Spotlight: Marie Conner – A Leading Lady by Elle Mott
In an era when daughters and wives are not supposed to be concerned with matters outside the home, Marie is determined to prove him wrong. To do this, she must break down barriers placed on women in society, overcome difficulties that befall her, surpass hardships from the Great Depression, and then face an inevitable relocation.
Archaeolibrarian
1 day ago
Spotlight: Dragonslayer's Valkyrie: The Legend of Sigurd and Brynhildr by Jennifer Ivy Walker
As the Norns tighten the intricate threads of fate, Brynhildr must guide Sigurd toward his destiny as a dragonslayer—by defying the web of wyrd and incurring the wrath of Odin.
Archaeolibrarian
5 days ago
Spotlight: The Fern Flower by Kathleen Shoop
Born into privilege as the daughter of the Tsar’s favored vodka maker, Mila appears to have everything: wealth, status, and a household devoted to her happiness. But behind the gilded doors of her family estate, she is trapped by the cruelty of a stepmother whose greatest wish is to give birth to her own child.
Archaeolibrarian
7 days ago
Guest Post: The Duty of Daughters / El Deber de las Hijas by Wendy J. Dunn
Doña Beatriz Galindo is an uneasy witness to the Holy War of Queen Isabel of Castile and her husband, Ferdinand, King of Aragon. A holy war pushing the Moors out of territories ruled by them for centuries.
Beatriz does not want a life like other women. She desires power over her own destiny. Even if this means walking a far harder road.
Archaeolibrarian
Jul 30
Spotlight: One More Hour of Daylight by C.M. Gray
On the first day of World War II, a young man makes a promise—one that will shape every choice he makes for the next four years.
Archaeolibrarian
Jul 29
Review: The Spirit of the Times by Justin Newland
In fourteenth-century Central Asia, Karia is a young woman living under the yoke of Mongol occupation. But she’s different. She’s a fighter with supernatural powers. She could use them to keep the Black Plague at bay and solve the mystery of the purple skies at dawn – if only she could overcome her self-doubt.
Merissa
Jul 27
Review: The Making of Marigold McGrath by Carrie Hayes
New York City, 1937. Seventeen-year-old Marigold McGrath is coming undone.
Her mother is dead. Her father is drawn to dangerous politics. The only place she feels joy is behind a camera — where she can frame the world on her own terms.
Merissa
Jul 22
Spotlight: Fearless Hearts Forbidden Love (Hearts of Sparta Trilogy #1) by Anthea Laurelton
Spartan warrior, Diokles, has waited years for the opportunity to right a failure that torments his heart and integrity. Sent to hunt down a threat to Sparta, this campaign may be his final chance to restore his honour and uncover the traitor whose actions blighted his life. Success is at his fingertips, but when duty forces him to take an unwilling accomplice, his plans are challenged in ways he never foresaw.
Archaeolibrarian
Jul 21
Snippet: The Valet's Witness by Rohn Hein
In the summer of 1776, as the Declaration of Independence takes shape within the charged chambers of the Second Continental Congress, two lives unfold in quiet, irrevocable collision-one etched into the official record, the other deliberately erased from it.
Archaeolibrarian
Jul 20
Spotlight: Via Malorum by G.G. MacLeod
In the shadowed streets of ancient Rome, 37 CE, power is a blade that cuts both ways. Agrippina, a towering enigma of ambition, slips from Caligula’s gilded cage with her newborn son, Domitius, her mind a labyrinth of cold calculation. At her side prowls Messalina, a siren in scarlet, her seductive cunning as deadly as her blade. Together, they navigate a city teeming with decadence and deceit, pursued by whispers of treachery and the emperor’s wrath.
Archaeolibrarian
Jul 16
Guest Post: Soldiers of Christ (The Northern Crusader Chronicles #2) by Jon Byrne
1205. Richard Fitz Simon has fled England after his title was usurped, joining the Livonian Order of Swordbrothers – a German brotherhood of warrior-monks fighting to bring the word of God to the pagan frontier. After slaying the Lithuanian champion at the Battle of Rodenpois, Richard is celebrated by the Order and their Semigallian allies.
Archaeolibrarian
Jul 10
Review & Goodreads #Giveaway: Fables & Lies by Elisabeth Storrs
WWII Berlin. Freyja Bremer, a patriotic museum assistant, marries Kaspar Voigt, an ambitious SS scholar, to protect her father. Yet she is unaware her husband is instrumental in Himmler’s twisted quest for Aryan supremacy.
Merissa
Jul 3
Excerpt: Queen of Shadows by Anna Belfrage
Castile in the 1330s is a place of constant turmoil. King Alfonso must contend with the incursions from the Muslim Marinids eager to reclaim Al-Andalus while struggling with repeated rebellions against his firm rule.
Archaeolibrarian
Jun 24
Excerpt: The Lost Voices by Paul Rushworth-Brown
The Lost Voices is a work of historical fiction centered on those whose stories were never formally recorded—not because they lacked meaning, but because their lives unfolded beyond the reach of power, authorship, and recognition. In a world governed by rigid social structures and unyielding expectations, the novel follows a cast of individuals navigating the quiet, often invisible tensions of obligation, fear, and endurance.
Archaeolibrarian
Jun 22
Spotlight: COURAGE: Tales of History, Mystery and Hope by Helen Hollick & Friends
The lion has long been a symbol of courage, loyalty, and hope. A creature of power and, in some traditions, of the divine. We imagine it unflinching, unafraid. Yet the truest bravery is not found in the open, but within, where the lion lies hidden, waiting to be called upon. In moments of uncertainty or grief. Courage is not the absence of fear, but the decision to face it. It is the moment when we would rather flee, but instead, find a strength we did not know we possessed.
Archaeolibrarian
Jun 17
Guest Post: Enheduanna's Song from the Sands by Ellen Rachlin
When Enheduanna is named High Priestess of Ur, her connection to the gods makes her a target. Lugalanne’s coup strips her of robes, power, and home, casting her into the perilous underworld. There, amid forests of shadows and treacherous trials, she discovers that divine favor alone won’t save her—only cunning, courage, and a willingness to embrace the ruthlessness of her enemies can restore her.
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Jun 15
Excerpt: The Queen's Sister by Carol McGrath
At nineteen, Elizabeth Seymour is already a mother, has been recently widowed, and seen her Queen, Anne Boleyn, lose her life. Against the wishes of her father, she heads North, away from Wulf Hall and the court in London to Yorkshire, determined to establish a new beginning as a landowner and business woman. As her family in Wiltshire curry favour with King Henry, aided by Thomas Cromwell, Elizabeth makes Kexby Manor her home, finding loyalty among her people there.
Archaeolibrarian
Jun 11
Excerpt: Escape of the Grand Duchess by Susan Appleyard
Escape of the Grand Duchess by Susan Appleyard is a gripping historical novel that shatters the notion that royalty is synonymous with privilege and ease. At its heart is the youngest sister of Tsar Nicholas II, Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna—a Romanov who defied a doomed destiny and survived.
Archaeolibrarian
May 21
Review & Excerpt: Beyond the Dark Oceans by Alison Huntingford
In 1906, the Huntingford family leaves England behind, crossing dark oceans in search of hope and opportunity in a new land. Canada promises a fresh start but for the eldest son, Georgy, it also brings hardship, responsibility, and a future shaped by forces far beyond his control.
Archaeolibrarian
May 21
Showcase: Firevein: The Awakening (Firevein Saga #1) by Hanna Park
I went to Røros for a wedding—not to fall for a man who looked at me like he had already mourned me once.
From the moment Rurik touches me, something beneath my skin ignites. Every kiss feels inevitable. Every glance pulls at something I can’t remember—but can’t ignore. He says I’ve lived before. That I’ve died before. That he has loved me through it all.
Archaeolibrarian
May 13