Book picks similar to
The Viking Woman of Birka by David K. Mullaly


vikings
women
b-r-a-g-medallion-books
historical-fiction

Easter With Nurse Millie


Jean Fullerton - 2015
     Daphne Villiers, student nurse, is still suffering from the heartbreak of losing her fiancé two years earlier. A new arrival to the East End has the potential to brighten her spirits and turn her life around, but will she be able to let herself love again? With the help of her friends, Daphne might find that Easter really is the time for new beginnings.

Quick on the Draw


Gordon Landsborough - 2016
     Imprisoned for a crime he never committed, deserted by the woman he loved and betrayed by his own family. His bad luck seems to be running out when he is released early from prison and finds a job on the railroads. But it doesn’t last long. First he gets into a fight with a man who turns up dead. Then, while still on the run, his train is held up by his own brother’s gang. Then he somehow manages to offend the railroad boss’ daughter, the beautiful Elizabeth. With the fates out to get him, Glen has to use all his wits and strength to take control of his own destiny. Will that be enough to see him through, or will his past catch up with him before he gets a chance? Quick on the Draw is a hard fighting story of the Old West, where lives were cheap and danger was great. Praise for Gordon Landsborough 'A punchy tale coupled with plenty of action - an engaging read!' - Philip McCormac, bestselling western author Gordon Landsborough (1913-1984) was a publisher, author and bookseller. Writing tales about the exploits of gun-toting cowboys fighting out on the arid sands of the Wild West, Landsborough was himself a pioneering in the English paperback publishing world of the 1950s. He was widely known amongst his peers as the ‘maverick publishing genius’. Pioneering Press is an imprint of Endeavour Press, the UK’s leading independent digital publisher. We publish new and classic westerns by authors from the US and the UK. Follow us on Twitter: @PioneeringPress Goodreads: www.goodreads.com/PioneeringPress

Hawk Eyes


David Althouse - 2016
    Chained to a tree, the man seems destined to hang for murder. In response to the boy's curiosity, Hawk Eyes shares his story of bad luck and misadventure. As if a master storyteller sitting comfortably by a campfire, Hawk Eyes relates near-death escapes, living with the Cherokee, gunfights, the death of friends and loved ones, and a quest for revenge. Ben can see vast landscapes painted from the words of the doomed man and feel the wild history of the West come alive. Will he have to watch Hawk Eyes die at the end of a rope?

Jim Wrenn


William Guerrant - 2018
    Times-News, January 4, 1918Seeing something of himself in a struggling teenage boy, an old man faces one final challenge--and an opportunity to bring closure to a secret past.Spanning nearly nine decades, from the mountains of western Virginia, to a riverside mill town, to a farm in the Piedmont, this is the story of lives marked by tragedy, resilience, and, ultimately, the discovery of purpose and belonging.Inspired by a true story.

A Slow Train To Budapest


Ann Abelson - 2013
    Along the way, however, Miriam boards the wrong train . . . Ann Abelson's novella begins a family saga based on actual events.

Outlasting the Trail: The Story of a Woman's Journey West


Mary Barmeyer O'Brien - 2005
    Trading in her home for canvas roof and wheels, Mary, her husband, and their three children set out on the arduous trek westward to California.Shortly into their travels west, it became painfully obvious that Doctor Powers was simply not up to the task of making sure his family "outlasted the trail." Mary had to step in and become the head of the household with its canvas roof and wheels--leaving behind her ideals of femininity along with her beloved possessions.In Outlasting the Trail author Mary Barymeyer O'Brien uses the letters Mary Rockwood Powers wrote to her mother and sister back home as a stepping off point to further illuminate this remarkable woman's story. Based on the dramatic struggle a real family, this novel brings to life a fascinating slice of American history.

Balian d'Ibelin: Knight of Jerusalem


Helena P. Schrader - 2014
    Balian d’Ibelin saved thousands of women and children from slavery and brokered peace between Richard I and Saladin. Arab chronicles described him as “like a king,” and his descendants dominated the history of the Holy Land for the next century. Yet he inherited neither land nor titles and we know nothing of his youth. What made him the man he would become? In this comprehensive revision of the first book in the Jerusalem Trilogy, Schrader evokes the underlying currents and powerful personalities that shaped the history of the Kingdom of Jerusalem. She weaves history with hypotheses to create a credible, if fictional, backstory for a hero: Balian d’Ibelin.

Invasion and Conquest


Rob Buckman - 2018
    His mission was to retrieve an important package and get it to a secret military base in northern California. He was hundreds of miles inside alien held territory with no heavy weapons, no support, no Intel on the aliens, and no way to report the mission was a bust. Between him and the secret base stood the Sierra Nevada Mountain, four hundred miles of treacherous road and an unknown number of world destroying aliens. Any transport was immidiately attacked and destroyed, so the only way to get there was to walk. To even think about taking these women on a four hundred mile yomp was crazy at best, and completely insane knowing winter would catch them before they reached their goal. But ever the perennial sheepdog he didn't have a choice. It was either leave them to their fate, or take them with him. The only way to do that was to teach them. Not only survive, but to turn these inexperienced civilians into a snarling, battle hardened 'Wolf Pack', willing and able to take down the assorted bad guys and aliens that stood in their path. In the SAS, he'd done some crazy thing, and if there was a kindly God who looked after little children, fools and village idiots, John ‘Wolfman’ Decker hoped he was paying special attention right about now, because he was the biggest village idiot of them all.Cover Artist: Jesus Condi

To The Cache La Poudre (Buckskin Chronicles Book 7)


B.N. Rundell - 2017
    But the young man is reminded of his father’s counsel that “Whenever a task falls to you, don’t question the why of it, just get busy with the doin’ of it!” Now he must set aside his new job as Shotgun for the Overland Stage and gear up for the pursuit of a band of warrior renegades. A tall task for an unproven young man, but when none of the pilgrims believe in the cause, and the settlers of nearby LaPorte refuse to leave their homes unguarded, Talon realizes he must face this challenge alone. His commitment and determination lead to the making of a man and a bloody chase through the foothills of Colorado and the plains of the new territory. Along the way, he makes a bitter enemy of the Cheyenne war leader, Two Bears, who is determined to seek vengeance on this unknown white man and prove to his people that he is the chosen leader of the notorious Dog soldiers. But Talon is undaunted and even eager to show the renegade that this white man is more than his match. Follow the trail that takes a young man from the Cache La Poudre through intimidating country and back to the Overland Trail as he proves his worth as he rises to the challenge and the making of a man.

The Jarrow Trilogy


Janet MacLeod Trotter - 2012
    Gripping, emotional and uplifting, the Trilogy is inspired by Catherine Cookson, her mother and grandmother.The Jarrow Lass: Brought up on her parents' smallholding in Jarrow in the harsh years of the 1870s, selling vegetables to poverty-struck Irish labourers such as the unruly McMullens, Rose dreams of the world beyond the grime of the town, a world she glimpsed at a fairytale wedding on the Ravensworth Estate as a child. Capturing the heart of handsome and respectable steelworker William Fawcett, it seems her wish for a better life is finally within reach. But tragedy strikes, and to save her young family from destitution, Rose must turn to wild John McMullen. The Jarrow Lass is the first novel in the Jarrow Trilogy and is inspired by Catherine Cookson's grandmother.A Child of Jarrow: To escape her possessive and drunken step-father, Kate is sent away from teaming Jarrow to work on the Ravensworth Estate. She is soon attracting the attention of charming, headstrong Alexander and dares to dream of a future with him. But when Kate discovers herself pregnant and alone she must return to face the wrath of her step-father. Yet she refuses to give up hope that one day Alexander might return to claim her and their love child. Poignant and compelling, A Child Of Jarrow is the second in the Jarrow Trilogy.Return to Jarrow: Rebellious Catherine (Kitty) McMullen, resentful of her mother’s new husband and yearning to escape impoverished Jarrow, determines to educate herself. Soon streetwise Kitty is a ghost of the past and the well-spoken, well-read Catherine leaves the north-east to follow her dreams. But this plucky and romantic heroine encounters hardship and heartbreak on the road to self-discovery. Return To Jarrow concludes the bestselling trilogy.

Here Will I Remain (New Hope, #1)


Gretchen Craig - 2016
    "Take some water," one of them said. Catherine shoved the cup aside, afraid she'd be sick. The floor rocked. The air smelled of the sea. She clambered to her feet, staggering, and fought the panic threatening to overwhelm her. He'd put her aboard a ship. Unlike the other women aboard ship, Catherine de Villeroy had assumed Fate intended her to live an aristocratic life of ease and luxury. Instead she is transported to a fetid jungle to be tied to a secretive stranger who reeks of pigs. Catherine's shipmate Marie Claude has had few expectations in life, and even they have been disappointed. When her only options become prostitution or starvation, Fate decrees she will become the wife of a stranger in a strange land. Even if her new husband is a cruel man, how can life not be better in this rough paradise of alligators and wild orchids? Agnes expected a life spent in her father's bookstore, perhaps married to a gentle, scholarly man. Betrayed and ruined, Agnes retreats into herself and hardly notices when she is transported to Louisiana. Married to a stranger who desires only an amenable bed partner, Agnes strives to stay present in her new life and to explore what more Fate allows a ruined woman.

The Currans and The Quinns: The Currans, Book Three (The Manhattan Stories 7)


Donna Foley Mabry - 2017
     On the Manhattan, Kansas frontier of the 1870s, D’Arcy Curran, her adopted son, Dan, and her new husband, Royce Quinn, want nothing more than to raise a family and live in peace. Their plans are waylaid when the renegade Jayhawker who killed D’Arcy’s father returns from prison looking for revenge. Human treachery isn’t the only thing D’Arcy and Royce battle on their prairie home. As Dan grows from a boy to a man and more children arrive, they struggle against the forces of nature, animals that are not as tame as expected, and disease. When Dan meets Kathleen O’Malley, he’s only sixteen but is convinced she’s the girl for him. He sets out to win her heart, but he wonders, can the pampered daughter of a New York millionaire learn to love a rough-hewn cowboy?