Excerpt: The Relic Keeper by Heidi Eljarbo
Italy, 1620.
Angelo is an orphan, lonely and forgotten. Having been passed on from one family to the next, he ends up as a common thief, subject to and under the thumb of a ruthless robber called Tozzo.
Angelo knows no other life and has lost hope that any chance of providence will ever replace his lonely, misfortunate existence. When he loses his master, his livelihood is shaken. Tozzo’s plunder is hidden in a safe place, but what will happen if someone comes after Angelo
Archaeolibrarian
1 day ago
Guest Post: Showboat Soubrette by Brodie Curtis
Showboat singer Stella Parrot’s star rises in the Antebellum South with every sold-out performance along the lower Mississippi River. When a river pirate viciously assaults her, new friends Toby Freeman and John Dee Franklin foil the attack. However, the pirate’s family is bent on revenge.
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4 days ago
Spotlight: Whispers in the Snow (Heartwarming Christmas) by Heidi Eljarbo
Cornelia Gran is a dedicated daughter, friendly and kind; although, she has an exorbitant amount of curiosity. She devours Arthur Conan Doyle’s magazine articles and tries to follow the fictitious Sherlock Holmes’s investigative examples, but her fascination with solving puzzles always gets her into mischief.
Each morning, Cornelia reads the newspaper, looking for a conundrum to solve. Searching for clues—and then chronicling her discoveries—thrills her. She certainly finds
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6 days ago
Review: The Unquiet Spirit (Spirited Encounters #1) by Penny Hampson
With her love life in tatters, Kate Wilson needs a fresh start, and where could be better than the old Cornish house that had belonged to her godmother?
There’s just one problem – it comes with a ghost as a sitting tenant.
Her grumpy new neighbour, the broodingly handsome Tom Carbis, is another fly in the ointment – he seems to turn up wherever Kate goes. His dog might be friendly, but he’s definitely not.
Debbie
Jan 26
Excerpt: Therein Lies the Pearl by Catherine Hughes
Celia Campion, a girl of humble background, finds herself caught in a web of intrigue when Duke William commands her to work as his spy, holding her younger sister hostage. Her mission: to sail across the sea to Wilton Abbey and convince Margaret, daughter of Edward the Exile, to take final vows rather than form a marriage alliance with the newly crowned king to the North, Malcolm III of Scotland. Preventing a union between the Saxons and Scots is critical to the success of t
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Jan 23
Excerpt: Red Anemones by Paula Dáil
Moving among generations of a German-Jewish-American family, "Red Anemones" is a poignant exploration of the intricate bonds, untold secrets, and unspoken legacies our ancestors bestow upon us.
Natalie Barlow's journey of self-discovery begins when her estranged mother's sudden death releases a storm of unrevealed family secrets reaching back to pre-WWI Germany.
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Jan 22
Excerpt: Dance of the Earth by Anna M Holmes
Set against the backdrops of London’s gilded Alhambra music hall, Diaghilev’s dazzling Ballets Russes, and the upheavals of the First World War, Rose and her children, Nina and Walter, pursue their ambitions, loves, and dreams. Dance and music become both sanctuary and self-expression, shaping their identities and helping each of them find their place in the world.
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Jan 20
Spotlight: Rough Diamond Rough Justice by Avien Gray
After a first kill, MI5 Agent and erstwhile photographer Cain becomes an undercover, extra-judicial killer for a secret Bureau.
Recovering from injuries sustained protecting the Royal Family, Cain embraces a new life and romance in sun-drenched Australia, leaving his past life behind.
But when tragedy strikes, he is on the move again. This time to a new career in the world of diamond dealings in Florida.
Curiosity takes Cain to the diamond world in South Africa, where his
Archaeolibrarian
Jan 14
Excerpt: Paoletta: An Eye for an Eye by J.R. Powell
Exiled to a Caribbean island, Paoletta Cadoville and her family cling to the hope of one day returning to their Parisian home. But in a single, devastating moment, that dream is shattered. Alone and horrifically scarred, Paoletta embarks on a perilous quest to uncover the truth behind her family’s tragic fate, only to become entangled in a web of political intrigue, secret societies, and dangerous alliances.
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Dec 17, 2025
Excerpt: Annie's Secret (Hartford Manor #6) by Marcia Clayton
When Lady Eleanor Fellwood gave birth to a badly deformed baby, she insisted that the child be adopted as far away as possible. However, that proved difficult to accomplish, and so, in return for payment, Sabina Carter, an impoverished widow living locally, agreed to raise the little boy as a foundling. The child’s father, Lord Charles Fellwood of Hartford Manor, warned Sabina that the matter must be treated in the strictest confidence or her family would be evicted from thei
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Dec 16, 2025
Spotlight: Red Snow in Winter by Max Eastern
In the final weeks of World War II, a young American intelligence officer is caught in a web of deceit that stretches from the Pentagon to the war-ravaged streets of Europe. Lieutenant Julius Orlinsky, a veteran of clandestine operations in Prague, is thrust back into the field when a seemingly routine assignment leads to murder and attempted murder.
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Dec 15, 2025
Spotlight: The Diva's Daughter by Heather Walrath
Aspiring opera singer Angelika Eder thought she had it all — a cultured life in Vienna, along with the guidance of her glamorous mother, a world-famous soprano. But when tragedy strikes and her mother dies amidst a swirling family scandal, eighteen-year-old Angelika finds herself uprooted to Munich, where civil unrest is rife and leaders of the increasingly powerful Nazi Party seek to use her voice as propaganda.
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Dec 10, 2025
Review: Annie's Day by Apple Gidley
As a young Australian Army nurse, Annie endures the brutalities of World War II in Singapore and New Guinea. Later, seeking peace, she takes refuge in Berlin—only to find herself caught in the upheaval of the Blockade. Through it all, the death of a man she barely knew leaves a wound that refuses to heal, threatening to bind her to a life of loneliness.
Merissa
Dec 9, 2025
Excerpt: Seeds of the Pomegranate by Suzanne Uttaro Samuels
In early 20th-century Sicily, noblewoman Mimi Inglese, a talented painter, dreams of escaping the rigid expectations of her class by gaining admission to the Palermo Art Academy. But when she contracts tuberculosis, her ambitions are shattered. With the Sicilian nobility in decline, she and her family leave for New York City in search of a fresh start.
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Dec 5, 2025
Guest Post: A Most Unlikely Man: A Tale of Resistance by J.P. Rieger
Isadore Levinsky is a survivor. No stranger to concentration camps, he's been freighted by boxcar to yet one more, possibly his last, before death by rifle or neglect. He's survived this far because he's done what any person would do under the circumstances: everything possible, irrespective of the consequences for others. At the nearly deserted Natzweiler-Struthof camp, Levinsky matches wits with fellow prisoner Otto Beck, a self-proclaimed pacifist, gentile and admitted lia
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Dec 2, 2025
Guest Post: The Traitor's Son by Wendy Johnson
1461: Richard Duke of York, King by Right, has been branded a traitor and slain by his Lancastrian foes. For his eight-year-old son—Richard Plantagenet—England has become a dangerous place.
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Nov 27, 2025
Guest Post: The Cameo Keeper (Tofana #4) by Deborah Swift
In the heart of Rome, the conclave is choosing a new Pope, and whoever wins will determine the fate of the Eternal City.
Astrologer Mia and her fiancé Jacopo, a physician at the Santo Spirito Hospital, plan to marry, but the election result is a shock and changes everything...
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Nov 20, 2025
Excerpt: What Remains is Hope (The Heppenheimer Family Holocaust Saga #2) by Bonnie Suchman
Beginning in 1930s Germany and based on their real lives, four cousins as close as siblings—Bettina, Trudi, Gustav, and Gertrud—share the experiences of the young, including first loves, marriages, and children. Bettina, the oldest, struggles to help her parents with their failing business. Trudi dresses in the latest fashions and tries to make everything look beautiful. Gustav is an artist at heart and hopes to one day open a tailoring shop. Gertrud, the youngest, is forced
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Nov 18, 2025
Excerpt: A Virtuoso in America: Adrian (A Holocaust Story #2) by Fred Raymond Goldman
Adrian Mazurek immigrated to the United States from Krakow, Poland, 14 years ago and is now a successful violin soloist and concertmaster of The Eleventh State Symphony Orchestra in New York. But despite his outward success, Adrian is inwardly harboring a shameful secret, one he has not revealed to anyone.
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Nov 12, 2025
Guest Post: Ravenscourt by Samantha Ward-Smith
He wanted to be gone from the dark enclosing room, with its mocking misery, to be gone from this house of nightmares, of shattered dreams, and discovered secrets which could not be put back in the box.
Archaeolibrarian
Nov 11, 2025