Historical Fiction Well

The Time Machine is H.G. Wells' warning of what will befall mankind if capitalism continues to exploit workers for the benefits of the rich. As the Time Traveler theorizes, the working class has been pushed underground for so long that it has evolved into a distinct, nocturnal species. The upper class has remained above ground, and their advanced civilization, stocked with amenities, has turned them into weak, lazy, and dependent creatures.

Listen to the fictionalized account of Kajsa Svensson Runeberg, an emigrant wife who recounts, through her diary, how she and her family built up a farm on the unsettled Kansas prairie from 1868 to 1888. This historical fiction is based on the actual Swedish woman who homesteaded the author's childhood home and is the first of the four book Butter in the Well series.

Prim, plain, desperately virtuous Lady Mary Fairchild stares at the seductive gentleman and wonders - does he remember the night they met? Surely not. In the ten years since, she left behind her youthful impetuousness and transformed herself into a housekeeper - disguising her beauty beneath a servant's dour clothing.

London, 1899: When a mysterious packet is stolen from a diplomatic courier, Sherlock and Lucy are called upon to recover it before its ominous contents fall into the wrong hands. The Baker Street gang uncovers a dark, tangled web of intrigue and an evil plot that could very well bring all of England to its knees. When a notorious criminal is found dead in the bookstore basement, and the bookseller is arrested for the crime, the danger becomes very real, and very personal. Can Holmes and Lucy find the perilous packet, catch the murderous mastermind, and foil the fiendish plot?

A small garrison of Australian soldiers is left to defend a town and its people against the might of the Japanese forces. This is a story of those who were left behind and those who waited for them to return.

It's March, 1943. World War II rages across the globe, and 25-year-old Nora Lindstrom is about to take a huge leap of faith. One of the few women in the male-dominated field of physics, she travels to an undisclosed destination to undertake a vital, top-secret project that the government insists could help the Allies win the war. At 18, Mary Trask is ready to put high school and the boy who wants to marry her in her rear-view mirror. But what alternative could the future hold for the dyslexic daughter of a train conductor?

Lily Darling knew that marrying a con man was a risk, but her new husband swore those days were behind him. Then he disappears without a word, taking all of her money with him. So when her scoundrel of a husband mysteriously returns, years later, hoping to set things right, Lily guards her heart. But curse the man for being just as breathlessly handsome as the day she last saw him.

Lucy’s Chantress magic will make her the most powerful - and most hunted - girl in England. “Sing, and the darkness will find you.” This warning has haunted fifteen-year-old Lucy ever since she was eight and shipwrecked on a lonely island. Lucy’s guardian, Norrie, has lots of rules, but the most important is that Lucy must never sing. Not ever. Now, it is 1667, Lucy is fifteen, and on All Hallows’ Eve, Lucy hears a tantalizing melody on the wind. She can’t help but sing - and soon she is swept away into the darkness.

Lucy Bell burns with determination. Convinced an arrogant aristocrat is to blame for her expulsion from her beloved school, the penniless girl sets out to visit her best friend to help her undo the catastrophe. But when a storm on the road leaves her in a compromising position with a handsome gardener, she is swept away by his gruff kindness.

Liverpool 1942. Seventeen-year-old Frankie Franconi falls in love with charismatic British officer Nick Harper as quickly and certainly as the bomb that falls on their shelter. He is impressed by her good looks and intelligence, and the fact that, like him, she speaks fluent Italian. When she insists on staying to help rescue others who have been trapped he realises that she has courage, too. He gives her a business card with a Baker Street address, and suggests she put her skills to good use.

The rumors fly throughout the Scottish countryside about Lady Alanna, the beautiful and mysterious displaced mistress of Fionnaway Manor. And now she has emerged from hiding, only to find her beloved estate besieged by greedy relatives...and coveted by a darkly handsome Englishman. Ian Fairchild knows that Fionnaway belongs to him alone. For years he yearned for the cherished place where he passed his childhood. He can secure his rights to the manor only through marriage with the enigmatic Alanna, but the exquisite hellion has warned him at knifepoint to leave her house.

G.A. Henty offers the thrilling story of Francis Hammond, the son of an English merchant working in Venice. Francis must overcome threats to the lives and freedom of his Venetian friends and himself, and keep his wits and sword arm strong during sea battles against pirates and opposing navy fleets. With the balance of European power and vast riches at stake, this is a story of adventure and intrigue, dastardly villains and profound tests of loyalty, honor, courage, and intelligence set among the winding canals of Venice and on the surging waves of the Mediterranean Sea. Set in 1380 A.D.

Edmund Winters' life has been laid out for him by his ambitious father: he had to do whatever it takes to get away from his trade-bound roots and prove himself every inch a gentleman. If that requires marrying the haughty daughter of a local grandee, a loveless match is a small price to pay for acceptance by the ton. His youthful rebellion long forgotten, he is now planning to carry his late father's plans out. However, these are thrown into disarray when the living, breathing, and captivatingly beautiful reminder of that youthful rebellion arrives in Morwood Hall.

After her impoverished family sends her to live with her wealthy aunt and uncle at opulent Mansfield Park, Fanny Price finds her life forever changed by the aristocratic Bertrams and the city-dwelling Crawford siblings. But is it for the better? While the others seem content to abandon what’s right to further their own interests, Fanny decides to hold true to her heart - a choice that will make or break her future.

In New York Times best-selling author Cathy Maxwell's new novella, beautiful Jennifer Tarleton has no lack of noble suitors, but the only man who captures her attention is the one her father will never let her marry: Fyclan Morris. He's a brash adventurer, witty, courageous...and Irish! Even worse, her father blames her for their reversal of fortune. And it's a fortune - or, rather, his grandmother the fortune-teller - who foretold that Fyclan would meet "the one", a love prophesied in the stars.

One year ago, Sergeant Rosemary Booker violently ended crime lord Erkan Waldemar’s reign of terror - and in doing so, unwittingly awakened in his wife, Isabel, the sleeping soul of the legendary Blood Countess Erzsébet Báthory. Hellbent on avenging her husband’s death, Báthory sets out to gather to her side history’s most notorious criminals and killers - an army of the damned to carry out her vendetta against Rosemary. The sins of Rosemary’s past are returning with a vengeance.

"The Well-Beloved" is a beautifully crafted novel by Thomas Hardy, exploring the complexities of love and desire. Set in the scenic Isle of Slingers, it tells the story of a sculptor, Jocelyn Pierston, and his obsessive search for his perfect muse, who he calls his "well-beloved". As he searches for this elusive figure, he faces a series of trials and tribulations, each leading him closer to his ultimate desire. This poignant and lyrical tale is a must-read for any lover of classic literature.

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.

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.

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.