Best of
Historical

2020

The Light in Hidden Places


Sharon Cameron - 2020
    She has even made a promise to one of their sons, Izio -- a betrothal they must keep secret since she is Catholic and the Diamants are Jewish.But everything changes when the German army invades Przemsyl. The Diamants are forced into the ghetto, and Stefania is alone in an occupied city, the only one left to care for Helena, her six-year-old sister. And then comes the knock at the door. Izio's brother Max has jumped from the train headed to a death camp. Stefania and Helena make the extraordinary decision to hide Max, and eventually twelve more Jews. Then they must wait, every day, for the next knock at the door, the one that will mean death. When the knock finally comes, it is two Nazi officers, requisitioning Stefania's house for the German army.With two Nazis below, thirteen hidden Jews above, and a little sister by her side, Stefania has one more excruciating choice to make.

The Girl Behind the Gates


Brenda Davies - 2020
    Seventeen-year-old Nora Jennings has spent her life secure in the certainty of a bright, happy future - until one night of passion has more catastrophic consequences than she ever could have anticipated. Labelled a moral defective and sectioned under the Mental Deficiency Act, she is forced to endure years of unspeakable cruelty at the hands of those who are supposed to care for her.1981. When psychiatrist Janet Humphreys comes across Nora, heavily institutionalised and still living in the hospital more than forty years after her incarceration, she knows that she must be the one to help Nora rediscover what it is to live. But as she works to help Nora overcome her past, Janet realises she must finally face her own.

The Paris Secret


Natasha Lester - 2020
    Skye is a daring and brash pilot, and Liberty the one to defy her at every turn. Even if women aren't allowed in the Royal Air Force, Skye is determined to help the war effort. She's thrilled when it reunites her with her childhood soulmate, Nicholas. She's less thrilled to learn Nicholas is now engaged to an enigmatic Frenchwoman named Margaux Jourdan.Paris, 1947: Designer Christian Dior unveils his glamorous first collection to a world weary of war and grief. He names his debut fragrance Miss Dior in tribute to his beloved sister Catherine, who forged a friendship with Skye and Margaux through her work with the French Resistance.Present Day: Fashion conservator Kat Jourdan discovers a priceless collection of Dior gowns in her grandmother's vacant cottage. As she delves into the mystery of their origin, Kat begins to doubt everything she thought she knew about her beloved grandmother.

Code Name Hélène


Ariel Lawhon - 2020
    No sooner does Henri sweep Nancy off her feet and convince her to become Mrs. Fiocca than the Germans invade France and she takes yet another name: a code name.As LUCIENNE CARLIER Nancy smuggles people and documents across the border. Her success and her remarkable ability to evade capture earns her the nickname THE WHITE MOUSE from the Gestapo. With a five million franc bounty on her head, Nancy is forced to escape France and leave Henri behind. When she enters training with the Special Operations Executives in Britain, her new comrades are instructed to call her HÉLÈNE. And finally, with mission in hand, Nancy is airdropped back into France as the deadly MADAM ANDRÉ, where she claims her place as one of the most powerful leaders in the French Resistance, armed with a ferocious wit, her signature red lipstick, and the ability to summon weapons straight from the Allied Forces. But no one can protect Nancy if the enemy finds out these four women are one and the same, and the closer to liberation France gets, the more exposed she--and the people she loves--become.

The Star and the Shamrock


Jean Grainger - 2020
    Berlin 1939. When her husband doesn't come home one day, Ariella realises that the only way she can ensure her Jewish children's safety is to avail of the Kindertransport, but can she bear to let them go?A thousand miles away, Elizabeth Klein has closed herself off from the world. Losing her husband on the last day of the Great War, and her child months later, she cannot, will not, love again. It hurts too much.But she is all Liesl and Erich Bannon have.Thrown together in the wild countryside of Northern Ireland, Elizabeth and the Bannon children discover that life in the country is anything but tranquil. Danger and intrigue lurk everywhere, and some people are not what they seem.

The Book of Lost Names


Kristin Harmel - 2020
    She freezes; it’s an image of a book she hasn’t seen in sixty-five years—a book she recognizes as The Book of Lost Names. The accompanying article discusses the looting of libraries by the Nazis across Europe during World War II—an experience Eva remembers well—and the search to reunite people with the texts taken from them so long ago. The book in the photograph, an eighteenth-century religious text thought to have been taken from France in the waning days of the war, is one of the most fascinating cases. Now housed in Berlin’s Zentral- und Landesbibliothek library, it appears to contain some sort of code, but researchers don’t know where it came from—or what the code means. Only Eva holds the answer—but will she have the strength to revisit old memories and help reunite those lost during the war? As a graduate student in 1942, Eva was forced to flee Paris after the arrest of her father, a Polish Jew. Finding refuge in a small mountain town in the Free Zone, she begins forging identity documents for Jewish children fleeing to neutral Switzerland. But erasing people comes with a price, and along with a mysterious, handsome forger named Rémy, Eva decides she must find a way to preserve the real names of the children who are too young to remember who they really are. The records they keep in The Book of Lost Names will become even more vital when the resistance cell they work for is betrayed and Rémy disappears. An engaging and evocative novel reminiscent of The Lost Girls of Paris and The Alice Network, The Book of Lost Names is a testament to the resilience of the human spirit and the power of bravery and love in the face of evil.

Where the Lost Wander


Amy Harmon - 2020
    Eager to leave her grief behind, she sets off with her family for a life out West. On the trail, she forms an instant connection with John Lowry, a half-Pawnee man straddling two worlds and a stranger in both.But life in a wagon train is fraught with hardship, fear, and death. Even as John and Naomi are drawn to each other, the trials of the journey and their disparate pasts work to keep them apart. John’s heritage gains them safe passage through hostile territory only to come between them as they seek to build a life together.When a horrific tragedy strikes, decimating Naomi’s family and separating her from John, the promises they made are all they have left. Ripped apart, they can’t turn back, they can’t go on, and they can’t let go. Both will have to make terrible sacrifices to find each other, save each other, and eventually…make peace with who they are.

The Evening and the Morning


Ken Follett - 2020
    England is facing attacks from the Welsh in the west and the Vikings in the east. Those in power bend justice according to their will, regardless of ordinary people and often in conflict with the king. Without a clear rule of law, chaos reigns.In these turbulent times, three characters find their lives intertwined. A young boatbuilder's life is turned upside down when the only home he's ever known is raided by Vikings, forcing him and his family to move and start their lives anew in a small hamlet where he does not fit in. . . . A Norman noblewoman marries for love, following her husband across the sea to a new land, but the customs of her husband's homeland are shockingly different, and as she begins to realize that everyone around her is engaged in a constant, brutal battle for power, it becomes clear that a single misstep could be catastrophic. . . . A monk dreams of transforming his humble abbey into a center of learning that will be admired throughout Europe. And each in turn comes into dangerous conflict with a clever and ruthless bishop who will do anything to increase his wealth and power.

The Star and the Shamrock Trilogy #1-3


Jean Grainger - 2020
    She must put her precious little children, Liesl and Erich on the last Kindertransport out of Berlin, or allow them to become prey for the Nazis. She is a Jewish woman alone, her husband Peter was picked up for defending someone in the street, never to reappear. Whatever hope she has of making it on her own, with children she has none.A childless widow, Elizabeth Klein never met her cousin Peter Bannon, that side of the family were never talked about, some ancient, long forgotten grudge, but when she receives a letter from his wife, begging her to take care of her children, she doesn’t hesitate.The Star and the Shamrock trilogy tells the story of Liesl and Erich as they embark on a new and strange life. From the terrifyingly regimented streets of the Third Reich, to the bombed out streets of Liverpool, and finally settling in the lush green valleys of Northern Ireland. It is a story of the love, light and hope which can be found, even in the darkest of situations, and of the ultimate goodness of humanity.

Betty


Tiffany McDaniel - 2020
    "A girl comes of age against the knife." So begins the story of Betty Carpenter. Born in a bathtub in 1954 to a Cherokee father and white mother, Betty is the sixth of eight siblings. The world they inhabit is one of poverty and violence--both from outside the family, and also, devastatingly, from within. The lush landscape, rich with birdsong, wild fruit, and blazing stars, becomes a kind of refuge for Betty, but when her family's darkest secrets are brought to light, she has no choice but to reckon with the brutal history hiding in the hills, as well as the heart-wrenching cruelties and incredible characters she encounters in her rural town of Breathed, Ohio. But despite the hardship she faces, Betty is resilient. Her curiosity about the natural world, her fierce love for her sisters, and her father's brilliant stories are kindling for the fire of her own imagination, and in the face of all she bears witness to, Betty discovers an escape: she begins to write. She recounts the horrors of her family's past and present with pen and paper and buries them deep in the dirt--moments that has stung her so deeply, she could not tell them, until now. Inspired by the life of her own mother, Tiffany McDaniel sets out to free the past by telling this heartbreaking yet magical story--a remarkable novel that establishes her as one of the freshest and most important voices in American fiction.

Doctor Rose and the Outlaw


R.O. Lane - 2020
    She sets up her medical practice there. One night she's called out to help a gang of outlaws that have been shot to pieces while trying to rustle cattle. One of the outlaws is a young man that she develops feelings for, but he's in and out of her life for months on end. The outlaw attempts to change his life and go straight. It's a challenge that Rose encourages. It's the tale of two people who grow to care deeply for each other, and when Rose is kidnapped, the outlaw, now her husband, rides out to save her. Another novel of the Old West from the pen of R. O. Lane.

Charlotte


J.S. Anthony - 2020
    She was to wait for Ellis Gray and the wagon train he was leading. Charlotte understood that her father was paying Ellis Gray to see her to Fort Randall where she would meet her uncle and go to live out in the desert with a new husband. That she didn’t want a new husband didn’t matter. They were going to hang you, her father said. She knew this was true.Charlotte joined the wagon train at the back where they meant for her to stay. She made molasses bread in her tin oven at night and passed it out to the small hands that reached for it. She befriended Ada, the wild-haired barefoot girl too young for the burdens placed on her, and Fiona, whose husband Charlotte knew just by looking at his hard face.Then members of the tribes appeared along the ridge, a line of them sitting astride their horses, wrapped in blankets, looking old and sad. Charlotte’s fate was sealed when Ellis rode out to meet them.Because one of them was neither old or sad.

The Blackbird Girls


Anne Blankman - 2020
    A reactor at the nuclear power plant where their fathers work--Chernobyl--has exploded. Before they know it, the two girls, who've always been enemies, find themselves on a train bound for Leningrad to stay with Valentina's estranged grandmother, Rita Grigorievna. In 1941 Rifka must flee Kiev before the Germans arrive. Her journey is harrowing and fraught with danger because Germans and Russians alike will revile her for her Jewish blood.In both time periods, the girls must learn who to trust and how to have hope in the midst of horrible events.

Beyond the Tracks


Michael Reit - 2020
    But he can only avoid the Nazis for so long. After the Netherlands fall to the German war machine, Westerbork is transformed into a transit camp with weekly trains bound for the Eastern concentration camps.Faced with the terrors of the SS camp regime, Jacob now only has one goal — avoid a spot on the dreaded transport list at all costs. But how far is he willing to go to save himself, his parents and best friend?

The Locket


Ruth Saberton - 2020
    Falling in love is little more than a dream and leaving her small Cornish village an impossibility. But as the storm clouds of war gather a chance encounter changes Emily’s future and steals her heart forever.Over a century later researching family history is a solace for Alison Foy while her beloved soldier son is away on active service. When she stumbles across a forgotten link between her great-grandparents and the famous war poet Kit Rivers, Alison discovers their past is woven through her present in a tapestry of loss, love and long kept secrets. One tug of the thread will be all it takes for a decades-old pattern to unravel…THE LOCKET, the new companion novel to Ruth Saberton’s bestselling THE LETTER, is an unforgettable tale of friendship, sacrifice and never-ending love.

The Mountains Sing


Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai - 2020
    Tran Dieu Lan, who was born in 1920, was forced to flee her family farm with her six children during the Land Reform as the Communist government rose in the North. Years later in Hà Noi, her young granddaughter, Hương, comes of age as her parents and uncles head off down the Ho Chí Minh Trail to fight in a conflict that will tear not just her beloved country but her family apart. Vivid, gripping, and steeped in the language and traditions of Viet Nam, The Mountains Sing brings to life the human costs of this conflict from the point of view of the Vietnamese people themselves, while showing us the true power of kindness and hope. This is celebrated Vietnamese poet Nguyen Phan Que Mai’s first novel in English.

The Skylark's Secret


Fiona Valpy - 2020
    When gamekeeper’s daughter Flora’s remote highland village finds itself the base for the Royal Navy’s Arctic convoys, life in her close-knit community changes forever. In defiance of his disapproving father, the laird’s son falls in love with Flora, and as tensions build in their disrupted home, any chance of their happiness seems doomed.Decades later, Flora’s daughter, singer Lexie Gordon, is forced to return to the village and to the tiny cottage where she grew up. Having long ago escaped to the bright lights of the West End, London still never truly felt like home. Now back, with a daughter of her own, Lexie learns that her mother—and the hostile-seeming village itself—have long been hiding secrets that make her question everything she thought she knew.As she pieces together the fragments of her parents’ story, Lexie discovers the courageous, devastating sacrifices made in her name. It’s too late to rekindle her relationship with her mother, but can Lexie find it in her heart to forgive the past, to grieve for all that’s lost, and finally find her place in the world?

The Forgotten Home Child


Genevieve Graham - 2020
    But when her great-grandson Jamie, the spitting image of her dear late husband, asks about his family tree, Winnifred can’t lie any longer, even if it means breaking a promise she made so long ago... 1936 Fifteen-year-old Winny has never known a real home. After running away from an abusive stepfather, she falls in with Mary, Jack, and their ragtag group of friends roaming the streets of Liverpool. When the children are caught stealing food, Winny and Mary are left in Dr. Barnardo’s Barkingside Home for Girls, a local home for orphans and forgotten children found in the city’s slums. At Barkingside, Winny learns she will soon join other boys and girls in a faraway place called Canada, where families and better lives await them. But Winny’s hopes are dashed when she is separated from her friends and sent to live with a family that has no use for another daughter. Instead, they have paid for an indentured servant to work on their farm. Faced with this harsh new reality, Winny clings to the belief that she will someday find her friends again. Inspired by true events, The Forgotten Home Child is a moving and heartbreaking novel about place, belonging, and family—the one we make for ourselves and its enduring power to draw us home.

We Are Not Free


Traci Chee - 2020
    Outside is the camp, the barbed wire, the guard towers, the city, the country that hates us. We are not free. But we are not alone.”  We Are Not Free, is the collective account of a tight-knit group of young Nisei, second-generation Japanese American citizens, whose lives are irrevocably changed by the mass U.S. incarcerations of World War II.Fourteen teens who have grown up together in Japantown, San Francisco.Fourteen teens who form a community and a family, as interconnected as they are conflicted.Fourteen teens whose lives are turned upside down when over 100,000 people of Japanese ancestry are removed from their homes and forced into desolate incarceration camps.In a world that seems determined to hate them, these young Nisei must rally together as racism and injustice threaten to pull them apart.

WolfeHeart


Kathryn Le Veque - 2020
    Meet Markus de Wolfe, Patrick “Atty” de Wolfe’s son… and he is every inch his father’s boy. The grandsons of William de Wolfe all bear the Mark of de Wolfe - a tattoo of the de Wolfe crest somewhere upon their body. It's a badge of honor, of courage, and most of all - of family. The Pack sticks together. Markus de Wolfe has the blood of the Normans and the Vikings flowing through him. Big, muscular, handsome, and proud, he is a fine tribute to his father and grandfather. As an elite knight for the de Wolfe domain, Markus is called upon to help defend an allied castle. The Scots have overrun the place, killing the lord, and the de Wolfe army moves in to protect it. Markus takes command, appointing himself the personal protect of the lady of the castle and her two small children. The problem begins. Lady Evantha Hemada de Sauque has known the de Wolfe family for most of her adult life, ever since she married her much-older husband. She has known Markus, too, but not well. Not until he takes command of Trastamara Castle. Then, a fiery passion is born of a passionate young knight and a repressed older woman, one that threatens to tear apart the House of de Wolfe. Will Atty be at odds with his beloved firstborn? The House of de Wolfe has a history of marrying forbidden women… and Markus is no exception, but this time, will it cost the House of de Wolfe everything? WolfeHeart is the beginning of the new generation of de Wolfe cubs!

Prairie Lotus


Linda Sue Park - 2020
    Hanna, a half-Asian girl in a small town in America's heartland, lives in 1880. Hanna's adjustment to her new surroundings, and the townspeople's prejudice against Asians, is at the heart of the story.

The Children from Gin Barrel Lane


Lindsey Hutchinson - 2020
    After the death of her mother, Dolly ran away from her sleazy step father Arthur, only to find herself living on the streets. When Jack discovers her hiding in the back yard of The Crown, he persuades his mother Nellie Larkin, to take Dolly in.But Dolly has a secret - a very valuable secret - and Arthur is determined to get his clutches on her at any cost. And when local hard-man Ezra Morton joins in the hunt, the Larkins may have to risk everything to keep Dolly safe… The Queen of the Black Country sagas is back with a page-turning, heart-warming, laugh-out-loud story to remember. Perfect for fans of Val Wood and Lyn Andrews. Praise for Lindsey Hutchinson: 'A great story with a great mix of characters, well written and keeps you hooked with each page turn!' Sarah Davies, NetGalley'A wonderful read ... The author writes so well, it's a really hard novel to put down!' Grace Smith, NetGalley.'Make sure to read this book where you won't be disturbed because once it gets going, you won't want to put it down' Andrea Ruiz, NetGalley'A very poignant, feel-good-factor novel' Shelia Easson, NetGalley'Excellent story!' Stephanie Collins, NetGalley'The story will linger in your mind long after you finish it' The Avid Reader.

Sarah Mayfield


J.S. Anthony - 2020
    On the strength of three letters she has traveled by railroad, riverboat and stagecoach to meet her new life out west. Grady McGuire, her intended and the author of those letters, though formally dressed and still holding a bouquet of wilted prairie flowers, is unfortunately passed out drunk in a buckboard behind the saloon.That new life isn’t beginning quite as she envisioned it. As she attempts to salvage the promises they made to each other, she finds herself involved with others in town with their own stories to tell:Addison Pruitt, Sarah’s saving grace, owns the very fine Russell Hotel and keeps the irritating John Russell close as she spends his money.Diego, the Mexican hotel cook possessed of an exquisite repertoire of French dishes, has a secret that he hopes he never has to tell.Jim, Booker and the boy Abraham, Grady’s long-suffering hands, are her new family. They run the ranch Grady didn’t intend to inherit and love him even though they can’t keep him out of trouble.Ellen, Grady’s strong-willed mother, lies under a headstone out by the river, but won’t quite stay dead.Last but not least, there is Elijah Blue, a member of the tribes, shotgun rider and horse trainer, who drove cattle with Grady from the time they were barely out of childhood, and is now waiting to see if his friend can make amends with the woman from the East, the one in the black traveling dress covered with dust, the one that he noticed the minute she stepped down off the stage.

The Weaver's Legacy: A historical epic novel of the Irish in the American West


Olive Collins - 2020
    Their new community had dreams of self-governance and prosperity far removed from the anti-Irish sentiment and prejudice of the ruling classes. They soon learned about the extremes of the American West and the ongoing Indian war. A year after their arrival, Goldie blames herself for her sister’s disappearance. She forms an unlikely friendship with a Lakota Indian boy who promises to help with her life-long quest to find her sister. In the intervening years, as their community flourishes and a new prejudice surfaces, her sister’s disappearance ebbs away for everyone except Goldie.1937: Lucy O’Neill was adopted by her aunt, Goldie O’Neill. When she learns that her father, Lorcan O’Neill, has returned to the small town in the Midwest after a thirty-year absence, she returns to meet him. Aware of the silence that surrounds his name and the reluctance of her family to reveal the real story, Lucy delves into the past to find a story far removed from the account her aunt had told her.

The Emerald Affair


Janet MacLeod Trotter - 2020
    But can love win the day?In Scotland in the aftermath of the First World War, nurse Esmie McBride meets handsome Captain Tom Lomax at her best friend Lydia’s home. Esmie is at first concerned for Tom’s shell shock, then captivated by his charm, but it’s effervescent Lydia he marries, and the pair begin a new adventure together in India.When marriage to Tom’s doctor friend Harold offers Esmie the chance to work in India, the two sets of newlyweds find themselves living wildly different lives on the subcontinent. Esmie, heartbroken but resolved, is nursing at a mission hospital on the North West Frontier. Lydia, meanwhile, is the glamorous mistress of the Raj Hotel, where Tom hopes his sociable new wife will dazzle international guests.As Esmie struggles with her true feelings for Tom and the daily dangers of her work, Lydia realises the Raj is not the centre of high society she had dreamed of. And when crisis strikes both couples, Esmie faces a shattering choice: should she stay the constant friend she’s always been, or risk everything and follow her heart?

The Paper Bracelet


Rachael English - 2020
    1 bestselling author Rachael English. Readers of Diane Chamberlain and Kathryn Hughes will love this book. 'A true storyteller who keeps you turning the pages' Cathy Kelly For almost fifty years, Katie Carroll has kept a box tucked away inside her wardrobe. It dates from her time working as a nurse in a west of Ireland mother and baby home in the 1960s. The box contains a notebook holding the details of the babies and young women she met there. It also holds many of the babies' identity bracelets. Following the death of her husband, Katie makes a decision. The information she possesses could help reunite adopted people with their birth mothers, and she decides to post a message on an internet forum. Soon the replies are rolling in, and Katie finds herself returning many of the bracelets to their original owners. She encounters success and failure, heartbreak and joy. But is she prepared for old secrets to be uncovered in her own life? Reader love for Rachael English: 'A cracking page-turner in the best tradition of Maeve Binchy' Patricia Scanlan 'Beautiful, compelling, and sincere in the way of the very best stories and the best books' Irish Independent'An evocative read ... powerful ... If you read authors such as Diane Chamberlain, Sheila O'Flanagan or Maeve Binchy then you should also check this out' Between My Lines'Enchanting, emotional, heartbreaking, ultimately uplifting and just perfect... Rachael English is a wonderful storyteller' Being Anne

The Blood Hounds


Ron Schwab - 2020
    And it’s a cold trail. That’s why the boss man called for the blood hounds. You’re looking for somebody who’s been considered dead since April of 1867.” Fifteen years after the disappearance of Miranda Wheaton, Pinkerton agents Trace Crockett and Darby Maguire must leave no stone unturned while evading Kansas twisters, surviving Dodge City gunfights, and embarking on a treacherous journey to "No Man's Land," as the two "blood hounds" try to pick up the scent of the missing young woman. Full of adventure, suspense, and romance, bestselling author Ron Schwab's latest Western novel, The Blood Hounds, is sure to deliver a storytelling experience readers won't soon forget!

To Dwell Among Cedars


Connilyn Cossette - 2020
    Though they both were lovingly enfolded into a Levite family that guards the Ark, Eliora can't stop feeling like she doesn't belong.Meanwhile, a faction of discontent Hebrews finds Kiryat-Yearim to be an unfit resting place and believes that the sacred vessel should be in the hands of the priests who mean to restore the Holy of Holies in a new location. Under the guise of gathering Hebrews to worship together for the festivals, Levite musician Ronen has been sent by his uncle to find where the Ark has been hidden and steal it back. But Ronen never expected that the Philistine girl he rescued years ago would now be part of the very family he's tasked to deceive.Ronen's attempts to charm Eliora into revealing the location of the Ark lead them in unexpected directions, as they must battle betrayal and fear to help establish Israel's leadership for a better future.

Daughter of the Reich


Louise Fein - 2020
    But she never imagines that all she believes and knows about her world will come into stark conflict when she encounters Walter, a Jewish friend from the past, who stirs dangerous feelings in her. Confused and conflicted, Hetty doesn’t know whom she can trust and where she can turn to, especially when she discovers that someone has been watching her.Realizing she is taking a huge risk—but unable to resist the intense attraction she has for Walter—she embarks on a secret love affair with him. Together, they dream about when the war will be over and plan for their future. But as the rising tide of anti-Semitism threatens to engulf them, Hetty and Walter will be forced to take extreme measures.Will the steady march of dark forces destroy Hetty’s universe—or can love ultimately triumph…?Propulsive, deeply affecting, and inspired by the author’s family history, Daughter of the Reich is a mesmerizing page-turner filled with vivid characters and a meticulously researched portrait of Nazi Germany. In this riveting story of passion, courage and morality, Louise Fein introduces a bold young woman determined to tread the treacherous path of survival and freedom, showing readers the strength in the power of love and reminding us that the past must never be forgotten.

What Only We Know


Catherine Hokin - 2020
    Liese held her little daughter’s hand so tightly, the tiny fingers had turned purple. The SS officer’s hand was at Liese’s throat before she saw him move. ‘I can kill you easily, then I can kill your daughter.’ He relaxed his grip a little. ‘Or perhaps I could kill her first?’England, forty years later. When Karen Cartwright is unexpectedly called home to nurse her ailing father, she goes with a heavy heart. The house she grew up in feels haunted by the memory of her father’s closely guarded secrets about her beautiful mother Elizabeth’s tragic death years before.As she packs up the house, Karen discovers an old photograph and a stranger’s tattered love letter to her mother postmarked from Germany after the war.During her life, Karen struggled to understand her shy, fearful mother, but now she is realising there was so much more to Elizabeth than she knew. For one thing, her name wasn’t even Elizabeth, and her harrowing story begins long before Karen was born.It’s 1941 in Berlin, and a young woman called Liese is being forced to wear a yellow star…

Echo Mountain


Lauren Wolk - 2020
    They have started over, carving out a new life in the unforgiving terrain of Echo Mountain. Though her sister Esther, especially, resents everything about the mountain, Ellie has found more freedom, a new strength, and a love of the natural world that now surrounds them. But there is little joy, even for Ellie, as they all struggle with the sorrow and aftermath of an accident that left her father in a coma. An accident for which Ellie has accepted the unearned weight of blame.Urgent for a cure to bring her father back, Ellie is determined to try anything. Following her heart, and the lead of a scruffy mutt, Ellie will make her way to the top of the mountain, in search of the healing secrets of a woman known only as "the hag." But the mountain still has many untold stories left to reveal to Ellie, as she finds her way forward among a complex constellation of strong women spanning generations.

The Forbidden Promise


Lorna Cook - 2020
    Until the night of Constance’s twenty-first birthday, when she’s the only person to see a Spitfire crash into the loch. Constance has been longing for adventure – but when she promises to keep the pilot hidden, what will it cost her?2020:Kate arrives in the Highlands to turn Invermoray into a luxury bed-and-breakfast, only to find that the estate is more troubled than she’d imagined. But when Kate discovers the house has a murky history, with Constance McLay’s name struck from its records, she knows she can’t leave until the mystery is solved…How will one promise change the fate of two women, decades apart?

Hamnet


Maggie O'Farrell - 2020
    Warwickshire in the 1580s. Agnes is a woman as feared as she is sought after for her unusual gifts. She settles with her husband in Henley street, Stratford, and has three children: a daughter, Susanna, and then twins, Hamnet and Judith. The boy, Hamnet, dies in 1596, aged eleven. Four years or so later, the husband writes a play called Hamlet. Award-winning author Maggie O'Farrell's new novel breathes full-blooded life into the story of a loss usually consigned to literary footnotes, and provides an unforgettable vindication of Agnes, a woman intriguingly absent from history.A New York Times Notable Book (2020), Best Book of 2020: Guardian, Financial Times, Literary Hub, and NPR.

Daughter of Rome


Tessa Afshar - 2020
    A man bent on proving his worth. A chance encounter that catapults them into the heart of history.When the daughter of a prominent Roman general meets a disinherited Jewish immigrant, neither one can dream of God's plan to transform them into the most influential couple of the early church. Nor can they anticipate the mountains that will threaten to bury them. Their courtship unwittingly shadowed by murder and betrayal, Priscilla and Aquila slowly work to build a community of believers, while their lives grow increasingly complicated thanks to a shaggy dog, a mysterious runaway, and a ruthless foe desperate for love. But when they're banished from their home by a capricious emperor, they must join forces with an unusual rabbi named Paul and fight to turn treachery into redemption.With impeccable research and vivid detail, Daughter of Rome is both an emotive love story and an immersive journey through first-century Rome and Corinth, reminding readers once again why Debbie Macomber has said that "no one brings the Bible to life like Tessa Afshar."

The Winter Promise


Rosie Goodwin - 2020
    Unable to afford a doctor, he knows the younger children will not survive. So, unbeknownst to Opal, Charlie takes their younger siblings to the workhouse, where he knows they will at least be fed and have a roof over their heads.Opal is heartbroken and struggles to forgive him. Charlie, in turn, takes bigger and bigger risks to try to support what's left of the Sharp family and earn Opal's forgiveness - but he takes it too far and finds himself in trouble with the law. Soon, he is sent on a convict ship to Australia.As poor Opal is forced to say goodbye to the final member of her family, she makes a promise to reunite them all one day.Will Opal ever see her family again?

The Spoon Stealer


Lesley Crewe - 2020
    After suffering multiple losses in the First World War, her family became so heavy with grief, toxicity, and mental illness that Emmeline felt their weight smothering her. And so, she fled across the Atlantic and built her life in England. Now she is retired and living in a small coastal town with her best friend, Vera, an excellent conversationalist. Vera is also a small white dog, and so Emmeline is making an effort to talk to more humans. When she joins a memoir-writing course at the library, her classmates don't know what to make of her. Funny, loud, and with a riveting memoir, she charms the lot. As her past unfolds for her audience, friendships form, a bonus in a rather lonely life. She even shares with them her third-biggest secret: she has liberated hundreds of spoons over her lifetime—from the local library, Cary Grant, Winston Churchill. She is a compulsive spoon stealer. When Emmeline unexpectedly inherits the farm she grew up on, she knows she needs to leave her new friends and go see the farm and what remains of her family one last time. She arrives like a tornado in their lives, an off-kilter Mary Poppins bossing everyone around and getting quite a lot wrong. But with her generosity and hard-earned wisdom, she gets an awful lot right too. A pinball ricocheting between people, offending and inspiring in equal measure, Emmeline, in her final years, believes that a spoonful—perhaps several spoonfuls—of kindness can set to rights the family so broken by loss and secrecy. The Spoon Stealer is a classic Crewe book: full of humour, family secrets, women's friendship, lovable animals, and immense heart.

They Went Left


Monica Hesse - 2020
    The soldiers who liberated the Gross-Rosen concentration camp said the war was over, but nothing feels over to eighteen-year-old Zofia Lederman. Her body has barely begun to heal; her mind feels broken. And her life is completely shattered: Three years ago, she and her younger brother, Abek, were the only members of their family to be sent to the right, away from the gas chambers of Auschwitz-Birkenau. Everyone else--her parents, her grandmother, radiant Aunt Maja--they went left.Zofia's last words to her brother were a promise: Abek to Zofia, A to Z. When I find you again, we will fill our alphabet. Now her journey to fulfill that vow takes her through Poland and Germany, and into a displaced persons camp where everyone she meets is trying to piece together a future from a painful past: Miriam, desperately searching for the twin she was separated from after they survived medical experimentation. Breine, a former heiress, who now longs only for a simple wedding with her new fiancé. And Josef, who guards his past behind a wall of secrets, and is beautiful and strange and magnetic all at once.But the deeper Zofia digs, the more impossible her search seems. How can she find one boy in a sea of the missing? In the rubble of a broken continent, Zofia must delve into a mystery whose answers could break her--or help her rebuild her world.

The Book of Longings


Sue Monk Kidd - 2020
    I was the wife of Jesus.” Raised in a wealthy family in Sepphoris with ties to the ruler of Galilee, Ana is rebellious and ambitious, a relentless seeker with a brilliant, curious mind and a daring spirit. She yearns for a pursuit worthy of her life, but finds no outlet for her considerable talents. Defying the expectations placed on women, she engages in furtive scholarly pursuits and writes secret narratives about neglected and silenced women. When she meets the eighteen-year-old Jesus, each is drawn to and enriched by the other’s spiritual and philosophical ideas. He becomes a floodgate for her intellect, but also the awakener of her heart.Their marriage unfolds with love and conflict, humor and pathos in Nazareth, where Ana makes a home with Jesus, his brothers, James and Simon, and their mother, Mary. Here, Ana’s pent-up longings intensify amid the turbulent resistance to the Roman occupation of Israel, partially led by her charismatic adopted brother, Judas. She is sustained by her indomitable aunt Yaltha, who is searching for her long-lost daughter, as well as by other women, including her friend Tabitha, who is sold into slavery after she was raped, and Phasaelis, the shrewd wife of Herod Antipas. Ana’s impetuous streak occasionally invites danger. When one such foray forces her to flee Nazareth for her safety shortly before Jesus’s public ministry begins, she makes her way with Yaltha to Alexandria, where she eventually finds refuge and purpose in unexpected surroundings.Grounded in meticulous historical research and written with a reverential approach to Jesus’s life that focuses on his humanity, The Book of Longings is an inspiring account of one woman’s bold struggle to realize the passion and potential inside her, while living in a time, place, and culture devised to silence her.

The Unwanted Bride And Her Protective Rancher


Ember Pierce - 2020
    Thornton Duvall was orphaned at a young age, and he was taken in by a rancher. He’s been working on a cattle ranch all his life.He can read and write, but he’s not well-read. He’s a good man, one who would give the shirt off of his back to anyone who needs it.Despite the strong objections of his boss, Thornton says that it’s time he got married and puts out an ad seeking a mail order bride. He has always wanted a family of his own.Jane starts falling in love with a man that she’s never met before. But how could a city girl learn how to live on a ranch? Will she be able to break through the hardships of a ranch life for the sake of a stranger?Can two people coming from completely different worlds, put their disagreements and create the family they always wanted? Or, their stubbornness and the opinion of others will become a self-fulfilling prophecy for them?

The Orphan Collector


Ellen Marie Wiseman - 2020
    Army. But as her city celebrates the end of war, an even more urgent threat arrives: the Spanish flu. Funeral crepe and quarantine signs appear on doors as victims drop dead in the streets and desperate survivors wear white masks to ward off illness. When food runs out in the cramped tenement she calls home, Pia must venture alone into the quarantined city in search of supplies, leaving her baby brothers behind. Bernice Groves has become lost in grief and bitterness since her baby died from the Spanish flu. Watching Pia leave her brothers alone, Bernice makes a shocking, life-altering decision. It becomes her sinister mission to tear families apart when they’re at their most vulnerable, planning to transform the city’s orphans and immigrant children into what she feels are “true Americans.” Waking in a makeshift hospital days after collapsing in the street, Pia is frantic to return home. Instead, she is taken to St. Vincent’s Orphan Asylum – the first step in a long and arduous journey. As Bernice plots to keep the truth hidden at any cost in the months and years that follow, Pia must confront her own shame and fear, risking everything to see justice – and love – triumph at last. Powerful, harrowing, and ultimately exultant, The Orphan Collector is a story of love, resilience, and the lengths we will go to protect those who need us most.

When We Were Brave


Suzanne Kelman - 2020
    A disgrace to her family, her name would not be mentioned by any of her relatives for over 75 years. Present day, London: When Sophie discovers a photograph of her great aunt Vivi from World War Two, it throws her into a world of confusion. Because, as she learns about this secret relative, she quickly realises that the photograph doesn’t fit with her family’s story. It shows Vivi leaving an address associated with a spy network in London – a place she had no reason to be – and it is dated right before she disappeared. Meanwhile Sophie’s own life feels as blasted and bombed as the Blitzed city in the photograph she’s looking at. Her beautiful daughter – as full of joy and wild energy as Vivi had apparently once been – is gone; and Sophie’s heart has been left broken into pieces. Retreating to the family home in rural Cornwall to seek solace from her pain and the feelings of guilt that she could have done more to protect her daughter, Sophie finds herself becoming obsessed with Vivi’s life. But nothing can prepare Sophie for what she is about to uncover – the story of a woman who risked everything for the person she loved the most; and a secret family history that could be the key to Sophie’s own future. A powerful, haunting and unforgettable read about love, heartbreak and betrayal set in Second World War Britain and France. Perfect for fans of The Nightingale, Under a Scarlet Sky and My Name is Eva. Readers love Suzanne Kelman: ‘A heart-wrenching story of ordinary people elevated to the realm of heroes through love and sacrifice.... It is an emotional journey of heartache and love that will leave you in tears. One of the finest books I have ever read.’ NetGalley Reviewer, 5 stars ‘Oh my goodness! Evocatively unsettling yet hauntingly beautiful… the story is incredibly powerful… I read this book with bated breath. I cried, I grieved and I hoped…I was left both heartbroken and satisfied. Suzanne Kelman… has floored me with this book.’ Robin Loves Reading, 5 stars ‘A captivating story of love, friendships and hope for the future. It’s written with such depth that the characters and settings come alive before your eyes.’ Chells and Books, 5 stars ‘Heartbreaking... Make sure to have your box of tissues at the ready while you read this beautifully told story!’ Goodreads Reviewer, 5 stars ‘Oh my Goodness! What a wonderful book! There is so much love, hope, and fear as well. This is a book I will put back to read again, I enjoyed it so much. It is a book you can't put down, every chapter is so enticing to keep reading, more and more.’ Goodreads Reviewer, 5 stars ‘A beautifully written story of love, courage, self-sacrifice and determination… Such an emotional sto

The Asylum Daughter


Rosie Darling - 2020
    An inconsequential inconvenience.After eight years of dreaming of an unknown mother rescuing her from the workhouse, Beth is unexpectedly liberated to become an apprentice in Mr Whitaker's tailor's shop. Against all the odds, Mrs Whitaker becomes a maternal figure to the young girl who shows all the signs of a gifted seamstress.But fate's cruel hand had not finished denying Beth the comforts of a family.Lady Caroline comes into Beth's life as a godsend. A wealthy patron in need of beautiful dresses to be made. But there is more to her appearing at the tailor's shop at first apparent. Two lives from different classes become intertwined in the worst of conditions.Is having a family worth such suffering? Should the women deny each other and be relieved of the tortures beset upon them in the name of greed and a family name? Was the madness real? Would the answers be found along the unforgiving corridors of the asylum?

The Girls in Blue


Fenella J. Miller - 2020
    Whatever faces her in war-torn London can't be any worse than staying at home with her abusive father...The city is nothing like she could have imagined, but she's soon on the move, travelling from base to base for her top-secret training. Making plenty of new friends along the way, it doesn't take long for Jane to embrace her growing confidence – especially under the attentive eye of dashing Officer Oscar Stanton.Life as an independent woman is as rewarding as it is exciting, until Jane's father tracks her down and it crashes to a halt. Jane will need all her new-found strength to find her way back to the frontline – and to the man she's fallen for...

The School Mistress


Tess Thompson - 2020
    Her widowed mother and baby sister are depending upon her for their survival back home in Boston. And the self-appointed mayor of the rugged mountain community is counting on Miss Cooper to prove herself a fitful teacher for the young and old alike. Lord Alexander Barnes is determined to bring a bit of English civility to the wild terrain of Emerson Pass. Using his own resources, the widower and father of five builds a schoolhouse and recruits a young teacher from the east to provide an education for both the adults and the children in his rapidly growing mining town. But when the lovely, and much younger than anticipated, Miss Cooper arrives to town, Lord Barnes finds himself providing more than just employment when the boarding house proves to be an unsafe accommodation for the school mistress. As Miss Cooper takes a room in the Barnes' home, the five Barnes children are delighted. They are sure Miss Cooper is the perfect woman for their lonely father. But when a friend of the Englishman turns up dead, the hope for progress in the untamed town seems immediately lost. Can Miss Cooper and Lord Barnes bring change to the closed-minded locals? And will their endeavor open their hearts to something more? The first installment of USA Today bestselling author Tess Thompson's historical romance series brings a touch of whimsy and an extra dash of mystery to Edwardian romance. Readers will fall in love with the courageous Miss Cooper and swoon for the magnanimous English Lord as they struggle to save their exciting new world at the turn of the 20th Century.

The Market Stall Girl


AnneMarie Brear - 2020
    Working on the family's stall, selling the fruit and vegetables grown in their own fields, gives her a sense of purpose and is healthier than working in a dangerous cotton mill.Although not thinking of marriage, when Beth meets Noah Jackson, a village miner, she is suddenly very aware of Noah as a man who could change her mind. The summer brings the two closer, and their feelings deepen, while Noah studies hard to fulfill his dreams of becoming a teacher and securing a better life than his parents endure.But, a disaster at the coal mine changes lives forever. Noah's plans are shattered. His love for Beth is put at risk, and he fears they can never find happiness together.However, another man wants Beth. Louis Melville, the wealthy son of a local gentry family, is acutely aware of Beth's beauty, and he wants her for himself. At first, he is willing to offer marriage, but when Beth turns him down in favour of Noah, Melville, furious to be denied, reeks revenge with devastating consequences.Will Beth and Noah find the happiness they wish for, or will overwhelming events break them apart?

Forging the Shilling Girl (The Hudson Sagas Book 1)


Emma Hardwick - 2020
    Young, widowed Clare Byrne, is escaping the famine in Ireland. On the coffin ship from Dublin, in the final hours of the journey to England, Clare goes into labour. Weakened and alone, the young, beleaguered mother gives birth near the quayside. Unable to look after the newborn, the child is bought for a single shilling by a curious gentleman, the industrialist Samuel Hudson. What will happen to the young girl? What plans does Mr Hudson have for her? Will the child thrive, or merely survive? Also by Emma Hardwick ----------------------------------- The Urchin of Walton Hall

Stranger at the Dower House


Mary Kingswood - 2020
    The tiny village of Great Maeswood offers her the peace and quiet her heart craves, and perhaps it might provide a little entertainment, too. But the house she has leased has been empty for a quarter of a century and who knows what secrets it holds?Laurence Gage is still mourning his beloved wife, while raising his two children, and at forty, declining gently into a rather dull middle age. Until, that is, the intriguing Mrs Middlehope arrives in the village and upends his placid life. She’s nothing at all like his perfect wife, but he’s oddly drawn to her anyway and to his surprise, she seems to like him too. Whoever would have thought it? But what exactly is she looking for? Friendship, marriage — or something else entirely?This is a complete story with a happy ever after. Book 1 of a 6 book series. A traditional Regency romance, drawing room rather than bedroom.

Swimming in the Dark


Tomasz Jedrowski - 2020
    But a chance meeting by the river soon becomes an intense, exhilarating, and all-consuming affair. After their camp duties are fulfilled, the pair spend a dreamlike few weeks camping in the countryside, bonding over an illicit copy of James Baldwin’s Giovanni’s Room. Inhabiting a beautiful natural world removed from society and its constraints, Ludwik and Janusz fall deeply in love. But in their repressive communist and Catholic society, the passion they share is utterly unthinkable.Once they return to Warsaw, the charismatic Janusz quickly rises in the political ranks of the party and is rewarded with a highly-coveted position in the ministry. Ludwik is drawn toward impulsive acts of protest, unable to ignore rising food prices and the stark economic disparity around them. Their secret love and personal and political differences slowly begin to tear them apart as both men struggle to survive in a regime on the brink of collapse.Shifting from the intoxication of first love to the quiet melancholy of growing up and growing apart, Swimming in the Dark is a potent blend of romance, post-war politics, intrigue, and history. Lyrical and sensual, immersive and intense, Tomasz Jedrowski has crafted an indelible and thought-provoking literary debut that explores freedom and love in all its incarnations.

Minnie's Orphans


Lindsey Hutchinson - 2020
    Their children’s home Marshall’s is full of love and laughter, and a world away from their terrible ordeal of being sold to Una Reed for five shillings.There are many more children who still need a home, especially in a world where the workhouse is the last option for desperate families, and so Minnie makes it her mission to build Marshall’s into a refuge for all the waifs and strays. But kind hearts can be taken advantage of, and before long, Marshall’s in under attack. Can Minnie and Billy keep their family together and keep all the children safe, or will they be torn apart again? The Queen of the Black Country sagas is back with a heart-warming, unputdownable and unforgettable tale of triumph against the odds. Perfect for fans of Val Wood and Lyn Andrews.

A Tatuadora de Jaipur


Alka Joshi - 2020
    There she becomes the most highly requested henna artist—and confidante—to the wealthy women of the upper class. But trusted with the secrets of the wealthy, she can never reveal her own…Known for her original designs and sage advice, Lakshmi must tread carefully to avoid the jealous gossips who could ruin her reputation and her livelihood. As she pursues her dream of an independent life, she is startled one day when she is confronted by her husband, who has tracked her down these many years later with a high-spirited young girl in tow—a sister Lakshmi never knew she had. Suddenly the caution that she has carefully cultivated as protection is threatened. Still she perseveres, applying her talents and lifting up those that surround her as she does.

The Henna Artist


Alka Joshi - 2020
    There she becomes the most highly requested henna artist—and confidante—to the wealthy women of the upper class. But trusted with the secrets of the wealthy, she can never reveal her own…Known for her original designs and sage advice, Lakshmi must tread carefully to avoid the jealous gossips who could ruin her reputation and her livelihood. As she pursues her dream of an independent life, she is startled one day when she is confronted by her husband, who has tracked her down these many years later with a high-spirited young girl in tow—a sister Lakshmi never knew she had. Suddenly the caution that she has carefully cultivated as protection is threatened. Still she perseveres, applying her talents and lifting up those that surround her as she does.

The Making of a Highlander


Elisa Braden - 2020
    All it takes is a spark of Highland magic."Make me a lady, and I'll make ye a Highlander." –Mad Annie Tulloch, Scottish lass"Challenge accepted." –John Huxley, English gentlemanNo lady can tempt him more than the next shoreEveryone wants handsome adventurer John Huxley to settle down—family, friends, London society. Everyone except John. He's evaded too many scheming title huntresses to trust in happily-ever-after. Now, a vow made to a dying friend has him locked in a land dispute with a stubborn Scot who offers one way out: Win the Highland Games. John likes a challenge, but this one's impossible. Still, with training from the Scot's stepdaughter, victory might be within reach. He only has to teach the fiery, foul-mouthed, breeches-wearing lass how to land a lord. It seems "impossible" is just getting started.She's no lady—she's Mad Annie TullochEveryone calls her Mad Annie. True, her best friend is a ghost. And yes, her greatest talents involve cooking for giants and taunting ridiculously handsome Englishmen. But she's not mad—she's desperate. To save her friend, Annie must marry a lord. The trouble is, no lord will look twice at a hoyden like her. This calls for "Lady Lessons," and she knows just the uptight Englishman to provide them.When did a simple bargain become a battle of desire?Amidst cursed castles, caber tossing, and questionable chaperones, John and Annie's wildfire attraction threatens to send their plans up in flames. And when Annie's family is targeted by a dangerous enemy, John is tempted to stay, to fight, and to win the greatest prize of all: A fiery lass's tender, loyal heart.

Time to Say Goodbye


Rosie Goodwin - 2020
    She enjoys her life at Treetops Manor, surrounded by her beloved horses, and with a future as a nurse ahead of her, she could wish for nothing more.Her foster sister Livvy is not as driven as Kathy. Sunday is keen to see both her girls married, but Livvy has no intentions of settling down and would much rather spend time with her friends. When Kathy falls for the wrong man, her ambitions are soon forgotten as she embarks on a secret affair.The Branning family is overwhelmed with grief when Tom dies suddenly in a riding accident. The running of the estate falls into chaos and life at Treetops will never be the same again. As their financial difficulties begin to mount, they are forced to leave their home.The women of Treetops think that things can't get any worse. But then it is announced that the country is at war once more . . .

The Expendable: The true story of Patrol Wing 10, PT Squadron 3, and a Navy Corpsman who refused to surrender when the Philippine Islands fell to Japan


John Floyd - 2020
    

This Light Between Us: A Novel of World War II


Andrew Fukuda - 2020
    He thought she was a boy. In spite of Alex's reluctance, their letters continue to fly across the Atlantic--and along with them the shared hopes and dreams of friendship. Until the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and the growing Nazi persecution of Jews force them to confront the darkest aspects of human nature.From the desolation of an internment camp on the plains of Manzanar to the horrors of Auschwitz and the devastation of European battlefields, the only thing they can hold onto are the memories of their letters. But nothing can dispel the light between them.

The Girls of Victory Street


Pam Howes - 2020
    Bella Rogers thought her life was just starting; she can’t wait to get married to her childhood sweetheart, Bobby. But when war is declared and Bobby is called up, his letters stop, leaving Bella heartbroken and alone. Then her family is torn apart by tragedy when her angelic five-year-old sister dies from a terrible illness. They can barely afford a funeral, but the church is packed with the entire community, devastated for their loss.Grieving for her sister and lost love, Bella finds a job at the Bryant and May factory, making matches. As bombs begin to fall, Bella gets the workers singing, keeping spirits high amidst the fear. When she meets a handsome American airman, Earl Franklin Jr, Bella’s heart finally starts to mend. Earl encourages her passion and soon she and her friends are offered the opportunity of a lifetime: to travel the country’s army bases, entertaining the troops and singing for victory. They name themselves The Bryant Sisters.Just as her life is getting back on track, Bella finds herself pregnant – and Earl reveals a shattering secret that changes everything about their future. Desolate, she flees home to Liverpool, but as an unmarried mother, will her family reject her? And, as she faces a terrible sacrifice, will she ever sing with The Bryant Sisters again?A heartbreaking historical novel about women in wartime, friendship, family and hope. Perfect for fans of Nadine Dorries, Diney Costeloe and Wives of War.

In a Field of Blue


Gemma Liviero - 2020
    It’s been four years since Rudy’s brother Edgar went missing in war-torn France. Still deep in mourning and grappling with unanswered questions, Rudy and his mother struggle to move on. When the enigmatic Mariette arrives unexpectedly at the family’s manor claiming to be Edgar’s widow, and the mother of his child, Rudy urges her to stay, hoping she’ll shed light on the missing pieces.Captivated by Mariette, Rudy finds that their mutual loss and grief bind them…as does the possibility of new love. But Mariette’s revelations bring more questions than answers about Edgar’s death. Suspicions threaten to divide Rudy’s already fractured family, setting him on a quest for the truth that takes him from England to France and beyond.In his search, Rudy is forced to confront the tragedies of war and the realities of the brother he’s lost and the woman he’s found. Will the truth set him free to find peace, or will it forever shadow his future?

The Theory of Earls


Kathleen Ayers - 2020
    Stockings. Piano.” Three words, uttered by the beautifully rakish Lord Welles, leave Margaret Lainscott speechless. His improper request, that she play the piano for him in her…underthings is as shocking as it is titillating. Margaret should never have asked his help in reintroducing her to Lord Carstairs. But his friend meets all of Margaret’s criteria for a husband; passably attractive, of below-average intelligence, and possessed of an obsessive outdoor hobby which will leave her free to pursue her own life.Welles is one of London’s most committed bachelors, known for his notorious dealings with women and his part ownership of one of London’s pleasure clubs. He’s long admired Miss Lainscott’s unrestrained passion at the piano; a passion he suspects is not reserved only for her music. Welles is certain Miss Lainscott will not entertain his improper request despite the attraction burning between them.A young lady such as Miss Lainscott would never ruin herself willingly.And Welles? Nothing would make him compromise his heart…Until a duet with a passionate pianist changes his mind.The Theory of Earls is a steamy, sexy regency romance with a guaranteed happily ever after and the first in a new series, The Beautiful Barringtons.

The Land Beyond the Sea


Sharon Kay Penman - 2020
    Baptized in blood when the men of the First Crusade captured Jerusalem from the Saracens in 1099, the kingdom defined an utterly new world, a place where enemies were neighbors and neighbors became enemies.At the helm of this growing kingdom sits young Baldwin IV, an intelligent and courageous boy committed to the welfare and protection of his people. But despite Baldwin's dedication to his land, he is afflicted with leprosy at an early age, and the threats against his power and his health nearly outweigh the risk of battle. As political deception scours the halls of the royal court, the Muslim army, led by the first sultan of Egypt and Syria, Saladin, is never far from the kingdom's doorstep, and there are only a handful of people Baldwin can trust, including the legendary archbishop William of Tyre and Lord Balian d'Ibelin, a charismatic leader who has been one of the few to maintain the peace.Filled with drama and battle, tragedy and romance, Sharon Kay Penman's latest novel brings a definitive period of history vividly alive with a tale of power and glory that will resonate with readers today.

Otherwise Engaged


Joanna Barker - 2020
    But riding bareback and avoiding nosy neighbors are nothing compared to the thrilling secret she is keeping from her family. When Rebecca’s quick thinking saves the life of a young girl, she unwittingly attracts the attention of the child’s dashing brother, Lieutenant Nicholas Avery. As that attention turns flirtatious, Rebecca is forced to tell him the truth: she is secretly engaged—to the one man her family would never approve of. Fortunately, Lieutenant Avery is a navy man with no wish to marry, or so they both assume as they enter into a friendship. Rebecca hopes to change her family’s mind about her betrothed, but the more she comes to know the handsome lieutenant, the more she wonders if she promised her hand too hastily. After all her carefully laid plans are shattered during a family crisis, Rebecca must force her heart to decide. Should she stay true to the promise she made or fight for the future she’s only just begun to imagine?

The Twins of Auschwitz


Eva Mozes Kor - 2020
    Her parents and two older sisters were taken to the gas chambers, while Eva and her twin, Miriam, were herded into the care of the man who became known as the Angel of Death: Dr. Josef Mengele. They were 10 years old.While twins at Auschwitz were granted the 'privileges' of keeping their own clothes and hair, they were also subjected to Mengele's sadistic medical experiments. They were forced to fight daily for their own survival and many died as a result of the experiments, or from the disease and hunger rife in the concentration camp.In a narrative told simply, with emotion and astonishing restraint, The Twins of Auschwitz shares the inspirational story of a child's endurance and survival in the face of truly extraordinary evil.Also included is an epilogue on Eva's incredible recovery and her remarkable decision to publicly forgive the Nazis. Through her museum and her lectures, she dedicated her life to giving testimony on the Holocaust, providing a message of hope for people who have suffered, and worked toward goals of forgiveness, peace, and the elimination of hatred and prejudice in the world.

At Love's Command


Karen Witemeyer - 2020
    They defend the innocent and obtain justice for the oppressed. But when a rustler's bullet leaves one of them at death's door, they're the ones in need of saving.Dr. Josephine Burkett is used to men taking one look at her skirts and discounting her medical skills. What she's not used to is having a man change his mind in a heartbeat and offer to assist her in surgery. Matthew Hanger's dedication to his friend during recovery earns Josephine's respect, and when she hears of her brother's abduction, he becomes her only hope for rescue.Matt has stared down ruthless outlaws, betrayal, and injury, but when a bossy lady doctor crawls under his skin, his heart is tempted to surrender. And when she is caught in the crossfire, he may have to sacrifice everything--even his team--to save her.

The Gates of Athens


Conn Iggulden - 2020
    . .The momentous struggle between Athens and Sparta as rival powers and political systems will last for twenty-seven years (431 to 404 BC).It will end in the fall of a dynasty.Filled with cunning political scheming and astonishing military prowess, invasions and treacheries, plagues and slaughters, passion and power, Conn Iggulden brings to life one of the most thrilling chapters of the ancient world.

Montana Westward Brides Box Set #1-4


Amelia Rose - 2020
    Desperate for her marriage to Dr. Sam Slater to finally bring her the good fortune she longs for, Lucy’s fears are confirmed when a tragic death clouds her journey to meet him. Just one look at the dashing doctor’s face, and Lucy knew their marriage was the right choice. But Lucy is devastated when their first picnic together ends with the discovery of Sam’s shepherd’s dead body. Her luck turns from bad to worse when she starts receiving anonymous threats: someone is trying to force them from the land. But who? Will Lucy’s love for Sam be enough to get them through the storm, or is she really destined for a life of misfortune and tragedy?◆◆◆Martha Walters has left the brothel behind her, but a new marriage seems to be her only way out. Desperate to find a suitable husband, Matha meets an older man: a handsome cattle rancher 10 years her senior.Gray Jenkins is certain he’s too old to attract a wife, but the gentle farmer tries his luck with a mail-order bride. Never in his wildest dreams did he imagine someone as beautiful and charming as Martha would be interested in him.Martha falls head over heels for the wisecracking farmer, but she has a secret. The new life growing inside her and a dark enemy from her past threaten their one shot at happiness. Can Martha and Gray triumph over Martha’s past and the menace that follows her? Will they finally get their chance at true love?◆◆◆With his poor literacy and lack of formal education, ranch hand Eddie Murtaugh believes he’s destined for a life of loneliness. But when his friend helps him attract the attention of a mail-order bride, his luck begins to change.Fiona Wilkins is eager to leave her life in high society behind her and embark on an adventure on the frontier. She secretly replies to Eddie’s listing, but her father has other plans for her: she is to be auctioned off to a man she detests. Desperate to escape her parents and a future of certain unhappiness, Fiona escapes to Montana during the night.But her carriage is hijacked, and Eddie’s anxiety turns to dread when he hears that the woman of his dreams has been taken hostage. Can Eddie and Fiona escape fate’s plans for them and secure a life of love and happiness together? Only time will tell.◆◆◆Sheriff Josh Ryder is lonely, and longs for nothing more than someone to come home to after a long day. He has no shortage of replies to his listing for a mail-order bride, but can he really trust that it’s him that they want, or do they simply dream of being married to a notorious man of the law? There’s one beauty he can’t resist though: Emily Middleton.Her high society dreams shattered by her father’s bankruptcy, Emily looks for love in the West, and when she finally meets the sheriff, she’s certain she can get her life back on track. But Emily wants more than he can give her, and despite his charm and rugged good looks, she’s worried that her fresh start might not be the future she dreamed of. Is marriage truly on the cards for this fiery couple? Can they see past their forceful personalities to find the love between them?◆◆◆Four brides on four inspirational quests towards a future of freedom and love. But can they outwit their pasts? Is true love really within their grasp?In Montana Westward Brides: Book 1-4, you’ll find four captivating tales of love, danger, and destiny. Lose yourself in the lives of four passionate heroines as they each embark on the journey of a lifetime.To immerse yourself in four gripping tales of love and ambition, click “Buy Now” to see where your passions lead you.

The Pilgrim Hypothesis


Timothy Ballard - 2020
    It was these men and women who paved the way for a free nation under God in this promised land—but what if those early voyagers were brought here for a much greater purpose? What if their arrival in this new land heralded the fulfillment of ancient prophecy,- laying the foundation of a country that would allow for the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ and the beginning of the gathering of scattered Israel? In The Pilgrim Hypothesis, readers are presented with a gripping new investigation by best-selling author and historian Timothy Ballard as he uncovers what the early colonists—a people who believed themselves to be the “New Israel”—may have known about their role in the restoration of the gospel. Delve into a complex history bridging the centuries and spanning the globe, as each clue leads to one compelling conclusion: history and scripture may be far more intertwined than you’ve ever realized.

The Letter (Isabel's Story, #2)


Michelle Vernal - 2020
    An unexpected letter. Do words have the power to heal? Veronica and Gabe met when they were children at ballet class and by the time they’d reached their teens they knew they’d be dancing together forever. Only Gabe’s mother had other ideas…Twenty-something years later, Veronica no longer dances and life hasn’t turned out how she thought it would. She’s a divorced woman in her forties with a needy ex-husband, monosyllabic teenage sons, a sister who fancies herself as a long in the tooth ‘it girl’ and a mother who’s recently moved into a care home. She’s tying herself in knots trying to be everything to everyone.Veronica also has a secret.Isabel was a lost soul until she moved to the Isle of Wight and found a place to call home, but there’s a part of her that’s missing. She knows she must reach out if she’s to find the missing piece she needs to feel whole.When Veronica receives a letter, she never thought she’d get her past collides with her present. The time’s come for her to share her secret with her family, but she’s not the only one keeping a secret… (This book was previously titled The Dancer) It can be read as a standalone novel or as part of the Isabel's story, series

Murder in the Crypt


Irina Shapiro - 2020
    Suspicion instantly falls on the only stranger to arrive in the village of Birch Hill just before the crime took place, but the American captain proves to be an unexpected asset. A former soldier and a skilled surgeon, Jason Redmond is not only willing to assist Haze with the investigation but will risk his own safety to apprehend the killer. With no suspects, no motive, and few leads to follow, Redmond and Haze must solve the crime before one of them becomes the murderer’s next victim. Murder in the Crypt is the exciting first installment of this Victorian murder mystery series set in a quaint British village.

Half a Soul


Olivia Atwater - 2020
    Dora’s only goal for the London Season this year is to stay quiet and avoid upsetting her cousin’s chances at a husband… but when the Lord Sorcier of England learns of her condition, she finds herself drawn ever more deeply into the tumultuous concerns of magicians and faeries.Lord Elias Wilder is handsome, strange, and utterly uncouth—but gossip says that he regularly performs three impossible things before breakfast, and he is willing to help Dora restore her missing half. If Dora’s reputation can survive both her ongoing curse and her sudden connection with the least-liked man in all of high society, then she may yet reclaim her normal place in the world… but the longer Dora spends with Elias Wilder, the more she begins to suspect that one may indeed fall in love, even with only half a soul.

Into the Darkest Day


Kate Hewitt - 2020
    Because the message was in German.1944, London:When Lily meets enigmatic GI Matthew in war-torn London, she doesn’t expect to fall in love. While her sister starts a reckless affair with another GI, Lily tries to hide her growing feelings for Matthew.But Matthew has a devastating secret. One that could change their lives forever.Present day, USA:Abby lives a quiet life on an apple farm in Wisconsin. Tormented by survivor’s guilt after the tragic deaths of her mother and brother, Abby leaves the orchards as little as possible, keeping her life small, peaceful and safe… Until she is contacted by Englishman Simon Elliot, who arrives nursing a heartbreak of his own, and bearing a World War Two medal that he claims belonged to Abby’s grandfather.Together they begin to piece together the heartbreaking story of their relatives’ war. But as the story brings Abby and Simon closer—tentatively beginning to lean on one another to heal—they uncover a dark secret from the past.And like Lily and Matthew nearly eighty years before them, it will make Abby and Simon question whether you can ever truly trust someone, even when they have your heart…A heartbreakingly powerful, epic love story about courage, friendship and broken trusts, Into the Darkest Day is an unforgettable story perfect for fans of Nora Roberts, Kristin Hannah and The Notebook.

The Amulet


Ann Bennett - 2020
    They start to grow close, but war threatens to engulf Singapore and tear them apart. While delving into her grandmother’s past, Lara is forced to confront betrayal and brutality as she learns some disturbing truths about families and friendships…Praise for Ann Bennett'A vivid account of a brutal period, and a searing exploration of trauma, memory and loss..' The Lady Magazine.‘Have just discovered this writer … So descriptive of the Far East. Harrowing in parts but unputdownable! Best author I have read in a very long time.’ Amazon Reviewer.‘This was a story of love, passion and cruelty I could not put down ….’ Lizeanne Lloyd - Lost in a Good BookI raced through this book in just over twenty-four hours … I literally could not put it down.’ Bibliobeth – Goodreads.‘I really loved this haunting, powerful and beautiful novel.’ Amazon Reviewer

A Home for Unloved Orphans


Rachel Wesson - 2020
    There were too many orphans and not enough beds. The rags they wore barely covered them and they hadn’t eaten in days. How could anyone let innocent children live like this? She picked up a tiny girl who’d cried as she moved past her cot. “I’ll be back soon, little one.”Never in a million years did Lauren Greenwood think she would be destitute and without a penny to her name. But when her father mercilessly disowns her in the depths of winter, that is her fate. Now homeless, Lauren finds America in the devastating grip of the Great Depression––children run wild in the icy streets, endless queues for soup kitchens line frosty sidewalks, and desperation hangs in the air.All alone in the world, Lauren finds an orphanage in the sprawling fields of the Virginia countryside, surrounded by snow-topped mountains and magnificent fir trees––a safe haven for those who have nowhere to go. But she is appalled to find children living in shocking conditions, huddled together for warmth, their hunger keeping them awake at night as the temperature plunges. The home for unloved orphans is on the brink of closure and the helpless innocents may lose the roof over their heads…Lauren, heartbroken by the rejection of her own father, vows to provide these poor orphans with the love she never received. With Christmas just around the corner, she refuses to see them cast out onto the street, where they will not survive. When she sees an advertisement in the local newspaper, with an anonymous benefactor donating money to families crippled by the Depression, it could be the answer to her prayers.Can Lauren save these children who have been rejected by the world? Or in a time of so much suffering, is there simply no hope?A heartbreaking yet hopeful tale about a brave young woman who gives up everything to help unloved children who have nothing. Fans of Before We Were Yours, The Orphan Train and Diney Costeloe will adore this poignant historical novel, which shows that a little bit of kindness can go a long way.

Scarred Mail-Order Bride and the Widower


Amelia Rose - 2020
    Desperate for a brighter future, she responds to a mail order bride ad, and soon the Deputy of Daisy Creek is her shimmer of light in the darkness.Deputy Bill Paulson knows grief too. When his wife died in childbirth, he thought he would never find happiness again. Encouraged by his sister, Bill finally begins his search for a wife: he knows his children need a mother, and Jill’s letters are a beacon of hope.Jill finally makes the journey to Daisy Creek to meet the deputy. With her anxiety about her scars and Bill’s grief about his wife, their union is a gamble for both of them, and they’re surprised by their instant connection.But no matter how strong a bond, sometimes reality is hell-bent on testing it, and events soon show that the pair’s trials aren’t over. With a crisis that triggers each of their worst fears, the couple is thrown into turmoil.But they have one thing they didn’t have before: each other. Could it be that this is enough to get them through?Scarred Mail Order Bride and the Widower is a heart wrenching story of two lost souls determined to find love and correct the course of their future.

Paradiso: Final Chapter to The Mistress of Auschwitz


Terrance D. Williamson - 2020
    

Silver-Tongued Devil


Lorelei James - 2020
    This standalone historical romance is a prequel to the McKay family saga.The West doesn’t get much wilder than Silas McKay. He’s earned his cowboy reputation not just as a rancher, but as a brawling card sharp who’s short on cash but long on charm. And just as soon as he claps eyes on the pretty new schoolteacher? Well, Dinah Thompson is about to discover what courtin’s like McKay-style—sweet, hot and passionate.Luckily, Dinah’s got the sass and sense to stand up to Silas’s shenanigans. She relocated to rural Wyoming to teach and become a self-reliant woman, not to spend her nights dreaming about that blue-eyed rogue and his ranchwork honed-body. But Silas McKay’s powerful appeal and tempting promises convince Dinah to recklessly go all in with him.When Silas’s long-standing rivalry with Zeke West puts Dinah, Silas and his twin brother Jonas in danger, each one is forced to make difficult decisions about taking a chance to build their legacy . . . and a love that transcends time.

The Fortunate Ones


Catherine Hokin - 2020
    He listened for his number, shouted his answer in the freezing cold. He was ragged and he was starving, but he was alive. He was one of the fortunate ones whom fate had left standing. And he needed to stay that way. For Hannah. Berlin, 1941. Felix Thalberg, a printer’s apprentice, has the weight of the world on his shoulders. His beloved city is changing under Nazi rule and at home things are no better – Felix’s father hasn’t left the house since he was forced to wear a yellow star, and his mother grows thinner every day. Then one night, Felix meets a mysterious young woman in a crowded dance hall, and his life is changed forever. Hannah is like a rush of fresh air into his gloomy, stagnant life and Felix finds himself instantly, powerfully infatuated with her. But when he tries to find her again, she’s vanished without a trace. Was Hannah taken away by the Gestapo and held prisoner… or worse? When Felix himself is imprisoned in Sachsenhausen concentration camp, his thoughts are only for her safety. And when a life-threatening injury lands him on the ward of Dr Max Eichel – a Nazi medical officer with a sadistic reputation – his love for his lost Hannah sees him through the pain. Until one day Dr Eichel brings his pretty young wife to tour the camp and Felix’s world is thrown off-kilter. Framed in the hospital window he sees – impossibly – the same girl he met that fateful night… her wrist in the vice-like grip of the deathly calm SS Officer. And it’s clear Hannah recognises him at once – there is no mistaking her expression, she has been dreaming of him too... A gripping and beautiful wartime love story about two people facing impossible odds – heartbreaking, moving and unforgettable. Perfect for fans of The Tattooist of Auschwitz, We Were the Lucky Ones and The Alice Network.

Jake's Honor


Linda Ford - 2020
     Connie has always been the plain one. The responsible one. The dutiful one. She always stood in her beautiful cousin’s shadow, but now her cousin is dead. Connie is left to pick up the pieces and do right by her little niece, Megan, which means delivering the girl to her father. But nothing is as it seems. Jake denies being the father. Worse, the attraction Connie once felt for the enigmatic rancher still exists, though she has always been invisible to him. Jake Hooper lost his mother, his father, and then his sweetheart, who left him without so much as a word of explanation. When Connie shows up with a child she claims is his, he knows it can’t be true. Jake determines to take Connie and Megan to Fort Macleod. They aren’t his responsibility. And after all the loss he has suffered, he can’t bear to open his heart again. But the more time they spend together, the more one charming little girl and her fiery aunt sneak into Jake’s heart. Will he be able to cut ties and leave them on their own? Or will his honor—and his heart—require a different answer?

The Book of Lost Friends


Lisa Wingate - 2020
    Each carries private wounds and powerful secrets as they head for Texas, following dangerous roads rife with ruthless vigilantes and soldiers still fighting a war lost a decade before. For Lavinia and Juneau Jane, the journey is one of inheritance and financial desperation, but for Hannie, torn from her mother and eight siblings before slavery's end, the pilgrimage westward reignites an agonizing question: Could her long-lost family still be out there? Beyond the swamps lie the seemingly limitless frontiers of Texas and, improbably, hope.Louisiana, 1987 For first-year teacher Benedetta Silva, a subsidized job at a poor rural school seems like the ticket to canceling her hefty student debt--until she lands in a tiny, out-of-step Mississippi River town. Augustine, Louisiana, seems suspicious of new ideas and new people, and Benny can scarcely comprehend the lives of her poverty-stricken students. But amid the gnarled oaks and run-down plantation homes lies the century-old history of three young women, a long-ago journey, and a hidden book that could change everything.

Pioneer Dream


Ramona Flightner - 2020
    Instead, he is convinced only hard work, dedication to family, and self-sacrifice will bring contentment. When he meets Aileen O’Keefe on the steamboat trip from Saint Louis to Fort Benton, Montana Territory, his world is turned upside down as quickly as she nearly tumbles into the Missouri River. After spending only a few moments in her company, he knows his life will never be the same. Although warned to guard his heart, he is drawn to Aileen, enthralled by her joy and the future he envisions with her. Aileen O’Keefe knows she is not the sort of woman to captivate handsome Kevin O’Rourke. Charmed by his attentiveness, she is unable to hide her mutual attraction to him, although she knows it is disastrous. For Aileen has a secret. One that will forever separate them. Due to a bargain made by her aunt, their time on the steamboat must be all they can ever share. Upon arriving in Fort Benton, Kevin discovers that ghosts can return from the dead, love can endure years of hardship, and that his hope for a future with the woman he loves is worth every sacrifice. Aileen must adjust to the rough frontier town as she reconciles herself to the betrayal of one who she had trusted. She must learn to believe in herself so that she can have the confidence to have faith in Kevin’s love. Can Kevin convince Aileen to trust in the strength of their love or will Aileen turn to another for the fulfillment of her dreams? Discover the O’Rourke Family Montana Saga set in the frontier town of Fort, Benton, Montana Territory! Follow as each sibling forgives childhood heartbreak, discovers love, and finds their happily ever after! The O’Rourke Family Montana Saga Pioneer Dream Pioneer Desire –Coming April 2020 Pioneer Yearning –Coming May 2020 Pioneer Longing—Coming Soon! Pioneer Bliss—Coming Soon!

The Christmas Carol


M.J. Lee - 2020
    Even worse, she faces spending her own Christmas alone, not something she is looking forward to at all.Jayne is in a race against time to find the family of the man, his relationship to Dickens and the reason why the author wrote the dedication.Can she discover the truth behind a Christmas past to deliver a Christmas present?

Call of the Raven


Wilbur Smith - 2020
    The natural law of existence.' Augustus Mungo St John, A Falcon Flies The son of a wealthy plantation owner and a doting mother, Augustus Mungo St John is accustomed to the wealth and luxuries his privilege has afforded him. That is until he returns from university to discover his family ruined, his inheritance stolen and his childhood sweetheart, Camilla, taken by the conniving Chester Marion. Fuelled by anger, and love, Mungo swears vengeance and devotes his life to saving Camilla - and destroying Chester. Camilla, trapped in New Orleans and powerless to her position as a kept slave and Chester's brutish behaviour, must learn to do whatever it takes to survive. As Mungo battles his own fate and misfortune to achieve the revenge that drives him, and regain his power in the world, he must question what it takes for a man to survive when he has nothing, and what he is willing to do in order to get what he wants. An action-packed and gripping adventure by bestselling author, Wilbur Smith, about one man's quest for revenge, the brutality of slavery in America and the imbalance between humans that can drive - or defeat - us.

The Girl from Vichy


Andie Newton - 2020
    Now she fights. 1942, occupied France.With the war raging in Europe, Adèle Ambeh dreams of a France that is free from the clutches of the Nazis. As the date of her marriage to a ruthless man draws closer, she only has one choice: she must run.Adèle flees to Lyon and seeks refuge at the Sisters of Notre Dame de la Compassion. From the outside this is a simple nunnery, but the sisters are secretly aiding the French Resistance, hiding and supplying the fighters with weapons. Adèle quickly finds herself part of the efforts to take down the regime.As each day fills with a different danger and she begins to fall for another man, Adèle's entire world could come crashing down around her.She must fight for her family, her country – and her own destiny.

Her Last Flight


Beatriz Williams - 2020
    Obsessed with Sam’s fate, Janey has tracked down Irene Lindquist, the owner of a local island-hopping airline, whom she believes might actually be the legendary Irene Foster, Mallory’s onetime student and flying partner. Foster’s disappearance during a round-the-world flight in 1937 remains one of the world’s greatest unsolved mysteries. At first, the flinty Mrs. Lindquist denies any connection to Foster. But Janey informs her that the wreck of Sam Mallory’s airplane has recently been discovered in a Spanish desert, and piece by piece, the details of Foster’s extraordinary life emerge: from the beginnings of her flying career in Southern California, to her complicated, passionate relationship with Mallory, to the collapse of her marriage to her aggressive career manager, the publishing scion George Morrow.As Irene spins her tale to its searing conclusion, Janey’s past gathers its own power. The duel between the two women takes a heartstopping turn. To whom does Mallory rightfully belong? Can we ever come to terms with the loss of those we love, and the lives we might have lived?

Above the Bay of Angels


Rhys Bowen - 2020
    In her final dying moments, she thrusts a letter into Bella’s hand. It’s an offer of employment in the kitchens of Buckingham Palace, and everything the budding young chef desperately wants: an escape from the constrictions of her life as a lowly servant. In the stranger’s stead, Bella can spread her wings.Arriving as Helen Barton from Yorkshire, she pursues her passion for creating culinary delights, served to the delighted Queen Victoria herself. Best of all, she’s been chosen to accompany the queen to Nice. What fortune! Until the threat of blackmail shadows Bella to the Riviera, and a member of the queen’s retinue falls ill and dies.Having prepared the royal guest’s last meal, Bella is suspected of the poisonous crime. An investigation is sure to follow. Her charade will be over. And her new life will come crashing down—if it doesn’t send her to the gallows.

The House on the Hill


Irina Shapiro - 2020
    Historic Holland House, isolated on a hill overlooking the Atlantic Ocean, seems like the perfect refuge, until Lauren discovers that she’s not alone, and her ghostly roommate might be none other than Sophie Holland, the mysterious first mistress of the house. With the help of a handsome doctor with an interest in local history, Lauren is soon drawn out of her self-imposed exile as she sets out to learn what happened to Sophie and stumbles onto a story worth writing about. Fans of Susanna Kearsley and Barbara Erskine are sure to enjoy this dual timeline tale of romantic suspense.

The Lost Lights of St Kilda


Elisabeth Gifford - 2020
    Only three years later, St Kilda will be evacuated, the islanders near-dead from starvation. But for Fred, that summer is the bedrock of his whole life...Chrissie Gillies is just nineteen when the researchers come to St Kilda. Hired as their cook, she can't believe they would ever notice her, sophisticated and educated as they are. But she soon develops a cautious friendship with Fred, a friendship that cannot be allowed to develop into anything more...Years later, to help deal with his hellish existence in a German prisoner of war camp, Fred tells the tale of the island and the woman he loved, but left behind. And Fred starts to wonder, where is Chrissie now? And does she ever think of him too?

Cocky Earl


Annabelle Anders - 2020
    The British are stuffy, and arrogant, and think far too highly of themselves. Particularly, the ones who referred to themselves as Lords.Julian Wellstone, the Earl of Westerley, never walked away from a bet but should have known his luck would someday run out. He should have known a time would come when the gambling tables would turn against him.Which is exactly what happened when he played “one more hand” and lost the game of a lifetime to American Whiskey King, Mr. Daniel Jackson. Jules has no choice but to honor the bet and court the man’s daughter—a chit who managed to get under his skin from the moment he met her. But honor is everything.Until love deals him a new hand. And once the lines are blurred, all bets are off. Will he fold and walk away, or will he ante up his heart and risk everything for the love of a lifetime?

Daughter of Cana


Angela Elwell Hunt - 2020
    . . until a guest tells Tasmin to have the servants fill the pitchers by the gate with water from the cistern. Reluctantly, she obeys and is amazed when rainwater turns into the finest wine ever tasted in Cana. When Thomas impulsively decides to follow the teacher from Nazareth, he and Tasmin argue--since the twins have been together since the womb, Tasmin can't accept losing her brother to some magician-prophet. Aided by Jude, younger brother to Jesus of Nazareth, she decides to follow the Nazarene's group and do whatever she must to mend the fractured relationship and bring her brother home.

The Love Note


Joanna Davidson Politano - 2020
    Compelled to find the passionate soul who penned it and the person who never received it, she takes a job as a nurse at the seaside estate of Crestwicke Manor.Everyone at Crestwicke has feelings--mostly negative ones--about the man who wrote the letter, but he seems to have disappeared. With plenty of enticing clues but few answers, Willa's search becomes even more complicated when she misplaces the letter and it passes from person to person in the house, each finding a thrilling or disheartening message in its words. Laced with mysteries large and small, this romantic Victorian-era tale of love lost, love deferred, and love found is sure to delight.

Red Mistress


Elizabeth Blackwell - 2020
    She has no premonitions of war, let alone the revolution that is about to destroy her comfortable world.Her once-noble family is stripped of every possession, and more terrible losses soon follow. To save what’s left of her family and future, Nadia marries a zealous Bolshevik in an act of calculated reinvention.It won’t be her last.When she agrees to work undercover for the Soviets in 1920s Paris, Nadia is drawn into a beautiful yet treacherous world of secrets and deceit. Beset by conflicting loyalties and tested by a forbidden love affair, she becomes embroiled in a conspiracy that ends with a shocking murder. What chances will she take to determine her own fate?

The Dover Cafe at War


Ginny Bell - 2020
    Overcome with shame, she has never revealed the identity of Donny's father - not even to her own mother.But with World War II just around the corner, soon Marianne's past catches up with her. And suddenly the lives of the Castle family become a lot more complicated.Will the secrets from her past destroy their future?

The Dictionary of Lost Words


Pip Williams - 2020
    This is the story of the girl who stole it.Esme is born into a world of words. Motherless and irrepressibly curious, she spends her childhood in the ‘Scriptorium’, a garden shed in Oxford where her father and a team of dedicated lexicographers are collecting words for the very first Oxford English Dictionary. Esme’s place is beneath the sorting table, unseen and unheard. One day a slip of paper containing the word ‘bondmaid’ flutters to the floor. Esme rescues the slip and stashes it in an old wooden case that belongs to her friend, Lizzie, a young servant in the big house. Esme begins to collect other words from the Scriptorium that are misplaced, discarded or have been neglected by the dictionary men. They help her make sense of the world.Over time, Esme realises that some words are considered more important than others, and that words and meanings relating to women’s experiences often go unrecorded. While she dedicates her life to the Oxford English Dictionary, secretly, she begins to collect words for another dictionary: The Dictionary of Lost Words.Set when the women’s suffrage movement was at its height and the Great War loomed, The Dictionary of Lost Words reveals a lost narrative, hidden between the lines of a history written by men. It’s a delightful, lyrical and deeply thought-provoking celebration of words, and the power of language to shape the world and our experience of it.

The Exiles


Christina Baker Kline - 2020
    Seduced by her employer’s son, Evangeline, a naïve young governess in early nineteenth-century London, is discharged when her pregnancy is discovered and sent to the notorious Newgate Prison. After months in the fetid, overcrowded jail, she learns she is sentenced to “the land beyond the seas,” Van Diemen’s Land, a penal colony in Australia. Though uncertain of what awaits, Evangeline knows one thing: the child she carries will be born on the months-long voyage to this distant land.During the journey on a repurposed slave ship, the Medea, Evangeline strikes up a friendship with Hazel, a girl little older than her former pupils who was sentenced to seven years transport for stealing a silver spoon. Canny where Evangeline is guileless, Hazel—a skilled midwife and herbalist—is soon offering home remedies to both prisoners and sailors in return for a variety of favors.Though Australia has been home to Aboriginal people for more than 50,000 years, the British government in the 1840s considers its fledgling colony uninhabited and unsettled, and views the natives as an unpleasant nuisance. By the time the Medea arrives, many of them have been forcibly relocated, their land seized by white colonists. One of these relocated people is Mathinna, the orphaned daughter of the Chief of the Lowreenne tribe, who has been adopted by the new governor of Van Diemen’s Land.In this gorgeous novel, Christina Baker Kline brilliantly recreates the beginnings of a new society in a beautiful and challenging land, telling the story of Australia from a fresh perspective, through the experiences of Evangeline, Hazel, and Mathinna. While life in Australia is punishing and often brutally unfair, it is also, for some, an opportunity: for redemption, for a new way of life, for unimagined freedom. Told in exquisite detail and incisive prose, The Exiles is a story of grace born from hardship, the unbreakable bonds of female friendships, and the unfettering of legacy.

The Mother’s Day Club


Rosie Hendry - 2020
    But when Marianne arrives, Thea quickly realises that she has her own secrets. The ladies of Rookery House are fighting their own battles on the Home Front, but the community will be drawn together to protect their own. A gorgeously uplifting saga for fans of Ellie Dean and Donna Douglas

When We Were Young & Brave


Hazel Gaynor - 2020
    . .The New York Times bestselling author of The Girl Who Came Home sets her unforgettable new novel in China during WWII, inspired by true events surrounding the Japanese Army’s internment of teachers and children from a British-run missionary school.China, December 1941. Having left an unhappy life in England for a teaching post at a missionary school in northern China, Elspeth Kent is now anxious to return home to help the war effort. But as she prepares to leave China, a terrible twist of fate determines a different path for Elspeth, and those in her charge.Ten-year-old Nancy Plummer has always felt safe at Chefoo School, protected by her British status. But when Japan declares war on Britain and America, Japanese forces take control of the school and the security and comforts Nancy and her friends are used to are replaced by privation, uncertainty and fear. Now the enemy, and separated from their parents, the children look to their teachers – to Miss Kent and her new Girl Guide patrol especially – to provide a sense of unity and safety.Faced with the relentless challenges of oppression, the school community must rely on their courage, faith and friendships as they pray for liberation – but worse is to come when they are sent to a distant internment camp where even greater uncertainty and danger await . . .Inspired by true events, When We Were Young and Brave is an unforgettable novel about impossible choices and unimaginable hardship, and the life-changing bonds formed between a young girl and her teacher in a remote corner of a terrible war.

The Black Swan of Paris


Karen Robards - 2020
    A beautiful young star. A mission no one expected. Paris, 1944Celebrated singer Genevieve Dumont is both a star and a smokescreen. An unwilling darling of the Nazis, the chanteuse’s position of privilege allows her to go undetected as an ally to the resistance.When her estranged mother, Lillian de Rocheford, is captured by Nazis, Genevieve knows it won’t be long before the Gestapo succeeds in torturing information out of Lillian that will derail the upcoming allied invasion. The resistance movement is tasked with silencing her by any means necessary—including assassination. But Genevieve refuses to let her mother become yet one more victim of the war. Reuniting with her long-lost sister, she must find a way to navigate the perilous cross-currents of Occupied France undetected—and in time to save Lillian’s life.

The Lonely Wife


Val Wood - 2020
    

And They Called It Camelot: A Novel of Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis


Stephanie Marie Thornton - 2020
    Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy knows no other choice. With the eyes of the world watching, Jackie uses her effortless charm and keen intelligence to carve a place for herself among the men of history and weave a fairy tale for the American people, embodying a senator’s wife, a devoted mother, a First Lady—a queen in her own right. But all reigns must come to an end. Once JFK travels to Dallas and the clock ticks down those thousand days of magic in Camelot, Jackie is forced to pick up the ruined fragments of her life and forge herself into a new identity that is all her own, that of an American legend.

Unhallowed


Jordan L. Hawk - 2020
    Murder. Librarians.Librarian Sebastian Rath is the only one who believes his friend Kelly O’Neil disappeared due to foul play. But without any clues or outside assistance, there’s nothing he can do to prove it.When bookbinder Vesper Rune is hired to fill the vacancy left by O’Neil, he receives an ominous letter warning him to leave. After he saves Sebastian from a pair of threatening men, the two decide to join forces and get to the truth about what happened to O’Neil.But Vesper is hiding secrets of his own, ones he doesn’t dare let anyone learn. Secrets that grow ever more dangerous as his desire for Sebastian deepens.Because Kelly O’Neil was murdered. And if Sebastian and Ves don’t act quickly enough, they’ll be the next to die.

From These Broken Streets


Roland Merullo - 2020
    The Nazi occupation has cemented its grip on the devastated city of Naples.Giuseppe DiPietra, a curator in the National Archives, has a subversive plan to aid the Allies. If he’s discovered, forced labor or swift execution. Lucia Pastone, secretary for the Italian Fascist government, is risking her own life in secret defiance of orders. And Lucia’s father, Aldo, is a black marketeer who draws Giuseppe and Lucia into the underworld—for their protection and to help plant the seeds of resistance. Their fates are soon intertwined with those of Aldo’s devoted lover and a boy of the streets who’ll do anything to live another day. And all of Naples is about to join forces to overcome impossible odds and repel the Nazi occupiers.Inspired by a true historic uprising, From These Broken Streets is a richly layered novel of the extraordinary daring of ordinary people whose bonds of love, family, and unfaltering courage could not be broken.

Lakeshire Park


Megan Walker - 2020
    With their stepfather’s looming death, the two sisters will soon be on their own—without family, a home, or a penny to their names. When an invitation arrives to join a house party at Lakeshire Park, Amelia grasps at the chance. If she can encourage a match between Clara and their host, Sir Ronald, then at least her sister will be taken care of.Little does she know that another guest, the arrogant and overconfident Mr. Peter Wood, is after the same goal for his own sister. Amelia and Peter begin a rivalry that Amelia has no choice but to win. But competing against Peter—and eventually playing by his rules—makes Amelia vulnerable to losing the only thing she has left to claim: her heart.