Historical Fiction Girl

Though she wiles away hours immersed in the pages of romance novels, shy and anxious Felicity Goode has vowed never to become a bride. How can she share a life - not to mention a bed - with a man if she can’t bring herself to share a simple conversation without trembling and stuttering? Once news of her obscene inheritance circulates through the ton, she is barraged not only by a slew of suitors, but also several distressing threats against her life. What she needs is a bodyguard.

1944: Bologna, Italy, and the streets are crawling with German soldiers. Nineteen-year-old Leila Venturi is shocked into joining the Resistance after her beloved best friend Rebecca, the daughter of a prominent Jewish businessman, is ruthlessly deported to a concentration camp. 1981: Exchange student Rhiannon Hughes arrives in Bologna and meets Leila, her landlady. Soon, Rhiannon finds herself being drawn into a web of intrigue. Leila’s nephew seems to be interested in a far-right group, but how is the nefarious leader connected to Leila?

Liverpool, 1939. 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 5-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.

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.

Share the childhood adventures of the young girl from Savannah, Georgia, who would grow up to found the Girl Scouts. "Daisy" Gordon would rather climb a tree and ride a horse than learn to dance and sew. "There's not one thing I can't do that boys can," said Daisy, and the organization she created years later proved her words.

Rose and Myrtle Sylvester look up to their older sister, Peggy. She is the sensible, reliable one in the household of women headed by their grandmother, Grace Booth, and their mother, Mary Sylvester. When war is declared in 1939 they must face the hardships together and huge changes in their lives are inevitable. For Rose, there is the chance to fulfil her dream of becoming a clippie on Sheffield's trams like Peggy. But for Myrtle, the studious, clever one in the family, war may shatter her ambitions.

When we came to America, we brought anger and socialism and hunger. We also brought our demons. In Burning Girls and Other Stories, Veronica Schanoes crosses borders and genres with stories of fierce women at the margins of society burning their way toward the center. This debut collection introduces listeners to a fantasist in the vein of Karen Russell and Kelly Link, with a voice all her own.

On an April day in 1937, the sky opens and fire rains down upon the small Spanish town of Guernica. Seventeen-year-old Sibi and her family are caught up in the horror. Griff, an American military attaché, pulls Sibi from the wreckage, and it’s only the first time he saves her life in a span of hours. When Germany claims no involvement in the attack, insisting the Spanish Republic was responsible, Griff guides Sibi to lie to Nazi officials. If she or her sisters reveal that they saw planes bearing swastikas, the gestapo will silence them—by any means necessary.

Kit Kittredge has a nose for news—but she never dreamed that the news stories about the hard times of the Depression would become her own story. First Mother’s bothersome friends move in with the Kittredges. Then Dad loses his business, and Kit’s family could lose their house! Things look hopeless, but a clever idea might let her family keep their home. Can Kit help pull it off?

1940: When the island of Guernsey is invaded by the Nazis, two sisters are determined to rebel in any way they can. But when forced to take in a German soldier, they are shocked to find a familiar face on their doorstep. 2016: Two generations later, Lucy returns to Guernsey after the death of a distant cousin. As she prepares the old family house for sale, Lucy discovers a box of handwritten notes, one word standing out: resistance. Lucy’s search for the author will uncover the story of a forgotten sister who vanished from the island one night, never to be seen again.

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?

When her brother is kidnapped, Cassie Goodlight is determined to save him - even if it means learning the magic that nearly destroyed her mother. But how can she beat a shape-shifting sea goblin that taunts her at every turn? Cassie must find a way before a year is up, or her brother will be lost forever. And who, or what, is the handsome stranger who keeps turning up in her life?

Munich. September, 1938. When twenty-one-year-old Madeleine Hamilton is asked to smuggle two young pupils to Berlin, she nervously agrees. But, when they run into trouble on the train, it is Maddie’s turn to be saved by a chance encounter with a handsome man. Bletchley Park. September, 1939. A year later, Maddie is undertaking training in Morse code when a familiar face shows up unexpectedly. The attraction between them is as deep as it is instant, but Maddie knows one person holds the potential to harm her country and her heart – and it is her duty to protect both.

In 1950s Dublin, life is hard and jobs are like gold dust. Nineteen-year-old Nell Flynn is training to be a nurse and planning to marry her boyfriend, Liam Connor, when her mother dies, leaving her younger sisters destitute. To save them from the workhouse, Nell returns to the family home - a mere two rooms at the top of a condemned tenement. Nell finds work at a biscuit factory and, at first, they scrape through each week.

He’s the man with the Midas touch. Elijah Wolfe is just as ruthless and aggressive as his name suggests. Born in the harsh Nevada desert, he used his sharp wits and sharper fists to fight for survival, mining ore for terrible men. Until one day, he struck gold—literally. Despite his unimaginable wealth, his heart is empty of trust and his world is full of enemies. He’s come to England searching for a priceless treasure once stolen from him and is prepared to ruin anyone who gets in his way.

Down to her last dime and offered the chance of a job of a lifetime at the New York World, 23-year-old Elizabeth Cochrane agrees to get herself admitted to Blackwell's Island Lunatic Asylum and report on conditions from the inside. But what happened to her poor friend, Tilly Mayard? Was there more to her high praise of Dr. Frank Ingram than everyone knew? Thirty years later, Elizabeth, known as Nellie Bly, is no longer a celebrated trailblazer and the toast of Newspaper Row. Instead, she lives in a suite in the Hotel McAlpin, writes a column for the New York Journal.

When six-year-old Alice Hilton disappears on New Year's Eve 1979 from Yew Tree Manor, suspicion immediately falls on local boy Bobby James. Bobby claims he knows nothing about it, but his family has a grievance against Alice's landowner father. Tragically the child is never found. Decades later, Willow James, an architect working on a development at Yew Tree Manor, discovers that the land surrounding the house is holding a secret.

Miss Alice Wright should be content. After all, her knowledge of herbal lore helps so many in her village. Yet she longs for more. For Alice dreams of becoming a famed parfumier in London, celebrated for her fine scents . . . even as her family's past warns her of the perils of ambition. But when Alice collides—quite literally—with a charismatic gentleman in a field of lavender, her perfume-filled dream is suddenly within reach.

Londres, 1889. Enola Holmes, sœur du célèbre Sherlock, ayant échappé à la vigilance de ses frères, a ouvert sous une fausse identité un cabinet de " Spécialiste en recherches, toutes disparitions ". Son premier client : le Dr. Watson en personne !... Il cherche précisément à retrouver la piste d'Enola, qu'il ne reconnaît pas. Si Enola ne peut aider Watson, elle s'intéresse à un autre cas qu'il lui mentionne : la disparition de la jeune fille d'un baronet, Lady Cecily Alistair, une adolescente loin d'être bien comme il faut.

Now that Pauline Esmeralda Simone-Thierry von Cant has been rescued from Castle Cant by her half-sister and former maidservant, Lucy, the real adventure begins. For there are forces that want to tear Pauline and Lucy apart. In their land, a war rages over chewing gum.