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Reign
by Bethan Croome
Found family, forbidden love, and a heroine who refuses to kneel.
In the rain-soaked Kingdom of Lyonesse, magic is outlawed―punishable by death. So when Niamh's forbidden witchcraft is exposed, she flees her rainy village disguised as a man. Mistakenly conscripted into a brutal war engineered by a paranoid king against a vengeful sorceress determined to reclaim the throne, Niamh now hides another secret―her womanhood. Between fighting terrifying beasts and confronting arcane powers she once believed were merely folklore, Niamh is thrust into a world where survival relies on more than luck―it demands alliances. As war tightens its grip on the kingdom, Niamh is forced to choose: obey the prince who could expose her, trust the soldier who could love her, or embrace the forbidden magic that could save them all.
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The Last Prince of Florence
by Zoe Sivak
Based on the true story of Alessandro de' Medici, this sweeping novel follows a Black woman's secret plot to put her son on a Renaissance throne.
In 1490, a dark-skinned baby girl named Simonetta arrives at the Santo Spirito foundling hospital with a bronze dagger strapped to her chest. Years later, when a midnight brawl leaves exiled prince Lorenzo de' Medici owing her his life, Simonetta talks her way into the legendary Medici family—and finds herself falling for the beloved Medici son. But her dark skin and sharp tongue make enemies, and when the family accuses her of witchcraft, she's forced to reveal her secret: she's pregnant with a potential Medici heir. Her own ambitions thwarted, Simonetta is determined to do anything—lie, cheat, and kill—to put her son Alessandro on Florence's throne.
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The Drakon King
by Terry J. Benton-Walker
Queer, Black, and sexy as hell, The Drakon King is romantasy at its best: A forbidden love story between princes in the court of a cruel king.
Heir to a kingdom built on lies and stolen magic, Prince Reverie has one goal: avoid the crown. Raised by a cruel and violent king, Reverie’s real life begins after curfew―bottle service, masked revelries, and anonymous rooftop liaisons. But when his king plots to seize dwindling majikal resources from the Drakon King, Reverie hits his limit―he casts aside his royal obligations and gets the hell outta town.
Heir to a kingdom banished into the sky, Prince Xandreth has one goal: find a missing friend. His brother, the Drakon King, stubbornly refuses to acknowledge that their people keep going missing, so Xandreth takes it upon himself to hunt down answers.
A meeting that will change them both. A love that will save their world.
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The House of Boleyn
by Tracy Borman
Acclaimed Tudor historian Tracy Borman weaves the dramatic history of the Boleyn family into a richly imagined novel of ambition, bloodlines, and the deadly court of Henry VIII.
When nobleman Thomas Boleyn, lord of Hever Castle, is called to London in 1509 to present himself to a newly anointed King Henry VIII, he sets in train events that ensure the Boleyn name will never be forgotten. His daughters Mary and Anne were young then, and though he was ambitious for his family to prosper, he could not imagine what would transpire in the two decades to come. Blending the history she knows so well with the creativity of her imagination, Tracy Borman brings the Boleyn family’s three-decade rise and precipitous fall to vivid life. Borman surrounds the main dramatic events of the Boleyn saga with a colorful tableau in which familial and inter-familial rivalries threaten and true love often loses out to keen ambition.
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For the King
by Carissa Weiser
The first installment of a comprehensive retelling of King Arthur’s legend that breathes new life into the classic tale.
Logris is a land torn asunder, plagued by invasions, assassinations, and anarchy. The land lies in wait for one strong enough to truly bear the crown, one who will pull a sword from a rock. But there is another being, rumored to be half-demon and half-man, who braids together these threads of destiny. He goes by the name of Merlin, and he shapes kingdoms like clay, only to destroy them between his fingers. And then there is Arthur, the boy king remembered throughout time. Perhaps he can prove his worth and bury his past, as he rules with a sword in his hand and Merlin in his ear. A story of loyalties tested and lives lost, of characters both familiar and fresh, For the King is the first installment of a tale that knits the scramble of Arthurian legend into a kaleidoscopic journey through time, perspective, and the trappings of one’s own destiny.
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To Dream in Darkness
by Ann Liang
Two gods strike a bargain that leads them on a journey with devastating consequences.
China is in the age of brilliance, where gods freely wander the three realms. Amongst them is the cruel and beautiful Death God, who has never failed to collect a soul on time. Until now. For when he seeks out Rujia, the noble god of healing―and the only god he is fated to kill with his own hands―she makes him an offer he can’t refuse: she will help lift the excruciating, century-old curse placed upon him if he gives her a one-month reprieve. Rujia knows she isn’t as noble as everyone believes. Her deal with Death is merely an excuse to buy herself time while she figures out an escape plan. But when her plan causes the Celestial Palace’s collapse and the beloved crown prince’s disappearance, she and Death are both held responsible. The only way to avoid the wrath of all the other gods is to travel across the realms and safely retrieve the crown prince themselves.
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Dressing the Queen: Two Hundred Years of Craft, Couture, and Monarchy
by Kate Strasdin
A revealing history that explores the artistry, craftmanship, and traditions behind the royal wardrobe.
From tours and walkabouts to the dazzling spectacle of a wedding or Coronation, the clothes worn by royal women have always been a fascination. Starting with Queen Victoria and moving to the modern Elizabethan age, Dressing the Queen shows the incredible craftsmanship and painstaking effort that go into the making of what is known as the "Royal Wardrobe." Dress historian Kate Strasdin reveals a tribe of previously unsung women and men. Some may be more renowned—such as designer Norman Hartnell or suitcase-maker Louis Vuitton—but most are ordinary, highly talented working people from across the British Isles. From rural straw plaiters to wartime coat-makers and refugee glovers, their skilled labor is a vital part of history.
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Country of Lords: Neo-Aristocrats, Social Darwinists, Tech Utopians, and the Long Fight Against Equality in America
by Kim Phillips-Fein
A Pulitzer-finalist historian charts a 250-year-old intellectual and political tradition—the conviction that all Americans are NOT created equal.
We think of the United States as a nation committed, at least on paper, to ideals of human equality, under God and/or under the law. But as robust as the notion of the “American dream” is a longstanding defense of social hierarchies, including vast gulfs between rich and poor. Drawing on forgotten characters and neglected archives, Kim Phillips-Fein tells the story of the executives, intellectuals, and political leaders who have argued that the words of the Declaration of Independence—that “all men are created equal”—are a myth. John Adams, William Graham Sumner, Andrew Carnegie, journalist Lothrop Stoddard, Henry Ford, Harvard psychologist Richard Herrnstein, Peter Thiel, and others represent this counter-tradition of hostility to democratic government. Phillips-Fein explores their ideas, and the aspirations they were reacting to, in order to understand our political life today.
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Tyrant Lizard Queen: The Love, Life, and Terror of Earth's Greatest Carnivore
by Riley Black
An imaginative celebration of T. rex from hatching to adulthood.
Tyrannosaurus rex is a prehistoric celebrity. Exceeding 40 feet in length and weighing over 9 tons, the largest individuals of this dinosaurian species were intimidating predators capable of crushing bone and consuming more than a hundred pounds of flesh in a bite. But the last of the tyrant dinosaurs had a life beyond ripping and tearing. More than 66 million years ago, T. rex courted each other, nested, watched over their offspring, slept, drank, and explored ancient floodplains inhabited by a fantastic cast of impressive dinosaurs. In her latest prehistoric nature walk, author Riley Black follows the life of plucky T. rex Snaggletooth from the time she hatches through her tumultuous adulthood. Even the most die-hard dinosaur fan will come away with a new perspective and appreciation for the Tyrant Lizard Queen.
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American Caesar: How Theocrats and Tech Lords Are Turning America Into a Monarchy
by Bradley B. Onishi
A chilling and urgently needed exposé on the forces pushing American politics and religion toward a post-constitutional autocracy.
From Silicon Valley boardrooms to rural pulpits, from Catholic monasteries to Beltway think tanks and Project 2025, a convergence is underway. Reactionary Catholics dream of a new Christendom. Protestant pastors invoke divine right over democratic rule. Tech billionaires, led by the likes of Peter Thiel, argue that freedom and democracy are incompatible. Their solution? A singular ruler to bring “order” out of what they see as liberal chaos. With a theologian’s sensibility, a journalist’s touch, and a historian’s eye for how movements evolve and adapt, Dr. Bradley B. Onishi traces the strange alliance between spiritual warfare and Silicon Valley libertarianism. At the center of it all is the desire for an unbound executive―one man, beyond checks, beyond balance, beyond democracy. This isn’t nostalgia for the 1950s. It’s an organized attempt to abandon the American experiment altogether.
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Mao: Power and Contradiction
by Kerry Brown
Chairman Mao's extraordinary life and complex legacy are laid bare.
Mao Zedong lived one of the most epic and influential lives of the twentieth century. His impact on the People's Republic of China was vast. Half a century after his passing, he remains a divisive and controversial figure. This book gives an accessible narrative of his life, from the fall of the Qing in the early part of the twentieth century to the long years in which Mao Zedong struggled not only to ensure the Communist Party of China survived, but that it then came to power after a civil war with the nationalists. Mao's tragic failures as ruler were some of the worst to ever befall a modern society, while his personal life remains a source of intense interest. Clear-eyed and non-partisan, this is the first accessible biography of Mao to appear in English for some time.
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Tidal Wave: The Pilots, the Princess, and the Enemy Ace - A True Story of Courage and Survival in WWII
by Adam Makos
An astonishing true story set in an untold arena of World War II.
It’s summer 1943, and the world is on fire. Lieutenant Ernie Poulson, a twenty-two-year-old outdoorsman from Utah, finds himself at the controls of America’s most advanced bomber, the B-24, brought to North Africa for a top-secret mission. On the far side of Europe, Lieutenant Constantin Cantacuzino, Romania’s most daring ace, duels Soviet fighters on the Eastern Front while searching for purpose in an unwinnable war. In Nazi-aligned Romania, Princess Catherine Caradja walks a perilous line between loyalty to her country and quiet defiance, as German forces dig in around the oil refineries in her backyard. And in the royal palace, twenty-one-year-old King Michael of Romania—mocked and sidelined by a Nazi-backed dictator—quietly plots to seize his nation’s destiny before it is lost forever. In Tidal Wave, Adam Makos brings these lives together in a sweeping saga of courage and survival, set against history’s most audacious air raid: the treetop assault on “Hitler’s gas station” at Ploesti, Romania.
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