faraway worlds. Under the cover of night, she steals away to the woods, curling up by the riverbank. But consumed by grief over the recent death of her older sister Minnie, she has vowed never to leave her family's side. Her world is capsized at the arrival of the Taylors, a wealthy brother and sister from New Orleans. The McQueens are keen to marry Violet off to Mr. Taylor, and if they succeed, Junie would be ripped away from everyone she knows and loves. Committing a desperate act, she awakens Minnie's tempestuous spirit, who can only move on once Junie completes three crucial tasks. She enlists the aid of Caleb, Mr. Taylor's chauffeur, and the two strike up a quick friendship that soon becomes something more. Yet time is ticking, and as secrets and betrayals rise to the surface, Junie must wade into unfamiliar territory as she pushes against the current that has controlled her entire life. 
The Pirate Ruse
by Marcia Lynn McClure

Abducted! Forcibly taken from her home in New Orleans, Cristabel Albay found herself a prisoner aboard an enemy ship-and soon thereafter, transferred into the vile hands of blood-thirsty pirates! War waged between the newly liberated United States and King George. Still, Cristabel would soon discover that British sailors were the very least of her worries-for the pirate captain, Bully Booth, owned no loyalty-no sympathy for those he captured. Yet hope was not entirely lost-for where there was found one crew of pirates-there was ever found another. Though Cristabel Albay would never have dreamed that she may find fortune in being captured by one pirate captain only to be taken by another-she did! Bully Booth took no man alive-let no woman live long. But the pirate Navarrone was known for his clemency. Thus, Cristabel's hope in knowing her life's continuance was restored. Nonetheless, as Cristabel's heart began to yearn for the affections of her handsome, beguiling captor-she wondered if Captain Navarrone had only saved her life to execute her poor heart!
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