Collection: Historical Fiction

A determined young woman in 1950s Los Angeles walks a darker city than she ever imagined in a spellbinding novel about the power to make dreams come true--whatever the sacrifice.

Los Angeles brims with opportunity in 1959--though not for aspiring fashion designer Cordelia Mai Yin, the first-generation child of Vietnamese immigrants, who finds the city unkind to outsiders and as dispirited as her own family. When Cordi rents a cheap loft in an old apartment building, she quickly warms to kindred souls Tessa, Audrey, and Silly. They also want better things and have pasts they'd rather forget. That they all share the same middle name makes their friendship seem like destiny.

As supportive as they are of each other, it's a struggle just to eke out a living, let alone hope to see their wishes for success come true. Until an ever-present and uncannily charming acquaintance of the landlord's offers a solution to their problems. He promises to fulfill their every dream. All it takes is a little magic. And a small sacrifice.

As one surprisingly effective spell leads to another, their wishes get bigger. But so does the price they must pay. Amid the damaged seams of her life so far, Cordi must realize her own power in order to rip free, without losing everything she's worked so hard to achieve.

How can they stay rivals when they're falling in love?

As children of the two most prominent families in town, Gavin Keighley and Rose Denholme have been enemies their whole lives. When the Duke and Duchess of Tereford come to town to get their estate in order, they invite Gavin, Rose, and their families for a visit to settle the feud once and for all. But as jealousy takes root, the entire town begins to compete for the attention of the duke and duchess, forcing Gavin and Rose to choose between fighting for their family interests or fighting for the love that's blossoming between them.

Praise for Jane Ashford's sparkling Regency romance:

"Impossible to put down... The story crackles with clever dialogue and humorous scenes." --Historical Novel Society for The Duke Who Loved Me

"An irresistibly sweet literary confection." --Booklist for Earl to the Rescue

"Complex characters, subtle romance, and all the sparkling wit and flirtatious banter of a Georgette Heyer novel." --Publishers Weekly for A Duke Too Far

In the vast theater of World War II, the fate of one family weaves into the larger tapestry of the fight--even if victory asks for the ultimate sacrifice.

Normandy. Sark Island. London. The Pacific. The Littlefield siblings, separated by the grim tide of war, fight on all fronts.

The Dame of Sark, the Littlefield matriarch, faces starvation on Sark Island, while Lance grapples with the Wehrmacht on French soil. With every step shadowed by death, his sole goal is to liberate Paris and prepare for the final assault on Germany.

In London, Claire deciphers enemy communications, her work pivotal in shaping the battlefield. Meanwhile, Jeremy leads a band of refugees through the treacherous Vercor Mountains, nursing the hope of rejoining the battle against the Germans. Across the globe, Josh prepares for a decisive amphibious assault as momentous as the one at Normandy.

With World War II raging, the Littlefield's stories intertwine with old and new friends alike. As narratives converge, the tension escalates, culminating in the decisive Battle of the Bulge in the dense Ardennes forest--with the family ready to pay the ultimate price to tilt the scales of war.

From Wall Street Journal bestselling author Lee Jackson comes Into the Cauldron, the seventh epic saga in the After Dunkirk series.

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Praise for Lee Jackson and the AFTER DUNKIRK series:

"...an exceptional work of historical fiction..." --Lieutenant General Rick Lynch, US Army (Ret.)

"...compelling fiction is masterfully woven in with the actual events..." --John J. Gobbell, author of The Last Lieutenant

"A sweeping, wonderfully crafted saga...Jackson has created a masterful, enduring tale." --H.W. "Buzz" Bernard, award-winning author of When Heroes Flew

"[Jackson]...deftly balances the deeply personal stories of his characters with the action..." --Commander George Wallace, USN (Ret.), author of Warshot and Operation Golden Dawn

"There is intrigue and action galore, but also true and gripping personal depth in this remarkable story..." --Don Keith, author of Final Bearing and Only the Brave

In the nineteenth installment of James R. Benn's acclaimed WWII mystery series, an investigation into a secret gang of Nazi-affiliated art thieves in post-Liberation Paris leads Billy Boyle and his comrades into the catastrophic Battle of the Bulge in winter 1944.

Months after the Liberation of France, ex-Boston cop Billy Boyle has landed in its war-torn capital city, still carrying with him the weight of his last mission. He witnesses a Paris ailing from the carnage it has endured--blocked roadways, buildings marked by bullet holes--but with the nascent hope that the war might be coming to its end. When Billy and his long-time comrade Kaz survive a tense shoot-out in the Père Lachaise Cemetery, they discover a rare piece of artwork left behind in an unmarked grave. Could the artwork be connected to the Syndicat du Renard, a shadowy network of Nazi sympathizers known to be smuggling stolen artwork out of France?

Billy's investigation takes him through a shadowy underworld of art thieves and the heroic squad of cultural protectors, like the real-life Monuments Men, trying to stop them. Trailing the Syndicat and its unknown leader, the Fox, Billy discovers that someone with a high level of security and communications clearance--someone in the Phantom regiment of the British Army--may be using his position to aid the thefts. Determined to stop the gang of looters, Billy heads up to the frontlines of the war, to a tense, frostbitten calvary, where the Phantom unit's headquarters is based. There, the Battle of the Bulge--one of the bloodiest campaigns in the history of World War II--unfurls in the Ardennes Forest, on the border of Belgium and Luxembourg. Can Billy and his team survive the bracing onslaught, and return a throng of stolen artwork to its rightful owners?

The situation is getting desperate under the Little Daisy Café.
Widowed proprietor Mitzi May struggles to keep the Lackadaisy, her modest little gin joint, afloat in the days of Prohibition. As her womanly charms fail to secure her business partners and the faith of her posse waivers, ambitious external forces press ever closer in. The gang struggles to to secure booze, suss out new connections, and recover from the traumas of volume one, as the walls close in.
Oh, and everyone's a cat.
The second volume of this singularly wonderful and Eisner-nominated webcomic by Tracy Butler continues the story of the Saint Louis, Missouri speakeasy!

Can the unrelenting power of truth expose one of Stalin's greatest crimes to a world that refuses to bear witness? From journalist and screenwriter Andrea Chalupa (host of the hit podcast Gaslist Nation and writer of Orwell and the Refugees: The Untold Story of Animal Farm) and artist Ivan Rodriguez, this powerful new historical graphic novel reexamines the bravery and tragedy that first thrust Ukraine in the international spotlight in the years before World War II.

In the early 1930s, Gareth Jones is a young journalist with powerful connections after a groundbreaking interview with Adolf Hitler and his chief propagandist, Joseph Goebbels. This notoriety gains him permission to travel to the Soviet Union for a potential interview with Joseph Stalin.

Jones hopes to learn more about the Soviets mass economic gains but finds himself stonewalled and trapped in Moscow. While looking for a way out, he meets new allies that alert him to the growing man-made famine, or Holodomor, happening in Ukraine under the government's guidance. Jones, seeking the truth in all its ugliness, embarks on a journey of discovery, strife, and a cover-up of the deaths of millions of people.

Two real, brilliant women on two sides of the law, in a daring game of cat and mouse...

1926, Washington, D. C.

In the Prohibition Rum Wars, the Coast Guard is losing. Eleven million gallons of illegal liquor a year have created a booming smuggling economy, with criminals wreaking havoc on American cities, and everyday citizens thumbing their noses at Uncle Sam. But the Coast Guard has a new, secret weapon--one of the husband-and-wife pair who invented cryptanalysis and trained Great War soldiers--to crack smuggler codes, intercept traffic, and destroy the trade, one skiff at a time. That secret weapon is a 5'2 mastermind in heels, who also happens to be a wife and mother: Mrs. Elizebeth Smith Friedman.

Bahamas

When Marie Waite--wife of a rumrunner and mother of two little ones--notices discrepancies in cargo, she insists on accompanying her husband, Charlie, on a run from their home in Miami to Nassau. There, not only does Marie witness her husband's shortcomings, but she becomes enthralled by Cleo Lythgoe, "The Bahama Queen," who announces her retirement while regaling the thugs at the bar with tales of murder and mayhem on the high seas. In spite of Cleo's warnings about a "new man in the government" who seems to know where they are before they get there, Marie knows an opportunity when she sees it, and she wants the crown for herself so badly she can taste it.

So begins Marie's plan to rise as rumrunner royalty long enough to get her family in the black. What she didn't count on was that the more sophisticated her operation grows, the more she comes on the radar of the feds, nabbing criminals by the daily dozen. Once Marie knows who she's up against, she's more determined than ever to triumph.

On the other side of the law, Elizebeth is the only codebreaker battling scores of smugglers. From solving thousands of intercepted codes and ciphers, to riding along on Coast Guard patrols, to national travel, to testifying in court rooms--all while managing her household--the strain begins to wear on her. Once the work becomes personal, and she discovers Marie as a premier adversary, Elizebeth's desire to catch the woman becomes almost obsessive.

From the glamorous world of D. C. Intelligence to the sultry shores of the Straits of Florida, The Last Twelve Miles--a tale of ambition and envy--is based on the true story of two women masterminds trying to outwit each other in a dangerous and fascinating game of high stakes.

Also known by its US title The Problem of the Green Capsule, this classic novel is widely regarded as one of John Dickson Carr's masterpieces and remains among the greatest impossible crime mysteries of all time.

A sinister case of deadly poisoned chocolates from Sodbury Cross's high street shop haunts the group of friends and relatives assembled at Bellegarde, among the orchards of 'peach-fancier' Marcus Chesney. To prove a point about how the sweets could have been poisoned under the nose of the shopkeeper, Chesney stages an elaborate memory game to test whether any of his guests can see beyond their 'black spectacles'; that is, to see the truth without assumptions as witnesses.

During the test - which is also being filmed - Chesney is murdered by his accomplice, dressed head to toe in an 'invisible man' disguise. The keen wits of Dr, Gideon Fell are called for to crack this brazen and bizarre murder committed in full view of an audience.

Join siblings Otto and Nan on a double stuffed adventure to Egypt, where each of them has a completely different experience!

While on a trip to Egypt, two siblings, Otto and Nan, stumble upon a sarcophagus. And they accidentally free a mummy cat from a pharaoh's chamber! Now tasked with finding it, their resulting adventure has them exploring the city, learning historical facts, saving each other from danger, and discovering truths about life.What's more, they're going to survive the same adventure - twice! See both perspectives in this flip graphic novel, written by real-life siblings Kim Shearer and Chas! Pangburn.

Reporter and sleuth Emma Cross Andrews must stop a bold poisoner who is targeting the society wives of the Four Hundred in Gilded Age Newport, Rhode Island . . .

August 1901: A fundraiser for a new Rhode Island Audubon Society brings Emma to Vinland, the Viking-themed seaside home of her relative, Florence Vanderbilt Twombly, where the guest of honor is Edith Roosevelt, wife of Vice President Theodore Roosevelt. Listening to the speakers and observing the ladies in attendance, Emma is struck by the contrast of the Viking warrior-inspired elements in the house and the admirable but admittedly genteel cause of bird protection. Vinland bears the name of the Vikings' first landfall in North America, but in this room today there is most assuredly no one to fear.

Emma's observation of harmless philanthropy is proven wrong the following morning when one of Mrs. Twombly's houseguests from the luncheon becomes mysteriously and dangerously ill. Accompanying police detective Jesse Whyte, Emma discovers a box of petit fours supposedly sent by Mrs. Roosevelt. They promptly rule out the Second Lady as a suspect, but someone has poisoned the cakes.

Soon another box of desserts as well as letters tainted with ink containing caustic toxins show up at other grand Newport cottages. Are the ladies from the luncheon being targeted? Emma and Jesse must sort through possible motives and means because now more than the birds need protection . . .

For fans of Bridgerton looking for a mysterious twist on the glittering ballrooms of the Regency--a masterfully plotted story from a USA Today bestselling author that combines engaging protagonists with rich historical detail and international intrigue, plus a touch of romance that readers of Amanda Quick and Deanna Raybourn will savor.

When the murder of a scientific genius on the verge of a momentous discovery upsets the wedding of their dear friends, Wrexford and Charlotte must risk all they hold dear to deconstruct a sinister conspiracy . . .

Celebration is in the air at Wrexford and Charlotte's country estate as they host the nuptials of their friends, Christopher Sheffield and Lady Cordelia Mansfield. But on the afternoon of the wedding, the festivities are interrupted when the local authorities arrive with news that a murdered man has been discovered at the bridge over King's Crossing, his only identification an invitation to the wedding. Lady Cordelia is horrified when the victim is identified as Jasper Milton, her childhood friend and a brilliant engineer who is rumored to have discovered a revolutionary technological innovation in bridge design. That he had the invitation meant for her cousin Oliver, who never showed up for the wedding, stirs a number of unsettling questions.

Both men were involved in the Revolutions-Per-Minute Society, a scientific group dedicated to making radical improvements in the speed and cost of transportation throughout Britain. Is someone plotting to steal Milton's designs? And why has her cousin disappeared?

Wrexford and Charlotte were looking forward to spending a peaceful interlude in the country, but when Lady Cordelia resolves to solve the mystery, they offer their help, along with that of the Weasels and their unconventional inner circle of friends. The investigation turns tangled and soon all of them are caught up in a treacherous web of greed, ambition, and dangerous secrets. And when the trail takes a shocking turn, Wrexford and Charlotte must decide what risks they are willing to take with their family to bring the villains to justice . . .

A promise kept is like the twinkling stars in the night sky: a constant reminder of something important that makes you who you are. Those who are moved by Lois Lowry's Number the Stars will also find Tutti's Promise a courageous, memorable story. Tutti's Promise is the true account of the Lichtenstern family's unwavering quest to stay alive during the Holocaust while protecting others in harm's way. Written by Tutti's daughter and filled with historical photos and documents-including one very important Paraguayan passport-this multi-award-winning book draws the reader into the family's plight and reveals the precious legacy of a promise kept.

AWARDS:

- Designated a Notable Social Studies Trade Book for Young Readers by the National Council for the Social Studies and the Children's Book Council

- IBPA Benjamin Franklin Awards: Two Silver Medals:
Best New Voice: Children's/YA
Young Reader: Fiction (8-12 Years)

- Moonbeam Children's Book Awards:
Gold Medal Winner for Preteen Fiction-Historical/Cultural

- Nautilus Book Awards:
Silver Winner: Middle Grades Fiction

A hardcover storybook collection featuring three American Girl Little Golden Books!

This hardcover storybook collection features three American Girl Little Golden Books: Making a Difference, Time for School, and Grandmas are the Best. It's a great gift for children ages 3 to 7!

Introduced in 1986, American Girl's flagship line of historical characters features 18-inch dolls, books, and accessories that give girls a dramatic understanding of the role women and girls played in shaping our country.

Sayeth it ain't so! The finale to the epic Emry Merlin trilogy is here, with all the sorcery, snark, and high stakes that made The Other Merlin one of Publishers Weekly's Best Books of the Year!

Everything is finally going right for Emry Merlin. Now that Arthur is the king and her wayward magic is under control, she's enjoying life as Camelot's official court wizard--and as Arthur's girlfriend.

But when an unexpected visitor arrives at court, Emry finds her hard-won position threatened. And Arthur is torn between listening to his advisors and following his heart. Even more troubling, war is on the horizon, with King Yurien's access to dark magic ensuring Camelot's doom. That is, unless Emry, Arthur, and Lance can find a way to defeat the evil sorceress Bellicent with magic from her own world. But undertaking a quest to Anwen is perilous business, and our young heroes will face many obstacles on their journey--from dangerous beasts to suspicious nobles to cursed maidens determined to find someone to marry.

Can Emry and Arthur save their kingdom and fix their relationship, or will they have to choose between their future and Camelot's?

A stunning collaboration between award-winning and bestselling authors Ruta Sepetys and Steve Sheinkin, this middle grade historical adventure follows two siblings at Bletchley Park, the home of WWII codebreakers, as they try to unravel a mystery surrounding their mother's death.

Remember, you are bound by the Official Secrets Act...

Summer, 1940. Nineteen-year-old Jakob Novis and his quirky younger sister Lizzie share a love of riddles and puzzles. And now they're living inside of one. The quarrelsome siblings find themselves amidst one of the greatest secrets of World War II--Britain's eccentric codebreaking factory at Bletchley Park. As Jakob joins Bletchley's top minds to crack the Nazi's Enigma cipher, fourteen-year-old Lizzie embarks on a mission to solve the mysterious disappearance of their mother.

The Battle of Britain rages and Hitler's invasion creeps closer. And at the same time, baffling messages and codes arrive on their doorstep while a menacing inspector lurks outside the gates of the Bletchley mansion. Are the messages truly for them, or are they a trap? Could the riddles of Enigma and their mother's disappearance be somehow connected? Jakob and Lizzie must find a way to work together as they race to decipher clues which unravel a shocking puzzle that presents the ultimate challenge: How long must a secret be kept?

Un vívido relato de ficción histórica sobre el activismo comunitario que dio lugar a la construcción del Parque Chicano de San Diego, hogar de la colección de murales al aire libre más grande de los Estados Unidos, ejemplo de la rica historia de resistencia y resiliencia de la comunidad mexicoamericana.

Barrio Logan, uno de los vecindarios chicanos más antiguos de San Diego, una vez rebosaba de familias y se extendía hasta la gloriosa Bahía de San Diego. Pero con el paso de los años, la comunidad perdió su playa y acceso a la bahía debido a la construcción de fábricas, deshuesaderos, y una carretera interestatal que dividió el barrio y obligó a miles de personas a abandonar sus hogares. Luego, en 1970, los residentes descubrieron que el equipo que creían que construiría un parque --tal como la ciudad les había prometido hace años-- en realidad comenzaba la edificación de una estación de policía. Entonces supieron que era hora de hacer oír sus voces. El barrio se levanta invita a los lectores a unirse a la valiente joven activista Elena y sus vecinos durante su exitosa ocupación de tierras y más allá, cuando los residentes de Barrio Logan se juntaron para construir el colorido parque que se convertiría en el corazón de la comunidad chicana de San Diego.