Set against the backdrop of Spain's Golden Age, this fast-paced tale of lust, honor, and passion vividly brings to life the adventures of legendary lover Don Juan. Raised secretly by nuns, Juan Tenorio is forced to leave the Church after he has an affair with one of the women who reared him. Before long, he is recruited by the powerful Marquis de la Mota, who transforms him into the world's greatest libertine and seducer of women. Publishers Weekly calls this book a "lively, suspenseful debut novel."

The year is 1527, and German portraitist Hans Holbein has just fled the turmoil of his homeland for the safety of England, where he is under commission to paint the family of Sir Thomas More. But when King Henry VIII becomes increasingly desperate for a male heir and the Protestant Reformation takes hold, the entire More household is thrust into danger. Seen through the eyes of More's 23-year-old adopted daughter, Meg, Portrait of an Unknown Woman is for readers who enjoy the intrigue and drama of Tudor England.

From the author of the acclaimed novel The Great Sink comes this darkly fascinating tale of obsession and secrets in 18th-century London. In the wake of a disastrous love affair, pregnant 16-year-old Eliza Tally has no choice but to become a maid in the household of apothecary Grayson Black. As she attempts to settle into her surroundings, she makes a series of shocking discoveries that reveal the true nature of Black's plan for herself and her baby. Publishers Weekly says that Clark's "empathetic portrait of the powerless and the victimized" is reminiscent of Charles Dickens.

During World War II, 13-year-old Rennie Stroud's world is upended when the U.S. government opens a Japanese relocation camp next to her family's Colorado farm. Her father, who believes the internment is wrong, gets permission to hire three Japanese men and the workers quickly become close to the Stroud family. But when one of Rennie's friends is brutally murdered, all must confront the bigotry and fear dividing the community. Publishers Weekly lauds author Sandra Dallas' "ability to evoke the sights and sounds of the 1940s."

Author Susan Vreeland is back with another treat for art history fans, and this time she imagines the life of Impressionist painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir. During the summer of 1880, Renoir is determined to create a masterpiece that will astonish the art world and silence outspoken critic Émile Zola. But with only two months of good light left before the autumn arrives, he and his group of Parisian models will have to work quickly to capture the essence of la vie moderne. Discover the story behind Renoir's famous Luncheon of the Boating Party in this thoroughly engrossing novel.

In May of 1565, disgraced and exiled noblewoman Carla La Penautier is desperate to locate her illegitimate 12-year-old son and rescue him from the impending Turkish invasion of Malta. She enlists the aid of soldier-of-fortune Mattias Tannhauser, and together they run the Turkish blockade and arrive on Malta. There Mattias reluctantly joins the Knights of Saint John the Baptist's struggle against the Turks and finds his every move thwarted by Roman inquisitor Ludovico Ludovici. The Religion is an epic and thrilling tale of love, war, faith, and adventure.

In the mid-19th century, explorers were obsessed with discovering a northwest passage through the Arctic Ocean. In The Voyage of the Narwhal, award-winning author Andrea Barrett depicts scholar and naturalist Erasmus Darwin Wells as he and the crew of the Narwhal search for traces of Sir John Franklin's lost Arctic expedition. During their voyage, they endure a brutal winter, encounter Eskimos, and make surprising discoveries about themselves, each other, and their way of life. The New York Times says this "gripping adventure" is a "marvelous achievement."

At the end of the 17th century, five exploratory ships set out from Scotland to establish a colony in Darien, now part of Panama in Central America. In this fictional narrative, Roderick Mackenzie, the superintendent of cargoes for the ship The Rising Sun, describes the fleet's difficult cross-Atlantic voyage as well as the colonists' disastrous battle with exotic diseases, starvation, and factionalism in the New World. The New York Times praises author Douglas Galbraith's use of authentic period dialect and Publishers Weekly says this book is an "impressive historical fiction debut."

This dramatization of the 19th-century Lewis and Clark expedition, the first overland journey from the East coast to the Pacific and back again, is told through the multiple voices of Meriwether Lewis, William Clark, their interpreter Sacagawea, and her husband Toussaint Charbonneau. Their accounts describe a host of memorable events--such as a hunting accident that causes Lewis to slip into depression--and capture the sometimes violent nature of their encounters with Native Americans. If you want to read more about their famous undertaking, check out historian Stephen Ambrose's nonfiction Undaunted Courage.

After deserting the horrors of the Civil War, 17-year-old Brendan Kane joins the ragtag crew of the Narthex and prepares for a voyage of Arctic exploration. However, once the ship sets sail, Brendan and his fellow crew members are surprised to learn that their captain's intended destination is actually a mythical Garden of Eden that he believes exists somewhere in the depths of the polar regions. As they venture through the frozen Arctic, their search for paradise turns into a horrific battle for survival. Booklist named The Rope Eater a Top Ten First Novel of 2004.

In this comic tale of one man's race to the Pacific Ocean against the Lewis and Clark expedition, True Teague Kinneson, a Vermont schoolmaster, inventor, and playwright, heads west with his nephew Ticonderoga and experiences a series of rollicking misadventures throughout the American continent. The dizzying array of characters whom they meet includes Daniel Boone's daughter, members of various Native American tribes, and Meriwether Lewis himself. Written in the style of a 19th-century novel, The True Account is a "combination of Don Quixote, The Odyssey, and The Great Race" (Booklist).

The Last Canyon presents the story of Civil War veteran John Wesley Powell's 1869 voyage of discovery through the uncharted canyons of the Green and Colorado Rivers. With his party of eight men, Powell manages to cover 1,000 miles in only three months, but during the process he loses four crew members. Powell's party also comes into contact with the Paiute Indian inhabitants of the Grand Canyon, and their stories are juxtaposed with that of the white explorers. Readers interested in the history of the American West should check out this "richly detailed" (Kirkus Reviews) novel.