Book picks similar to
Gin Cat Jive by Al Hess
z-read-romance-science-fiction
4-novella
authors-usa
historical-fiction
Karen Memory
Elizabeth Bear - 2015
See, my name is Karen Memery, like memory only spelt with an e, and I'm one of the girls what works in the Hôtel Mon Cherie on Amity Street. Hôtel has a little hat over the o like that. It's French, so Beatrice tells me."Set in the late 19th century—when the city we now call Seattle Underground was the whole town (and still on the surface), when airships plied the trade routes, would-be gold miners were heading to the gold fields of Alaska, and steam-powered mechanicals stalked the waterfront, Karen is a young woman on her own, is making the best of her orphaned state by working in Madame Damnable's high-quality bordello. Through Karen's eyes we get to know the other girls in the house—a resourceful group—and the poor and the powerful of the town. Trouble erupts one night when a badly injured girl arrives at their door, begging sanctuary, followed by the man who holds her indenture, and who has a machine that can take over anyone's mind and control their actions. And as if that wasn't bad enough, the next night brings a body dumped in their rubbish heap—a streetwalker who has been brutally murdered.Bear brings alive this Jack-the-Ripper yarn of the old west with a light touch in Karen's own memorable voice, and a mesmerizing evocation of classic steam-powered science.
Creighton Manor
Karen Michelle Nutt - 2009
So how did she end up in 1870 and in a man's room aboard the IdaBelle, traveling down the Mississippi?Zachary Creighton, a gambler with one goal: to win back Creighton Manor. Marriage is not part of the plan, but since he is found with Gillian in his room, reputations are at stake, his included.To keep peace with his reluctant bride, he makes a bargain with her. He needs a tutor for his nephew Tyler, and she needs a roof over her head until they can annul their sham of a marriage. However, Zachary finds himself falling for Gillian's oddly charming ways despite the fact the woman claims to be from the future.The gamble is trust, but will the stakes prove too high for Zachery to risk it all and win Gillian's heart?
Queen of Egypt
Kylie Quillinan - 2019
She just doesn't know why yet.Ankhesenamun needs to produce an heir to the throne -- quickly. Pharaoh Tutankhamun is young and weak. His chief advisors are planning his quiet removal and Ankhesenamun hopes to hold them off by producing an heir who can become a stronger Pharaoh.When Pharaoh's advisors move the court from the desert city of Akhetaten back to ancient Memphis, Ankhesenamun is thrown into a new world of danger, secrets, and old gods. Her dreams warn her of a blond-haired man who she will fall desperately in love with -- and who will die by her own hand.When the man from her dreams suddenly enters her life, she realises just how hard it's going to be to stay away from him. Forgetting the warnings, she throws herself into an affair with him. After all, she's supposed to be producing an heir. As his secrets start to be revealed, she searches for a way to save him. But saving his life might lead him to a fate worse than death.Queen of Egypt is the first book in a new series set in 18th Dynasty Egypt in a world where the old gods have been worshipped for thousands of years and magic is a matter of belief. For readers of dark fantasy who enjoy an historical setting.
A Shape on the Air
Julia Ibbotson - 2021
The other is forced to marry the man she hates as the 'dark ages' unfold.How can Dr Viv DuLac, medievalist and academic, unlock the secrets of the past? Traumatised by betrayal, she slips into 499 AD and into the body of Lady Vivianne, who is also battling treachery. Viv must uncover the mystery of the key that she unwittingly brings back with her to the present day, as echoes of the past resonate through time. But little does Viv realise just how much both their lives across the centuries will become so intertwined. And in the end, how can they help each other across the ages without changing the course of history?
The Immortal Chronicles, Volumes 1 - 5
Gene Doucette - 2018
All of the stories are interesting, many involve alcohol, and five are collected for the first time in The Immortal Chronicles! The books in this collection take Adam from the Barbary Coast of the 1500's, to England at the turn of the 19th century, Vienna of 1815, Chicago in the 1930's, and 1950's New York. He spends time with pirates and assassins, a succubus, a shape-shifting monster, a madman who can see the future, and Santa Claus. The Immortal Chronicles is an ongoing series of novellas from Adam, the star narrator of the Immortal Novel trilogy (IMMORTAL, HELLENIC IMMORTAL and IMMORTAL AT THE EDGE OF THE WORLD.) Collected here for the first time: IMMORTAL AT SEA, HARD-BOILED IMMORTAL, IMMORTAL AND THE MADMAN, YULETIDE IMMORTAL and REGENCY IMMORTAL. Catch up with Adam now!
Grey Gardens
Doug Wright - 2007
Grey Gardens is based on the 1975 Albert and David Maysles film about Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis's eccentric aunt and cousin. The touching and sometimes heart-wrenching musical adaptation explores the dysfunctional relationship between former socialite Edith Bouvier Beale and her daughter, Little Edie, as they languish in a derelict East Hampton manor, Grey Gardens. Propelled by Christine Ebersole's tour-de-force performance, the gorgeous score, and intricate lyrics, the Broadway musical has garnered much critical praise. "An experience no passionate theatergoer should miss." Ben Brantley, The New York Times
Dirk Quigby's Guide to the Afterlife: All You Need to Know to Choose the Right Heaven
E.E. King - 2010
Instead of writing a boffo best seller, Dirk unites all religions in a common goal: Kill Dirk. E. E. King Shopping around for where to spend eternity can prove quite overwhelming. Dirk Quigby's Guide to the Afterlife is a humorous analysis of the world's religions with a focus on the afterlife. Tying the analysis together with a quirky and offbeat novel, the laughs roll together well with plenty of substance. Dirk Quigby's Guide to the Afterlife is excellently composed and a read that is fun and very hard to set down. "This is the most delightful book this reviewer has read in a while.... King does a masterful job at mixing short vignettes of Dirk's experience with the Devil, his travels to the many heavens, his newly discovered lover, and the factual descriptions of the final paradise of each faith. The Guide to the Afterlife is a mixture of fact and fiction, faith and mysticism at its best." The Midwest Review of Books
Gray Tide in the East: An Alternate History of the First World War
Andrew J. Heller - 2013
Really. The Kaiser did order the invasion of Belgium halted, and yet it went ahead, bringing Great Britain and the rest of the British Empire into the war.This book explores what would have happened if the Kaiser’s decision had not been reversed and his troops had not crossed the Belgian border. It is fiction, of course, but the characters are real and, most of them, precisely where they were and where they would have been fulfilling their historical roles at that time.The story is vivid, realistic and exciting, following the action, the intrigue, the political upheavals as well as political apathy and inertia, meticulously researched and accurate in military and historical detail.
Meet Me At 10: A bittersweet story about love crossing boundaries.
Vicky Jones - 2017
Arriving in Alabama, Shona convinces the kind Jeffrey Ellis, wealthy co-owner of Ellis and Bruce Machinery, to give her a job and heads to the site with hopes of becoming invisible while she saves up the money to continue her journey to safety. There, she strikes up a bond with Cuban, who is on a similar path to her, but is racially abused on a daily basis by the workforce and by Jeffrey Ellis’s brutal business partner, Larry Bruce. Shona also meets Elbie, the elderly tool room supervisor, who has been covertly keeping a diary of all the horrific acts that have been carried out over the last five years by Bruce and his associates.As Elbie helps Shona and Cuban settle into their jobs, they are introduced to Chloe Bruce, Larry’s daughter, resulting in their complex worlds becoming inextricably linked, with devastating consequences for all those involved.Will Elbie’s diary end up in the wrong hands? Will Cuban achieve his dream of making it to New York? Will Shona’s past finally catch up with her?A compelling and heart-breaking story of secrets too dangerous to confess to, at a time of cruel, unforgiving and relentless intolerance to difference.“A heart-wrenching and gripping read.”“A moving yet disturbing story…you won’t put this book down!”
Betwixt
Evie Gaughan - 2015
On a night when the veil between worlds is at its thinnest, all that is real and unreal meet in a nowhere place, at a nowhere time.'
Judge Dredd: The Pit
John Wagner - 2008
When Judge Dredd is sent to take over as chief of Sector 01 in the isolated North-West Hab Zone, it's an unwelcome posting for him and his new charges.
Blood Brothers
Steven Barnes - 1996
But his life was shattered one Thanksgiving night when strangers invaded his home and killed his son, his daughter, and his wife.Derek Waites was once an outlaw computer hacker, the infamous Captain Africa. Now he designs computer games. Someone has just tried to kidnap his son, while his daughter cried a strange warning and burst into flames.The two men can have nothing in common-Tucker is a white man from the suburbs, Waites is a black street-hustler trying to go straight. But they are brothers in the same cause. If Tucker and Waites can resolve their differences long enough to work together, they can defeat an ancient evil. Between them they have the skills and the knowledge to break an ancient cycle of supernatural predation, and save the lives of a generation of children.
The God Portal
Tim Ferguson - 2012
Warren Wagner, is missing from his Nevada home. The mystery leads to the desert laboratory of corporate giant Forsythe-Hammond. There Jim discovers the truth behind Warren’s disappearance and its connection to the company’s deepest secrets, a technology where faith and science collide. It’s the beginning of a thrilling and dangerous adventure to rescue his brother.Jim is joined by the affable Lyle Bumgardner, particle physicist and atheist at heart; and by Dr. Lawrence Macklin, devout Christian and Biblical scholar. Their odyssey becomes destiny, a struggle for survival and a quest for truth, leading them to a place where Christian faith and secular atheism alike will be put to the test. Their journey puts them on the trail of the historical Jesus…
West
Lizzy Ford - 2014
The next morning, she wakes up in Indian Territory in the 1840s, where she’s given a mission to complete before she can return to her time: to reset history by finding and stopping the man responsible for a horrific massacre.It seems easy enough, until she discovers that three other women have been sent back to the same time period. When Josie uncovers what happened to them, she realizes the chances of her getting out of the past alive are not good.To survive, she’ll have to trust the very man she’s there to stop, someone who has every reason to distrust her and only one reason to help her - to prove he’s not the monster she claims he’ll become.STANDALONE novel in the History Interrupted series.
In an Instant
Ariadne Wayne - 2016
Two years after the events of In a Lifetime, Ella finds her settled life disrupted by a surprise visitor. Three friends try to work out how to put the past behind them for the sake of a little boy.