

Review of Junie by Erin Crosby Eckstine
Erin Crosby Eckstine's richly detailed historical fiction explores the life of Junie, an enslaved young woman in rural Alabama haunted by...
Feb 25


Review of To the Bright Edge of the World by Eowyn Ivey
Eowyn Ivey is masterful at intertwining fantastical elements with the grounding of the vivid details of nature. To the Bright Edge of the...
Feb 20


Review of The Blood of the Old Kings (Bleeding Empire #1) by Sung-Il Kim
In this first installment of The Bleeding Empire, Kim sets three characters on paths to discover their worth, their purpose, and their...
Jan 15


Review of The Familiar by Leigh Bardugo
Bardugo's rich world-building sets the scene in Spain during the Inquisition, as a scullery maid with magical abilities is thrust into...
Dec 19, 2024


Review of A Song to Drown Rivers by Ann Liang
I love Liang's books, and this departure from her romantic comedies is inspired by the Chinese legend of Xishi. It's full of danger,...
Dec 3, 2024


Review of The Alice Network by Kate Quinn
ICYMI: My favorite Kate Quinn books center around strong young women proving their mettle during wartime crises, and The Alice Network ...
Oct 10, 2024


Review of Grey Dog by Elliott Gish
Grey Dog begins as an immersive historical fiction story of a young teacher with a shocking past in 1900s rural England, but it becomes a...
Jul 31, 2024


Review of The Goddess of Warsaw by Lisa Barr
Lisa Barr's World War II-set historical fiction follows a Jewish resistance fighter and spy through the Warsaw Ghetto to her second act...
Jul 25, 2024


Six Great Stories about Brave Women During World War II
Tales of Brave World War II Women Other titles I considered listing here were the Bossy five-star read All the Light We Cannot See; The...
Jun 14, 2024


Review of Those Beyond the Wall by Micaiah Johnson
I loved Johnson's first book set in this complex, futuristic, postapocalyptic world of conflicting classes and disparate privilege, but...
May 2, 2024


Review of Queens of London by Heather Webb
Queens of London is fascinating historical fiction that explores the gritty underbelly of post-World War I London through the points of...
Apr 17, 2024


Review of The Warm Hands of Ghosts by Katherine Arden
Katherine Arden, author of the captivating Winternight trilogy, here shares a mysterious, haunting historical fiction story with a...
Apr 9, 2024


Review of The Excitements by C. J. Wray
C. J. Wray's story of elderly British sisters who played key roles in fighting the enemy in World War II offers lots of heart, sassy...
Mar 27, 2024


Review of The Women by Kristin Hannah
Hannah offers a meaty story about Vietnam and the nurses who served there, suffered, and were largely forgotten or denied; this storyline...
Mar 20, 2024


Review of The End of Drum-Time by Hanna Pylväinen
Pylväinen's novel explores the cooperation and conflict among cultures in a mid-nineteenth century community in the Arctic Circle,...
Feb 22, 2024


Review of The Vaster Wilds by Lauren Groff
Lauren Groff's beautiful and brutal novel The Vaster Wilds follows a young servant girl running from the Jamestown colony's disease and...
Jan 24, 2024


Review of To Shape a Dragon's Breath (Nampeshiweisit #1) by Moniquill Blackgoose
Blackgoose offers a fascinating, layered story about a strong-willed, whip-smart young Indigenous woman in a steampunk 1800s Nordic...
Jan 18, 2024


Review of The Running Grave (Cormoran Strike #7) by Robert Galbraith
In what's possibly my favorite book yet of the seven in the Cormoran Strike series, we see some emotional growth, potentially...
Dec 19, 2023


Review of October in the Earth by Olivia Hawker
Hawker's newest historical fiction gives a wonderfully evocative peek into a gritty period, as her main protagonist escapes a bad...
Oct 18, 2023


Review of A Murderous Relation (Veronica Speedwell #5) by Deanna Raybourn
The fifth book in the Veronica Speedwell series offers more of Raybourn's magic: witty dialogue, an unorthodox partnership,...
Sep 28, 2023