Historical Fiction Girl

Spring 1944. As the Allied forces push on towards longed-for victory, Lily Collins yearns to join up and do her bit. But where does her duty lie? Her best friend, Gladys, faces having her first baby alone, with her new husband back with the navy. And their friend, Beryl, is run off her feet building her bridal-hire business amid the bomb damage. So while wedding bells are ringing for others at Marlows Department Store, where Lily works, will they be heard for Lily herself - or does fate have another twist in store?

1958. When it-girl Vivienne George flees on the eve of her wedding, she seeks refuge in a scheduled lodge surrounded by the lush rainforest of tropical North Queensland. There, she is relieved to find that the small farming town couldn't be further from the high society she's left behind. Now, Vivienne spends her days swimming in the beautiful Lake Evelyn where she befriends the larger-than-life Josie. But all is not as it seems in this quiet, close-knit community.

1944: Fiona Denning has her entire future planned out. She’ll work in city hall, marry her fiancé when he returns from the war, and settle down in the Boston suburbs. But when her fiancé is reported missing after being shot down in Germany, Fiona’s long-held plans are shattered. Determined to learn her fiancé’s fate, Fiona leaves Boston to volunteer overseas as a Red Cross Clubmobile girl, recruiting her two best friends to come along. There’s the outspoken Viviana, who is more than happy to quit her secretarial job for a taste of adventure.

When Frances Bumgarten encounters a handsome stranger in her kitchen in the middle of the night, her first impulse is to wallop the scoundrel on the head with a bread paddle. And when Frankie discovers he is "The Fox", a disarmingly arrogant purveyor of gossip among England's aristocracy, she's tempted to take a second swing. Never mind that Reynard Boulton, nephew of the Viscount Tannehill, is returning her inebriated uncle safely home. This chiseled intruder has sparked an infuriating physical sensation unlike anything the feisty Nevada silver heiress has experienced.

After her narrow escape at the burning of Bedlam, Eliza Braxton's world has been turned upside down. The Illustratum's hold on the Riftborn is slipping, but so is Eliza's fragile hold on who she is. She is left facing a terrifying choice; continue her role as spy in the powerful Hallewell household, or join in open rebellion against the Illustratum. All her life, Eliza has been cautious, but now that her eyes are open, it is clear that the time has come to throw caution to the wind and embrace the power that has kept her repressed since childhood.

Sunderland, 1941. As the world war continues the shipyard girls face hardships at home, but work and friendship give them strength to carry on. Gloria is smitten with her newly arrived bundle of joy, but baby Hope’s first weeks are bittersweet. Hope's father is missing at sea, and with their future as a family so uncertain, Gloria must lean on her girls for support. Meanwhile, head welder Rosie has turned her back on love to keep her double life secret. But her persistent beau is determined to find out the truth, and if he does, it could ruin her.

It’s 1975 in Lobito, Angola, where Rosa, Leo, and their children are trapped in their home as militants battle for power. After 13 years Portugal lost the War of Independence. Now civil war rages on. The Carvalho family has given up hope for peace in their beloved homeland.

Mill girl Harriet Jane Hanson worked in the booming textile mills of Lowell, Massachusetts, in the 1830s.

As the promise of victory draws closer, this Christmas will surely be one to remember. It should be a magical time for Dorothy, who has just been proposed to by her sweetheart, Toby. But with each day that passes, Dorothy's feelings for someone else are growing stronger. Gloria is thrilled that her sweetheart, Jack, is finally home after more than two years away. But his past is continuing to catch up with them both. Meanwhile Helen must contend with the fall-out of a shocking family secret that has repercussions for all the Shipyard Girls.

Essence best-selling author Keith Lee Johnson’s fifth installment in his ongoing "Little Black Girl Lost" series picks up where the fourth book left off by continuing the diary of Josephine Baptiste. As more details about Josephine’s past come to light, the African heritage of modern-day Johnnie Wise is further explained.

When young English nurse Sibyl Lake is recruited as a spy to support the French resistance, she doesn’t realize the ultimate price she will end up paying. She arrives in Colmar, a French town surrounded by vineyards and swarming with German soldiers. Her fear is dampened by the joy of being reunited with her childhood sweetheart Jacques. Sibyl’s arrival has not gone unnoticed by Commander Wolfgang von Haagan. She realizes that letting him get closer is her best chance of learning enemy secrets. Yet despite her best intentions, Sibyl finds that betrayal does not come easy to her.

After Yung-lu's father dies of mercury poisoning, the young girl leaves for Chang'an. She is determined to take her father's place as a warrior. When Yung-lu arrives, she is met with two big surprises. The emperor is taking mercury, and the army is not what she had imagined. Will Yung-lu become a warrior? More importantly, will she save the emperor from mercury poisoning?

Berlin, 1950. When Hanni Winter shows her new husband the heartbreaking photos she captured during the war, his reaction is unexpected. His face white, Freddy can’t take his eyes off the photo of a young girl around four years old.

Hungary, 1943: As war encroaches on the country’s borders, willful young Eva César arrives in the idyllic town of Sopron to spend her last summer as a single woman on her aristocratic family’s estate. Longing for freedom from her domineering father, she counts the days to her upcoming nuptials to a kind and dedicated Red Cross doctor whom she greatly admires. But Eva’s life changes when she meets Aleandro, a charming and passionate Romani fiddler and artist.

Inspired by their fascination with all things Sherlock Holmes, best friends and flatmates Merinda and Jem launch a consulting detective business. The deaths of young Irish women lead Merinda and Jem deeper into the mire of the city's underbelly, where the high hopes of those dreaming to make a new life in Canada are met with prejudice and squalor. While searching for answers, donning disguises, and sneaking around where no proper ladies would ever go, they pair with Jasper Forth, a police constable, and Ray DeLuca, a reporter in whom Jem takes a more than professional interest.

South China coast, 1801. Sold as a child to a floating brothel, twenty-six-year-old Yang has finally bought her freedom, only to be kidnapped by a brutal pirate gang and forced to marry their leader. Dragged through stormy seas and lawless bandit havens, Yang must stay scrappy to survive. She embeds herself in the dark business of piracy, carving out her role against the resistance of powerful pirate leaders and Cheung Po Tsai, her husband's flamboyant male concubine.

Hamburg, 1938. Fifteen-year-old Asta is hurrying home from school with her twin brother, Jurgen. The mood in the city is tense - synagogues have been smashed with sledgehammers, and Asta is too frightened to laugh as she used to. But when she and Jurgen are stopped in the street by a friend, her world implodes further. Her Jewish parents have been dragged into the streets by German soldiers, and if she and Jurgen return to their house, they will be taken, too.

A beautifully controlled and powerful story of love and conscience, will and desire which begins when a mysterious young girl arrives to take up a post at the seedy H-tel du Lion d'Or in a small French town in the mid-1930s. The Girl at the Lion d'Or is the first book in Sebastian Faulks' French trilogy of novel. Birdsong and Charlotte Gray are also available from Random House Audio Books, read by Samuel West.

Manhattan, 1850. Born out of wedlock to a wealthy socialite and a nameless immigrant, Cora Lee can mingle with the rich just as easily as she can slip unnoticed into the slums and graveyards of the city. As the only female resurrectionist in New York, she’s carved out a niche procuring bodies afflicted with the strangest of anomalies. Anatomists will pay exorbitant sums for such specimens—dissecting and displaying them for the eager public. Cora’s specialty is not only profitable, it’s a means to keep a finger on the pulse of those searching for her. She’s the girl born with two hearts....

Amsterdam, 1943. Hanneke spends her days procuring and delivering sought-after black-market goods to paying customers, her nights hiding the true nature of her work from her concerned parents, and every waking moment mourning her boyfriend, who was killed on the front line when the Germans invaded. She likes to think of her illegal work as a small act of rebellion. But one day Hanneke gets a very unusual request. One of her regular customers asks her to find a girl.