Historical Fiction - NEW

The Birthing Tree

Peters, Amanda


“My mother died pushing me into the world. . . . I don’t know if I saw her face or if she saw mine. Only that, by the first crack of thunder, she was gone.” So begins the powerful new novel by critically acclaimed, award-winning author Amanda Peters. In 1955, Aliet’s mother dies in childbirth beneath the birthing tree, a large old oak, where Indigenous women have been giving birth for longer than anyone can remember. Aliet’s grandmother, the local midwife, has assisted in the successful births of babies there for decades. Yet on that fateful day, tragedy strikes, and it’s her own daughter, Maggie, who dies under her care.
Date Published:2026

“My mother died pushing me into the world. . . . I don’t know if I saw her face or if she saw mine. Only that, by the first crack of thunder, she was gone.” So begins the powerful new novel by critically acclaimed, award-winning author Amanda Peters. In 1955, Aliet’s mother dies in childbirth beneath the birthing tree, a large old oak, where Indigenous women have been giving birth for longer than anyone can remember. Aliet’s grandmother, the local midwife, has assisted in the successful births of babies there for decades. Yet on that fateful day, tragedy strikes, and it’s her own daughter, Maggie, who dies under her care.

Date Published:2026

The Chambermaid's Key

Graham, Genevieve


A dazzling novel set at an elegant hotel in Toronto in 1929 about a young chambermaid, a handsome waiter, and a murder that will reverberate for a century.
Date Published:2026

Circle of Days

Follett, Ken,


A FLINT MINER WITH A GIFT Seft, a talented flint miner, walks the Great Plain in the high summer heat, to witness the rituals that signal the start of a new year. He is there to trade his stone at the Midsummer Rite, and to find Neen, the girl he loves. Her family live in prosperity and offer Seft an escape from his brutish father and brothers, within their herder community. A PRIESTESS WHO BELIEVES THE IMPOSSIBLE Joia, Neen's sister, is a priestess with a vision and an unmatched ability to lead. As a child, she watches the Midsummer ceremony, enthralled, and dreams of a miraculous new monument, raised from the biggest stones in the world. But trouble is brewing among the hills and woodlands of the Great Plain. A MONUMENT THAT WILL DEFINE A CIVILIZATION Joia's vision of a great stone circle, assembled by the divided tribes of the Plain, will inspire Seft and become their life's work. But as drought ravages the earth, mistrust grows between the herders, farmers and woodlanders - and an act of savage violence leads to open warfare.
Date Published:2025

A FLINT MINER WITH A GIFT Seft, a talented flint miner, walks the Great Plain in the high summer heat, to witness the rituals that signal the start of a new year. He is there to trade his stone at the Midsummer Rite, and to find Neen, the girl he loves. Her family live in prosperity and offer Seft an escape from his brutish father and brothers, within their herder community. A PRIESTESS WHO BELIEVES THE IMPOSSIBLE Joia, Neen's sister, is a priestess with a vision and an unmatched ability to lead. As a child, she watches the Midsummer ceremony, enthralled, and dreams of a miraculous new monument, raised from the biggest stones in the world. But trouble is brewing among the hills and woodlands of the Great Plain. A MONUMENT THAT WILL DEFINE A CIVILIZATION Joia's vision of a great stone circle, assembled by the divided tribes of the Plain, will inspire Seft and become their life's work. But as drought ravages the earth, mistrust grows between the herders, farmers and woodlanders - and an act of savage violence leads to open warfare.

Date Published:2025

Faithful of Heart : A Minnesota Legacy duo /

Peterson, Tracie,


Judith Ashton receives word from her estranged grandfather urging her to move to Minneapolis to prove her worth for his inheritance. Roman Turner, a local physician with a heart for the poor, harbors a grudge against the same man. When Judith meets Roman in an attempt to right past wrongs, can they overcome a shadowed history and find grace and love for the future?
Date Published:2026

Die Famous

Koryta, Michael


The Four Winds meets Bonnie and Clyde in this exhilarating historical thriller in which an unforgettable mother races to find the gangster she once loved―before the law gets to him first.
Date Published:2026

The Girls of Good Fortune

McMorris, Kristina,


She came from a lineage known for good fortune...by those who don't know the whole story. Portland, 1888. Amid the subterranean labyrinth of the notorious Shanghai Tunnels, a woman awakens in an underground cell, drugged and disguised. Celia soon realizes she's a "shanghaied" victim on the verge of being shipped off as forced labor, leaving behind those she loves most. Although well accustomed to adapting for survival-being half-Chinese, passing as white during an era fraught with anti-Chinese sentiment-she fears that far more than her own fate hangs in the balance. As she pieces together the twisting path that led to her abduction, from serving as a maid for the family of a dubious mayor to becoming entwined in the case of a goldminers' massacre, revelations emerge of a child left in peril. Desperate, Celia must find a way to escape and return to a place where unearthed secrets can prove deadlier than the dark recesses of Chinatown. A captivating tale of resilience and hope, The Girls of Good Fortune explores the complexity of family and identity, the importance of stories that echo through generations, and the power of strength found beneath the surface.
Date Published:2025

She came from a lineage known for good fortune...by those who don't know the whole story. Portland, 1888. Amid the subterranean labyrinth of the notorious Shanghai Tunnels, a woman awakens in an underground cell, drugged and disguised. Celia soon realizes she's a "shanghaied" victim on the verge of being shipped off as forced labor, leaving behind those she loves most. Although well accustomed to adapting for survival-being half-Chinese, passing as white during an era fraught with anti-Chinese sentiment-she fears that far more than her own fate hangs in the balance. As she pieces together the twisting path that led to her abduction, from serving as a maid for the family of a dubious mayor to becoming entwined in the case of a goldminers' massacre, revelations emerge of a child left in peril. Desperate, Celia must find a way to escape and return to a place where unearthed secrets can prove deadlier than the dark recesses of Chinatown. A captivating tale of resilience and hope, The Girls of Good Fortune explores the complexity of family and identity, the importance of stories that echo through generations, and the power of strength found beneath the surface.

Date Published:2025

Liberty Street

Marshall, Heather


A riveting novel about one journalist's harrowing journey into an infamous real-life 1960s women's prison—and the detective who uncovers her story decades later.
Date Published:2026

The Lies They Told

Wiseman, Ellen Marie,


In rural 1930s Virginia, a young immigrant mother fights for her dignity and those she loves against America's rising eugenics movement when widespread support for policies of prejudice drove imprisonment and forced sterilizations based on class, race, disability, education, and country of origin. When Lena Conti a young, unwed mother sees immigrant families being forcibly separated on Ellis Island, she vows not to let the officers take her two-year old daughter. But the inspection process is more rigorous than she imagined, and she is separated from her mother and teenage brother, who are labeled burdens to society, denied entry, and deported back to Germany. Now, alone but determined to give her daughter a better life after years of living in poverty and near starvation, she finds herself facing a future unlike anything she had envisioned. Silas Wolfe, a widowed family relative, reluctantly brings Lena and her daughter to his weathered cabin in Virginia's Blue Ridge Mountains to care for his home and children. Though the hills around Wolfe Hollow remind Lena of her homeland, she struggles to adjust. Worse, she is stunned to learn the children in her care have been taught to hide when the sheriff comes around. As Lena meets their neighbors, she realizes the community is vibrant and tight knit, but also senses growing unease. The State of Virginia is scheming to paint them as ignorant, immoral, and backwards so they can evict them from their land, seize children from parents, and deal with those possessing "inferior genes." After a social worker from the Eugenics Office accuses Lena of promiscuity and feeblemindedness, her own worst fears come true. Sent to the Virginia State Colony for the Feebleminded and Epileptics, Lena face impossible choices in hopes of reuniting with her daughter and protecting the people, and the land, she has grown to love.
Date Published:2025

In rural 1930s Virginia, a young immigrant mother fights for her dignity and those she loves against America's rising eugenics movement when widespread support for policies of prejudice drove imprisonment and forced sterilizations based on class, race, disability, education, and country of origin. When Lena Conti a young, unwed mother sees immigrant families being forcibly separated on Ellis Island, she vows not to let the officers take her two-year old daughter. But the inspection process is more rigorous than she imagined, and she is separated from her mother and teenage brother, who are labeled burdens to society, denied entry, and deported back to Germany. Now, alone but determined to give her daughter a better life after years of living in poverty and near starvation, she finds herself facing a future unlike anything she had envisioned. Silas Wolfe, a widowed family relative, reluctantly brings Lena and her daughter to his weathered cabin in Virginia's Blue Ridge Mountains to care for his home and children. Though the hills around Wolfe Hollow remind Lena of her homeland, she struggles to adjust. Worse, she is stunned to learn the children in her care have been taught to hide when the sheriff comes around. As Lena meets their neighbors, she realizes the community is vibrant and tight knit, but also senses growing unease. The State of Virginia is scheming to paint them as ignorant, immoral, and backwards so they can evict them from their land, seize children from parents, and deal with those possessing "inferior genes." After a social worker from the Eugenics Office accuses Lena of promiscuity and feeblemindedness, her own worst fears come true. Sent to the Virginia State Colony for the Feebleminded and Epileptics, Lena face impossible choices in hopes of reuniting with her daughter and protecting the people, and the land, she has grown to love.

Date Published:2025

The Mountains We Call Home : The Book Woman's Legacy /

Richardson, Kim Michele,


From the New York Times bestselling author of The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek comes a triumphant tale of a librarian's fight to bring literacy to the prisons of Kentucky and the underserved neighborhoods of downtown Louisville, revealing a story of fierce love, quiet strength, and the healing power of books.
Date Published:2026

The only Woman in the Room

Benedict, Marie,



Date Published:2019

The Pirate Queen

Lawhon, Ariel,


A thrilling historical adventure inspired by the life of Grace O'Malley, the infamous Irish sea captain and folk heroine who risked everything to protect her people against the powerful Elizabethan regime Grace O'Malley was born to be at sea. Raised alongside her brother by their father, chief of the name of clan O'Malley, Grace learns early that her dreams of the open water are not compatible with the life she's expected to lead as the daughter of a noble family. And when her father marries her to the wrong man, a neighboring chief named Donhal, Grace's world shifts for the worse. Undaunted, Grace raises a family without abandoning her passion, aiding her hot-tempered husband in his campaigns against rival tribes. Eventually ousted from her husband's land in the wake of his death, Grace returns to her childhood home and begins her career as a pirate in earnest, claiming new territories and finding deeper love, only to see her livelihood threatened by English incursions into Ireland, and her family endangered in an attempt to check her power. Tenderly observed and fiercely written, Ariel Lawhon's gripping latest channels the natural beauty of sixteenth-century Ireland alongside the brutality of the period as seen through the eyes of an unforgettable heroine and defender of her people, who truly earned the title "the Pirate Queen of Ireland."
Date Published:2026

A thrilling historical adventure inspired by the life of Grace O'Malley, the infamous Irish sea captain and folk heroine who risked everything to protect her people against the powerful Elizabethan regime Grace O'Malley was born to be at sea. Raised alongside her brother by their father, chief of the name of clan O'Malley, Grace learns early that her dreams of the open water are not compatible with the life she's expected to lead as the daughter of a noble family. And when her father marries her to the wrong man, a neighboring chief named Donhal, Grace's world shifts for the worse. Undaunted, Grace raises a family without abandoning her passion, aiding her hot-tempered husband in his campaigns against rival tribes. Eventually ousted from her husband's land in the wake of his death, Grace returns to her childhood home and begins her career as a pirate in earnest, claiming new territories and finding deeper love, only to see her livelihood threatened by English incursions into Ireland, and her family endangered in an attempt to check her power. Tenderly observed and fiercely written, Ariel Lawhon's gripping latest channels the natural beauty of sixteenth-century Ireland alongside the brutality of the period as seen through the eyes of an unforgettable heroine and defender of her people, who truly earned the title "the Pirate Queen of Ireland."

Date Published:2026

Shelterwood

Wingate, Lisa,


Oklahoma 1909. Eleven-year-old Olive Augusta Radley knows that her stepfather doesn't have good intentions toward the two Choctaw girls boarded in their home as wards. When the older girl disappears, Ollie flees to the woods, taking six-year-old Nessa with her. Together they begin a perilous journey to the rugged Winding Stair Mountains, the notorious territory of outlaws, treasure hunters, and desperate men. Along the way, Ollie and Nessa form an unlikely band with others like themselves, struggling to stay one step ahead of those who seek to exploit them... or worse. Oklahoma 1990. Law Enforcement Ranger Valerie Boren O'dell arrives at Horsethief Trail National Park seeking a quiet place to balance a career and single parenthood. But no sooner has Valerie reported for duty than she's faced with local controversy over the park's opening, a teenage hiker gone missing from one of the trails, and the long-hidden burial site of three children deep in a cave. Val's quest to uncover the truth wins an ally among the neighboring Choctaw Tribal Police, but soon collides with old secrets and the tragic and deadly history of the land itself. In this emotional and enveloping novel, Lisa Wingate traces the story of children abandoned by the law, and the battle to see justice done. Amid times of deep conflict over who owns the land and its riches, Ollie and Val traverse the wild and beautiful terrain, each leaving behind one life in search of another.
Date Published:2024

Oklahoma 1909. Eleven-year-old Olive Augusta Radley knows that her stepfather doesn't have good intentions toward the two Choctaw girls boarded in their home as wards. When the older girl disappears, Ollie flees to the woods, taking six-year-old Nessa with her. Together they begin a perilous journey to the rugged Winding Stair Mountains, the notorious territory of outlaws, treasure hunters, and desperate men. Along the way, Ollie and Nessa form an unlikely band with others like themselves, struggling to stay one step ahead of those who seek to exploit them... or worse. Oklahoma 1990. Law Enforcement Ranger Valerie Boren O'dell arrives at Horsethief Trail National Park seeking a quiet place to balance a career and single parenthood. But no sooner has Valerie reported for duty than she's faced with local controversy over the park's opening, a teenage hiker gone missing from one of the trails, and the long-hidden burial site of three children deep in a cave. Val's quest to uncover the truth wins an ally among the neighboring Choctaw Tribal Police, but soon collides with old secrets and the tragic and deadly history of the land itself. In this emotional and enveloping novel, Lisa Wingate traces the story of children abandoned by the law, and the battle to see justice done. Amid times of deep conflict over who owns the land and its riches, Ollie and Val traverse the wild and beautiful terrain, each leaving behind one life in search of another.

Date Published:2024

The Spirit of Scatarie

Crewe, Lesley


A stunning new work of historical fiction from the bestselling author of The Spoon Stealer, set on Nova Scotia's remote Scatarie Island, following three friends whose lives are inextricably bound, and the spirit who guides them. You might be startled that this tale will be told to you by a ghost. I prefer the word spirit but it's all the same. The truth is, I have as much right to tell this story as anyone. Scatarie Island belongs to the living and the dead.
Date Published:2025

A stunning new work of historical fiction from the bestselling author of The Spoon Stealer, set on Nova Scotia's remote Scatarie Island, following three friends whose lives are inextricably bound, and the spirit who guides them. You might be startled that this tale will be told to you by a ghost. I prefer the word spirit but it's all the same. The truth is, I have as much right to tell this story as anyone. Scatarie Island belongs to the living and the dead.

Date Published:2025

The Stolen Life of Colette Marceau

Harmel, Kristin,


A new historical novel features two jewel thieves, a priceless bracelet that disappears in 1940s Paris and a quest for answers in a decades-old murder. Colette Marceau has been stealing jewels for nearly as long as she can remember, following the centuries-old code of honor instilled in her by her mother, take only from the cruel and unkind, and give to those in need. Never was their family tradition more important than seven decades earlier, during the Second World War, when Annabel and Colette worked side by side in Paris to fund the French Resistance. But one night in 1942, it all went wrong. Annabel was arrested by the Germans, and Colette's four-year-old sister, Liliane, disappeared in the chaos of the raid, along with an exquisite diamond bracelet sewn into the hem of her nightgown for safekeeping. Soon after, Annabel was executed, and Liliane's body was found floating in the Seine--but the bracelet was nowhere to be found. Seventy years later, Colette--who has "redistributed" $30 million in jewels over the decades to fund many worthy organizations--has done her best to put her tragic past behind her, but her life begins to unravel when the long-missing bracelet suddenly turns up in a museum exhibit in Boston. If Colette can discover where it has been all this time--and who owns it now--she may finally learn the truth about what happened to her sister. But she isn't the only one for whom the bracelet holds answers, and when someone from her childhood lays claim to the diamonds, she's forced to confront the ghosts of her past as never before. Against all odds, there may still be a chance to bring a murderer to justice--but first, Colette will have to summon the courage to open her own battered heart.
Date Published:2025

A new historical novel features two jewel thieves, a priceless bracelet that disappears in 1940s Paris and a quest for answers in a decades-old murder. Colette Marceau has been stealing jewels for nearly as long as she can remember, following the centuries-old code of honor instilled in her by her mother, take only from the cruel and unkind, and give to those in need. Never was their family tradition more important than seven decades earlier, during the Second World War, when Annabel and Colette worked side by side in Paris to fund the French Resistance. But one night in 1942, it all went wrong. Annabel was arrested by the Germans, and Colette's four-year-old sister, Liliane, disappeared in the chaos of the raid, along with an exquisite diamond bracelet sewn into the hem of her nightgown for safekeeping. Soon after, Annabel was executed, and Liliane's body was found floating in the Seine--but the bracelet was nowhere to be found. Seventy years later, Colette--who has "redistributed" $30 million in jewels over the decades to fund many worthy organizations--has done her best to put her tragic past behind her, but her life begins to unravel when the long-missing bracelet suddenly turns up in a museum exhibit in Boston. If Colette can discover where it has been all this time--and who owns it now--she may finally learn the truth about what happened to her sister. But she isn't the only one for whom the bracelet holds answers, and when someone from her childhood lays claim to the diamonds, she's forced to confront the ghosts of her past as never before. Against all odds, there may still be a chance to bring a murderer to justice--but first, Colette will have to summon the courage to open her own battered heart.

Date Published:2025

The Story Keeper

Rimmer, Kelly


In the aftermath of a tumultuous year, Fiona Winslow finds solace in the decaying grandeur of Wurimbirra, the rambling family estate she once called home. Intent on restoring it, she discovers the keys to more than just the dilapidated mansion—beneath the crumbling plaster and dust are secrets that have been buried for a generation.
Date Published:2026

An Unexpected Grace : The Jewels of Kalispell trilogy /

Peterson, Tracie,


Actor Parker Bennett returns home to Kalispell after ten years and reunites with his first love, widowed Johanna St. John, who is juggling life as a mother and businesswoman. Just as Parker and Johanna believe they have a second chance at love, circumstances in both of their lives threaten any hope of a future together.
Date Published:2025

Where the Sky Begins

Bowen, Rhys


A woman’s future is determined by fate and choice in a gripping WWII novel about danger, triumph, and second chances.
Date Published:2022

Wildwood

Florence, Elinor,


Broke and desperate, single mother Molly Bannister of Phoenix, Arizona, accepts the stern condition laid down in her great-aunt's will: to spend one year in an abandoned farmhouse deep in the remote backwoods of northern Alberta. If she does, she will be able to sell the farm and fund her four-year-old daughter Bridget's badly needed medical treatments. With grim determination, Molly teaches herself the basic pioneer skills, chopping firewood and washing her clothes with melted snow. Only the journal written by her courageous great-aunt, the land's original homesteader, inspires her to struggle on. But there's another obstacle to her success: an idealistic young farmer, Colin McKay, wants to thwart Molly's strategy to sell her great-aunt's farm to an oil company. Will Molly be cheated out of her inheritance after all? Will she and Bridget survive the savage winter, and what comes next? Not only their financial future, but their very lives are at stake.
Date Published:2018

Broke and desperate, single mother Molly Bannister of Phoenix, Arizona, accepts the stern condition laid down in her great-aunt's will: to spend one year in an abandoned farmhouse deep in the remote backwoods of northern Alberta. If she does, she will be able to sell the farm and fund her four-year-old daughter Bridget's badly needed medical treatments. With grim determination, Molly teaches herself the basic pioneer skills, chopping firewood and washing her clothes with melted snow. Only the journal written by her courageous great-aunt, the land's original homesteader, inspires her to struggle on. But there's another obstacle to her success: an idealistic young farmer, Colin McKay, wants to thwart Molly's strategy to sell her great-aunt's farm to an oil company. Will Molly be cheated out of her inheritance after all? Will she and Bridget survive the savage winter, and what comes next? Not only their financial future, but their very lives are at stake.

Date Published:2018

The World Played Chess

Dugoni, Robert,


In 1979, Vincent Bianco has just graduated high school. His only desire: collect a little beer money and enjoy his final summer before college. So he lands a job as a laborer on a construction crew. Working alongside two Vietnam vets, one suffering from PTSD, Vincent gets the education of a lifetime. Now forty years later, with his own son leaving for college, the lessons of that summer--Vincent's last taste of innocence and first taste of real life--dramatically unfold in a novel about breaking away, shaping a life, and seeking one's own destiny.
Date Published:2021

In 1979, Vincent Bianco has just graduated high school. His only desire: collect a little beer money and enjoy his final summer before college. So he lands a job as a laborer on a construction crew. Working alongside two Vietnam vets, one suffering from PTSD, Vincent gets the education of a lifetime. Now forty years later, with his own son leaving for college, the lessons of that summer--Vincent's last taste of innocence and first taste of real life--dramatically unfold in a novel about breaking away, shaping a life, and seeking one's own destiny.

Date Published:2021