Historical Fiction Books

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Book SynopsisONE OF PEOPLE MAGAZINE'S BEST BOOKS OF SUMMER!"Unstoppable what-happens-next momentum."—Michael Connelly, #1 New York Times bestselling author"A deliciously tense read."—Ruth Ware, #1 New York Times bestselling authorFrom award-winning crime writer and celebrated artist Jonathan Santlofer comes an enthralling tale about the 1911 theft of the Mona Lisa from the Louvre, the forgeries that appeared in its wake, and the present-day underbelly of the art world.August, 1911: The Mona Lisa is stolen by Vincent Peruggia. Exactly what happens in the two years before its recovery is a mystery. Many replicas of the Mona Lisa exist, and more than one historian has wondered if the painting now returned to the Louvre is a fake, switched in 1911.Present day: Art professor Luke Perrone digs for the truth behind his most famous ancestor: Peruggia. His search attracts an Interpol detective with something to prove and an unfamiliar but curiously helpful woman. Soon, Luke tumbles deep into the world of art and forgery, a land of obsession and danger.The Last Mona Lisa is a suspenseful and seductive tale, perfect for fans of the Netflix documentaries This Is A Robbery and Made You Look and readers obsessed with the world of art heists and forgeries.Trade Review"Oh, what a web Jonathan Santlofer weaves in this un-put-downable book! The Last Mona Lisa brings together past and present, seasons it with intriguing characters, and brushes it with plot twists that you don't see coming to create an unstoppable what-happens-next momentum. Santlofer has outdone himself this time." - Michael Connelly, #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Harry Bosch and Mickey Haller series"A deliciously tense read that mixes a present day hunt for the truth with a real-life historical heist to page-turning effect!" - Ruth Ware, #1 NYT best selling author of One By One"It's hard to imagine another writer who could pull off a feat like The Last Mona Lisa, with its combination of thrills, history, and insider knowledge of the art world. A singular achievement by a terrific writer. Really stunning." - Laura Lippman, New York Times best selling author"Astonishingly, Jonathan Santlofer is a brilliant writer of fiction and nonfiction—and a superb visual artist as well. All his skills come together in The Last Mona Lisa, and the result is wholly satisfying." - Lawrence Block, bestselling author of more than 50 novels, including Eight Million Ways to Die and A Walk Among the Tombstones"From its seductive first pages, The Last Mona Lisa carries us along on an utterly irresistible time-jumping, continent-leaping tale of intrigue and family secrets, obsession and the ineffable power of art itself. I could not put it down." - Megan Abbott, bestselling and award-winning author of Give Me Your Hand and The Turnout"A fascinating art-mystery novel....filled with art history information, particularly about Leonardo, and set in Florence." - Joyce Carol Oates in Forward"With romance, mystery, and near-death experiences, this book checks all the boxes for a scintillating summer read." - Artnet"A sleek and cunning book." - The Brooklyn Rail"Details of Florence, Paris, and New York City enhance the twisty plot, as does the insider view of the underground world of art collectors driven by deception, ego, and greed." - Publishers Weekly, STARRED review"Suspenseful, lush with Florence's glorious art and architecture, sexy, and emotionally complex, Santlofer's multifaceted tale of how a passion for art can turn criminal contrasts the genuine with the fake and asks if beauty and love can truly be transcendent." - Booklist, STARRED review"Santlofer crafts a layered and absorbing art mystery, complete with exciting action scenes and beautiful descriptions of the city of Florence and its art as well as Paris and Nice....a must for fans of Dan Brown." - Kirkus Reviews"This is a terrific read - compelling, intelligent, fascinating and deeply satisfying. It was a book I did not want to end." - Peter James, #1 bestselling crime thriller author"Fabulous—instantly immersive, intriguing and suspenseful, and expert and authentic too ... only a writer who is also an artist—or an artist who is also a writer—could have pulled it off. This feels like the thriller Santlofer was born to write." - Lee Child, #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Jack Reacher series"A riveting novel, weaving the real-life 1911 theft of Leonardo's masterpiece into a nail-biting contemporary drama where billionaire collectors, art historians, book collectors and Interpol engage in so many double and triple crosses you're left wondering until the last page whom to trust and whom to fear. The Last Mona Lisa is like a master class in how to create a deep understanding of art history while making a seamless thriller." - Sara Paretsky, New York Times bestselling author of the V.I, Warshawski series"The Last Mona Lisa is a pacy, seductive international thriller of the first order. With its seamless blend of action, intriguing maze of family secrets, and the gripping, emotional journal entries of a long-dead art thief, this is a transporting novel, made all the more captivating because of the true story at its heart. Don't miss it!" - Lisa Unger, New York Times bestselling author of CONFESSIONS ON THE 7:45

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Book Synopsis'As with all the best novelists, Husband's talent seems to draw its energy from the experience of writing from perspectives far removed from her own as she inhabits other genders, other sexualities, other eras' Patrick Gale Lieutenant Paul Harris returns from the trenches to his father's home after suffering from shell shock. Paul's lover Adam awaits, but so too does Margot, the pregnant fiancée of his dead brother, whom Paul feels an obligation to care for. Forced to hide his true desires, Paul must decide where his loyalty and his heart lie.Set in the aftermath of World War I, Marion Husband's moving novel illuminates the difficulties faced in the post-war period by former soldiers, and explores early twentieth-century taboos, love and betrayal. Through vivid flashbacks, effortless prose and realistic dialect, 'the love that dare not speak its name' is explored with true feeling and passion. Exploring the prejudice of only a few generations ago, The Boy I Love is a classic love story.Just some of the amazing GOODREADS REVIEWS:'A beautiful, melancholy book which feels terribly true to its time and to the characters.''A wonderful book. One of those that I just couldn't put down.''I absolutely loved this book. Found it utterly unputdownable.'

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Book SynopsisAn unexpected inheritance offers the chance for a fresh start...1957. An unexpected inheritance from her late aunt gives Louisa Harding the opportunity to move to Lexleigh and set up her own accountancy business. When she ends up delivering her new neighbour Bella's baby during a storm, a strong bond is formed between the two women.However, Louisa cannot help her growing attraction towards Bella's husband, Leo. Determined to overcome her feelings for Leo for the sake of her friendship with Bella, Louisa nevertheless finds it increasingly difficult to withstand temptation...A story of love and deception, secrets and guilt, and of the amazing power of female friendship in the face of adversity.

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Book SynopsisA Christopher Marlowe Cobb Thriller It is 1915 and Germany has allied itself with the Ottoman empire, persuading the caliphs of Turkey to declare a jihad on the British empire, as President Woodrow Wilson hesitates to enter the fray. War correspondent Christopher Marlowe Cobb has been tasked to follow Brauer, a German intellectual and possible secret service agent suspected of holding information vital to the war effort. As they travel on the Lusitania's fateful voyage, Cobb becomes smitten with famed actress Selene Bourgani. Cobb soon realizes that this simple actress is anything but, as she harbours secrets that could add fuel to the already raging conflict. Surviving the night of the infamous German U-Boat attack, Cobb follows Selene and Brauer into the darkest alleyways of London and on to the powder keg that is Istanbul. He must use all the cunning he possesses to uncover Selene's true motives, only to realize her hidden agenda could bring down some of the world's most powerful leaders.Trade Reviewa rollicking thriller with a keen eye for period detail -- Rosemary Goring * Herald Scotland *A thrilling, old-fashioned tale of intrigue and adventure that grabs you immediately with a historical timebomb -- Andre * Crime Fiction Lover *"well-researched and well-written historical fiction" -- Chris Roberts * Crime Review UK *Zestful, thrilling... a ripping good yarn * Wall Street Journal *An outstanding work of historical fiction * Huntington News *

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Book SynopsisA Christopher Marlowe Cobb Thriller It is 1915, and "Kit" Cobb is working undercover in a castle on the Kent coast owned by a suspected British government mole, Sir Albert Stockman. Kit is working with his mother, the beautiful and mercurial spy, Isabel Cobb, who also happens to be a world-famous stage actress. Isabel's offstage role is to keep tabs on Stockman, while Kit tries to figure out his agenda. Following his mother and her escort from the relative safety of Britain into the lion's den of Berlin, Kit must remain in character, even under the very nose of the Kaiser.Trade Reviewhe's [Butler] now fully into his stride -- Philip Burrell * Nudge *The plot has plenty of unexpected turns, and the characters of the main actors are explored in sufficient depth to make them interesting. Coupled with a well-developed historical setting, this is a book with plenty to enjoy -- Chris Roberts * Crime Review UK *Mr. Butler does a terrific job of depicting both the journalist's facility for teasing information from his subjects and the spy's incessant fear of being discovered. There's something almost magical about the way the author re-creates this 1915 milieu -- Tom Nolan * The Wall Street Journal *This is a tale of betrayal, treason, acting, pretending to be someone you're not -- Carole Colbert * Carole's Book Corner *The reader is totally caught up in Cobb's mission and its eventual denouement -- Jennifer Palmer * Promoting Crime Fictiton *

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Book Synopsis Gilmore Girls vibes…with added spice! In escaping his past can he find his future? Leontyne Dennison is off men! She is perfectly happy focusing on running her family’s small town inn and volunteering for Rose Bend’s annual spring festival. Until a blast from her past sweeps into town… A retired professional football player, Owen came to Rose Bend to hide after a car accident ended his career. But when he bumps into Leo, the woman he has never forgotten, things start to look up. When Owen’s low profile in town is threatened, Leo comes to his aid and, soon, what started as a temporary hideaway looks like it could become so much more permanent for Owen… Fall in love with Rose BendSlow Dance at Rose BendThe Road to Rose BendA Kiss to RememberChristmas in Rose BendThe Love ListWith Love from Rose BendTrade Review Readers love the Rose Bend series ‘I can’t adequately convey how much I loved this book.'Goodreads review 5 Stars ‘A lovely Christmas read.’NetGalley Reviewer 4 Stars ‘An adorable, quick and easy read that i really enjoyed. a cute plot, endearing characters and a great setting, I loved it’NetGalley Reviewer 4 Stars

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Book Synopsis‘Jackson brings the quaint Southern town to life in a memorable holiday romance complete with affable characters.’ Publishers Weekly on One Christmas Wish Can a sprinkle of magic heal a broken heart? Vaughn Miller’s Wall Street career was abruptly ended by a wrongful conviction and two years in prison. Since his release, he’s returned to his hometown, and when his name is finally cleared, feels he can move on. After escaping a disastrous marriage, Sierra Crane and her six-year-old goddaughter have returned to the only place that feels like home. This time Sierra is determined to make it on her own. Complication is the last thing she needs, especially not the gorgeous but aloof Vaughn Miller. Vaughn knows Sierra is the one for him, but she needs more convincing to risk her heart again. With Christmas approaching, it will be up to Sierra to decide if her one Christmas wish – true happiness – will come true. Readers LOVE One Christmas Wish ‘This is the most the beautiful book of this series thus far. In the fifth instalment, the plot thickens on Christmas inside the streets of Dreamy Catalina Cove.’ ‘I love all of the books I have read from Brenda so far and it's been quite a few, her stories get better and better.’ ‘This book was just about everything I could imagine. I love all her books. They make me cry and laugh.’ ‘This is a fabulous read… Don’t miss this one it’s a stay up all night page turner!!!’

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Book SynopsisByron and the Beauty is loosely based on Byron's biography and takes place during two weeks of October 1809, during his now famous sojourn in the Balkans. Besides being a great love story, this is also a novel about East and West, about Europe and the Balkans, about travel and friendship and cruelty. Bazdulj marvellously combines facts with imagination, history and romance, resulting in an exceptionally beautiful novel. The author's style has something of the subtle lyricism and chronicle-like tranquillity of his countryman Ivo Andric, but also a touch of the oriental baroque richness associated with Orhan Pamuk, making this a book which is both erudite and innovative, with a daring sense of humour.

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Book SynopsisKing David spies on beautiful Bathsheba as she bathes and his desire drives him to acts of such callousness that even his god turns away from him. Only through searching penitence and the psalms that express this can he find him way back into the light. A world and centuries away, King Henry VIII looks up at his prized tapestries of David and Bathsheba and sees in David a mighty predecessor, defender of the faith. Henry’s courtier-poet, Sir Thomas Wyatt, sees instead two kings who take what they want, careless of the lives they destroy in the process — David’s lust led him to murder, while Henry is ruthless in his pursuit of Ann Boleyn and the son she has promised him … more ruthless still when she fails to provide an heir. Wyatt too, once dangerously close to Ann himself, is caught in the slipstream of wilful power. David’s psalms of penitence reach across the years to touch and speak to him directly. Shackled in a cell in the Tower of London, not expecting to get out alive, he thinks of his beloved falcon Lukkes, and wishes he too could fly. Lux weaves past and present into a story of love and its reach, fidelity and faith, power and poetry, for readers of Marilynne Robinson, Anne Carson, and Hilary Mantel.Trade Review‘This book is a spell. Cook’s retelling of these old stories is masterful, immersive, lyrical, and psychologically profound. With the deftest of touches, she illuminates these well-known figures, David, Bathsheba, Thomas Wyatt, and makes them shine anew.’ -- Madeline Miller, author of Circe‘Hugely ambitious and very beautiful.’ * BBC Radio 4’s, Saturday Review *‘Cook writes with impressive empathy … There is both a painterly eye and a physicality about her prose.’ -- Diana Hendry * The Spectator *‘Cook’s account of an Old Testament repentance is a full-throated one.’ -- Elizabeth Buchan * Daily Mail *‘Intelligence, originality, and poetic grace … Ms. Cook reflects on the momentous change by tenderly humanising all of these larger-than-life characters. Her portrayal of Bathsheba is both more compassionate and more convincing than the usual caricature of a power-hungry seductress. Her David, too, is remarkably approachable … Again and again in this discerning novel, sin and suffering culminate in a majestic work of humility and praise.’ -- Sam Sacks * The Wall Street Journal *‘Lux emerges as an unusual and accomplished page turner. It’s ambitious, incredibly detailed … the clarity and beauty of the prose is a joy. An overwhelming sense of destiny is palpable and defining.’ -- Kevin O’Sullivan * Irish Examiner *‘Elizabeth Cook’s visual imagination is as sharp and gorgeous as any Pre-Raphaelite painter’s. Her psychological penetration is deep and compassionate. They are both unfailing as she weaves together the stories of King David and Bathsheba and of Thomas Wyatt and Ann Boleyn. If this is, in a way, a tour de force, it doesn’t read like that: the connections are organic and realistic, gripping the reader and integral to the rapid movement of the narrative.’ -- John Drury, author of Music at Midnight‘Almost two decades in the making, Lux is well worth the wait. Like its predecessor Achilles, it’s an ambitious and compelling novel, equally vivid in its conjuring of myth and history, particularly striking in its portrayal of religious belief under pressure, the nature of holiness and the sacred. It’s a remarkable book.’ -- Michael Symmons Roberts, author of Drysalter‘Cook’s multilayered prose is rich, luminous, and pays particular attention to the perspectives of women, all but ignored in the original David story.’ -- Alastair Mabbott * The Herald *‘Cook’s quietly masterful prose builds a huge world, unsentimental, numinous and deeply moving. Longing, appetite, love, grief, regret, and their consequences: Lux, Wyatt's falcon, is named for the luxury of courts and concupiscence but also the light of the desert, of song, of David’s Yahweh. This novel is a joy to read.’ -- Susan Hitch‘An ambitious attempt to yoke together two narratives separated in time but not in their timeless resonances.’ -- Howard Cooper * Jewish Chronicle *‘A well-told thinker of a read.’ -- Jon Wise * Weekend Sport *‘In her second novel, Elizabeth Cook has followed her own passions … to good effect. Her command of language, and of her material, makes this an extremely satisfying read.’ * Anne Goodwin *‘Lux is a remarkable interweaving of one ancient king’s story and his place as redeemer within and beyond Judaism.’ -- Rabbi Dr Aviva Kipen * J-Wire *‘Cook writes beautiful and complicated prose, befitting of the subjects she chooses … Informed by the Judeo-Christian spiritual tradition without being subject to it, here is the rare book that functions on multiple levels, inspiring new ideas and insights with each re-reading … The most powerful chapters of Lux are those spent with women … Cook plucks these hollowed-out characters from Samuel and imbues them with souls. She circles the Bible story of David and Bathsheba, plumbs its depths and breathes life into it, creating the type of mannered, academic leaning novel that the English seem to adore … But press down firmly on the cover and the words, regardless of how beautiful they are, will flow out its sides like water from a sponge.’ -- Tara Cheesman * On the Seawall *

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Book SynopsisOn the New York Times bestseller list for over 20 weeks * A New York Times Notable Book * A National Book Award Finalist * Named a Best Book of the Year by Fresh Air, Time, Entertainment Weekly, Associated Press, and many more “If you’re looking for a superb novel, look no further.” —The Washington Post From the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of All the Light We Cannot See, comes the instant New York Times bestseller that is a “wildly inventive, a humane and uplifting book for adults that’s infused with the magic of childhood reading experiences” (The New York Times Book Review).Among the most celebrated and beloved novels of recent times, Cloud Cuckoo Land is a triumph of imagination and compassion, a soaring story about children on the cusp of adulthood in worlds in peril, who find resilience, hope, and a book. In the 15th century, an orphan named Anna lives inside the formidable walls of Constantinople. She learns to read, and in this ancient city, famous for its libraries, she finds what might be the last copy of a centuries-old book, the story of Aethon, who longs to be turned into a bird so that he can fly to a utopian paradise in the sky. Outside the walls is Omeir, a village boy, conscripted with his beloved oxen into the army that will lay siege to the city. His path and Anna’s will cross. In the present day, in a library in Idaho, octogenarian Zeno rehearses children in a play adaptation of Aethon’s story, preserved against all odds through centuries. Tucked among the library shelves is a bomb, planted by a troubled, idealistic teenager, Seymour. This is another siege. And in a not-so-distant future, on the interstellar ship Argos, Konstance is alone in a vault, copying on scraps of sacking the story of Aethon, told to her by her father. Anna, Omeir, Seymour, Zeno, and Konstance are dreamers and outsiders whose lives are gloriously intertwined. Doerr’s dazzling imagination transports us to worlds so dramatic and immersive that we forget, for a time, our own.

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Book SynopsisA magnificent generational saga that charts a family’s rise and fall, its secrets and inherited crimes, from one of Canada’s most acclaimed novelistsLonglisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize • “A rugged, riveting novel . . . This superb family saga will satisfy fans of Richard Powers’s The Overstory.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)“There are plenty of visionary moments laced into [Christie’s] shape-shifting narrative. . . . Greenwood penetrates to the core of things.”—The New York Times Book Review It’s 2038 and Jacinda (Jake) Greenwood is a storyteller and a liar, an overqualified tour guide babysitting ultra-rich vacationers in one of the world’s last remaining forests. It’s 2008 and Liam Greenwood is a carpenter, sprawled on his back after a workplace fall, calling out from the concrete floor of an empty mansion. It’s 1974 and Willow Greenwood is out of jail, free after being locked up for one of her endless series of environmental protests: attempts at atonement for the sins of her father’s once vast and violent timber empire. It’s 1934 and Everett Greenwood is alone, as usual, in his maple-syrup camp squat, when he hears the cries of an abandoned infant and gets tangled up in the web of a crime, secrets, and betrayal that will cling to his family for decades. And throughout, there are trees: a steady, silent pulse thrumming beneath Christie’s effortless sentences, working as a guiding metaphor for withering, weathering, and survival. A shining, intricate clockwork of a novel, Greenwood is a rain-soaked and sun-dappled story of the bonds and breaking points of money and love, wood, and blood—and the hopeful, impossible task of growing toward the light.Trade Review“Ingeniously structured and with prose as smooth as beech bark, Michael Christie’s Greenwood is as compulsive as it is profound. A sweeping intergenerational saga that explores trees and their roots—from the precious evergreens that become commodities in the entertainment business of the future to the intricately tangled trees of family—all of it is dazzlingly delivered in a framework inspired by the actual growth rings of a tree. Every one of Greenwood’s characters burrowed their way into my heart. Beguilingly brilliant, timely, and utterly engrossing, Greenwood is one of my favorite reads in recent memory.”—Kira Jane Buxton“Christie skillfully teases out the details in a page-turner of a saga that complements sylvan books such as Sometimes a Great Notion and The Overstory, one that closes with Jake’s realization that, tangled lineage and all, a family is less a tree than ‘a collection of individuals pooling their resources through intertwined roots.’ Beguilingly structured, elegantly written: ecoapocalyptic but with hope that somehow we’ll make it.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)“A rugged, riveting novel . . . This superb family saga will satisfy fans of Richard Powers’s The Overstory while offering a convincing vision of potential ecological destruction.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

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Book SynopsisAmong the greatest novels of the twentieth century, and the basis for director David Lean’s Academy Award-nominated film, A Passage to India turns on a tragic clash of cultures in British India after the turn of the century, at the height of the Indian independence movement. Centering on an ambiguous incident between a young Englishwoman of uncertain stability and an Indian doctor eager to know his conquerors better, Forster’s book explores both the historical chasm between peoples and the eternal one between individuals struggling to ease their isolation and make sense of their humanity.

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