Historical Fiction Well

Arabella Godwin is an Incomparable in London Society—elegant, wealthy, and meticulously trained. Yet, she has nothing to show for her efforts aside from her pretentious reputation and a collection of disappointed suitors. When her plan to secure a promising offer of marriage is temporarily delayed, she must bide her time in the company of an estranged childhood friend—the much-too-endearing, but regrettably untitled, Augustus Brundage.

This metaphysical novel incorporates mystery and problem-solving, but also adds a dash of spice. The prologue introduces an era just before Hitler has just been made the ruler of Germany, when Queen Mary of Teck christens her ship of the same name, and where a baby born in Louisiana faces an uncertain future without her mother. Fast forward to 2020, in the first chapter, some hours before a predicted apocalypse, when kindergartner Alana Miceli falls into a trance for the first time. In her vision, she's wrenched out of her familiar school setting and into the ship's Secret Spice Cafe.

Lord Theodore Rockley, Eleventh Duke of Pembridge, is endowed with everything a man could desire. Good looks. Charm. Intellect. A wealthy estate. And an enormous specimen of...masculine splendor. So formidable, in fact, that no woman has been able to conquer its summit. Scandalous adventuress Estela Bongorge wants only one thing from delicious Lord Rockley, and she's never yet been beaten in a challenge.

It is April 1939 and unaware that the German war machine is advancing towards the Channel Islands, seventeen-year-old Meg Colivet and her sister are enjoying a holiday in Oxford with their aunt. Here Meg meets charismatic German undergraduate Rayner Weiss and the couple fall passionately in love. But all too soon, Britain is at war with Germany, Guernsey has been occupied and Meg's family home requisitioned by the German army.

Zac discovers that certain vigilantes are controlled by corrupt federal officials. He aims to bring them in, but the price for justice may be terribly steep this time.

When Zac Cobb foils an attempt to kidnap the family of the oldest daughter of General Sydney Roberts, the President of the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad, he then must lead the threatened family to safety in Colorado despite the pursuit of a small army of hired gunmen. Once, there, Zac finds himself ensnared in the ongoing railroad war between the Chicago Pacific and the Denver and Rio Grande Railroads. But when Elizabeth Robert decides she's in love with Zac, his personal danger is compounded.

Fort Smith, Arkansas, in the 1910s was no longer a rough Western town. Electric lights, fancy hotels, new theaters, trolleys, and automobiles were changing how people traveled, did business, worshiped, and enjoyed themselves. Citizens viewed it as a modern city where life was "worth living". Until the night of March 23, 1912, when violence overtook Garrison Avenue—beginning with the shooting of a popular lawman, Andy Carr, and ending with the lynching of an innocent young Black man, Sanford Lewis.

G.A. Henty's classic work, The Young Carthaginian, tells the story of this struggle and the attempt of Hannibal to conquer Rome, despite the formidable geographical barriers and the corrupt leadership in Carthage, which time-and-again undermined all his efforts. Malchus, the young hero, a cousin of Hannibal, becomes involved in political intrigue and joins Hannibal in Spain, sharing for a time in his adventures. Later, he suffers imprisonment and slavery and then escapes to Gaul, where he finally settles. This story is set around 220 B.C.

Aminah lives an idyllic life until she is brutally separated from her home and forced on a journey that turns her from a daydreamer into a resilient woman. Wurche, the willful daughter of a chief, is desperate to play an important role in her father's court. These two women's lives converge as infighting among Wurche's people threatens the region, during the height of the slave trade at the end of the nineteenth century. The Hundred Wells of Salaga offers a remarkable view of slavery and how the scramble for Africa affected the lives of everyday people.

It’s 1914. The Great War grips the world - and from the Western Front a strange story emerges...a story of St. George and a brigade of angels descending from heaven to fight beside the beleaguered British troops. But can there be any truth to it?

Odin’s mind is lost in the mists of time, unable to make sense of cryptic visions. He remains certain of one thing alone: a final battle is coming. One that, should he lose it, all humanity will die. Ragnarok. To win this battle, Odin must harness his prescient knowledge, but the only way to do so is to drink from the lost Well of Mimir. The Well lies beyond the perilous stretches of Jotunheim.

In 1465 a simple pocketful of herbs could get you burned at the stake, but Luccia Alimenti, daughter of one of the legendary women doctors called Salernistas, travels Europe secretly distributing medical texts to midwives and herbalists. Despite dodging the Inquisition and battling the Plague with her beloved Irish godmother, Luccia finds love as well as heartbreak. Pushed to the edge, however, she must use her skill as an archer to rescue women being taken to the pyre.

A story of slaves. Based on fact, embellished in empathy. Main character Nicholas. Born on a plantation in 1767. Taken from his mother aged seven, by his Masters’ worker Barn, who heads up the boys for the Moloch cult. Nicholas is initiated. Seeds are sown for Nicholas to become a deranged psychotic. He has a penchant for white females.

May 1940. With Nazi forces sweeping across France, invasion seems imminent. The English Channel has never felt so narrow. In rural Sussex, war veteran John Cook has been tasked with preparing the resistance effort, should the worst happen. But even as the foreign threat looms, it's rumours of a missing child that are troubling Cook. A 12-year-old girl was evacuated from London and never seen again, and she's just the tip of the iceberg - countless evacuees haven't made it to their host families. As Cook investigates, he uncovers a dark conspiracy that reaches to the highest ranks of society.

When war broke out, 17-year-old Christie could have stayed down on the family farm in Norfolk, where she was wanted and needed. So why had she joined up? Come to that, why had Meg from Cheshire, and Sue, very much the big city girl from Liverpool, and Shanna, the life-toughened product of a broken home in Glasgow? Mixed reasons. Very mixed backgrounds. But no time to think now. Not with the sergeant shouting and the station air-raid siren beginning to wail....

Best selling author David Baldacci brings all his brilliant character-building skills to bear in Wish You Well, a literary coming-of-age tale set in Baldacci's native Virginia. Publishers Weekly calls it "his best novel yet...an utterly captivating drama" that offers "bone-deep emotional truth."

Also available unabridged.

Growing up with all of the modern comforts of Sydney in the 1950s and '60s, young Jocelyn joins the glamorous life of an Ansett hostess flying around Australia’s vast country. On a holiday with a friend on a cattle station in the Kimberley, Jocelyn is awestruck by the magic, color, and rugged remoteness of the Kimberley landscape. It is not only the Kimberley that captures Jocelyn’s attention; stockman Timothy Doran has ridden into her life.

In 1931 in Carbon Hill, a small Alabama coal-mining town, nine-year-old Tess Moore watches a woman shove the cover off the family well and toss in a baby without a word. For the Moore family, focused on helping anyone in need during the Great Depression, the apparent murder forces them to face the darker side of their community and question the motivations of family and friends.

Iris Caldwell and Nell Ryland were never meant to be friends. From two very different backgrounds, one the heir to the Caldwell estate, the other a humble vicar's daughter. Both have their secrets, both have their pasts, but they each find solace with one another and soon their futures become irrevocably intertwined. Until May Day 1912, a day that haunts Missensham. The day two girls disappeared. The day the girls were murdered. Now, many years later, old footage has emerged which shows that Iris Caldwell may not have died on that spring morning.

During the Thirty Year War (1618-1648), our fictitious Scottish hero and his real Scottish commanders join the triumphant Protestant champion, Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden, "the lion of the north." On the Catholic side, we meet the king's equally skilled foes, brutal General Tilly and vain, brilliant Prince Wallenstein. Filled with shifting battles, deadly plots, daring escapes, and loyalties put to the test, this is one of G.A. Henty's most popular books, and guaranteed to keep the entire family on the edge of their seats.