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She Crossed Oceans Disguised as a Boy - an Editorial Review of "Sailing Against the Tide" by Cindy Burkart Maynard
Book Blurb: She crossed oceans disguised as a boy. History forgot her-but now her story demands to be told. In 1766, Jeanne Baret, a brilliant herbalist from rural France, defied every expectation of her time. Disguised as a boy to escape the restrictions placed on women. She joins a global expedition led by explorer Louis de Bougainville and her mentor, the botanist Philibert Commerson. Aboard L'Étoile, Jeanne faces grueling sea voyages, the constant threat of discovery, and
DK Marley
Jan 818 min read
The Fight for Freedom is Far From Over - an Editorial Review of "Caritas"
Book Blurb: In this powerful conclusion to the Pocket Full of Seeds Trilogy, Caritas brings this epic and emotional journey full circle—following the critically acclaimed books, Libertas and Firmitas, praised as “historical fiction at a stellar level.” — 1846 — Horace and Fredericka have escaped slavery and endured the punishing journey of the Oregon Trail, but their fight for freedom is far from over. The West offers no refuge, only new threats amidst the turmoil of the Whit
DK Marley
Jan 75 min read
Grand Prize Winner, Silver, and Bronze Winners for the 2025 HFC Book of the Year
Note from Dee Marley, the CEO of The Historical Fiction Company: Once again, now in our fifth year of the contest, I'd like to personally thank everyone who entered and who supported us along the way, as well as a special thanks to all of our fabulous reviewers, who are the backbone of this contest. All the authors who entered this year, you deserve huge commendations for making this year's decision very difficult, as the quality of the writing and the books submitted was jus
DK Marley
Jan 15 min read
Finalists in the HFC Book of the Year Contest
CONGRATULATIONS TO THE GOLD MEDAL FINALISTS FOR THE 2025 HFC BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARDS! PLEASE NOTE: SOME CATEGORIES SHOW TIED WINNERS GRAND PRIZE & RUNNER-UP WINNERS WILL BE CHOSEN FROM THIS LIST and ANNOUNCED AT 12:00 MIDNIGHT EST on DECEMBER 31st 2025 - NEW YEAR'S EVE!! All finalists will be allowed to use the displayed category badge for announcements and will be notified via email. 2026 Awards & Editorial Review requests are now open - please visit www.thehistoricalfiction
DK Marley
Dec 31, 202517 min read
The Dream of Becoming Rock Stars - an Editorial Review of "Perfect Cadence"
Book Blurb: Fame. Fortune. Pitfalls. It is 1978, and a music scene is brewing in Los Angeles. Singer Gunnar Erickson and guitarist Shep Townsend leave Grand Island, Nebraska hoping to make it big as rock stars. Before long, they help form the talented and popular band Authentic Cadence and are managed by the biggest names in the business. As they begin to realize their dreams, however, Gunnar and Shep learn that that fame has its downsides. Between the constant touring and gr
DK Marley
Dec 25, 20255 min read
Semi-Finalists for the 2025 HFC Book of the Year Contest
CONGRATULATIONS TO THE SEMI-FINALISTS FOR THE 2025 HFC BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARDS! LISTED IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER FINALISTS WILL BE ANNOUNCED BEFORE 12:00 NOON EST on DECEMBER 31st 2025!! All semi-finalists will be allowed use of the above badge for announcements and will be notified via email. HUGO SEMI-FINALIST - GENERAL HISTORICAL One Ordinary Man Steve Vesce Downyoshun Art Young The Reluctant Pioneer Julie McDonald Zander Sarita Natalie Musgra
DK Marley
Dec 25, 20253 min read
The Legendary Prince Hector Tells His Story - an Editorial Review of "Trojan Odyssey"
Book Blurb: Coming soon Book Buy Link: Coming soon Editorial Review: Rating: 4.6 William Haddad’s "Trojan Odyssey" is a sweeping re-imagining that pulls the legendary Trojan prince, Hector, from the dust of the "Iliad" and hurls him into a sprawling, existential voyage through the concatenated afterlives of the ancient world. This does not feel like a myth retold, but a myth extended, a fictionalized exploration of the hero’s shade forced to navigate the brutal and often cont
DK Marley
Dec 24, 20254 min read
The Real Rhythm of Rural Life During WWI - an Editorial Review of "One Summer at Helgeveld Farm"
Book Blurb: In 1949, Will Parlor glimpses a woman across a crowded Chicago street and is carried back to the summer that changed him forever. In 1917, at seventeen, he took a job as a worker on an Illinois farm. There, he’s drawn into the Dutch-American Helgeveld family, especially daughters Vlinder and Corrie. Will also befriends Moses and Isaiah Butler, African American brothers up from Alabama, seeking freedom and opportunity in an America still rumbling after the Civil Wa
DK Marley
Dec 23, 20255 min read
Two Young People Engulfed by a World War - an Editorial Review of "Both Sides of the Pond"
Book Blurb: In January of 1939 when Barbara Greene, a beautiful and successful young British actress, met Joe Kennedy Jr., son of the American Ambassador, she could not have expected that their relationship would lead to her emigrating to America and piloting a plane around the eastern states to publicize Bundles for Britain, let alone her hasty decision to marry an American. Nor could her brother, Kent, have foreseen his bitter retreat from Dunkirk when he left England in Ja
DK Marley
Dec 22, 20256 min read
An American Civil War Journey - an Editorial Review of "Lockett's Innocence"
Book Blurb: A simple promise to his friend’s wife… An overwhelming urge to keep his younger brother from danger… An inkling that this War Between the States would not be the brief affair that most expected… James Lockett thought that he understood what he was getting into. He could not have been more wrong. From bushwhackers in Missouri to the tardy realization that there was an enemy wearing his own uniform, James Lockett encounters far more than expected. But nothing could
DK Marley
Dec 21, 20254 min read
Eight Men Behind Enemy Lines in WWII - an Editorial Review of "Silver Wings Falling Down"
Book Blurb: MISSING IN ACTION—EIGHT MEN BEHIND ENEMY LINES... After Pearl Harbor, W.T. Eaves swaps the West Texas oil fields for the skies, earning his silver wings as a bomber pilot in the Army Air Corps. While training in Galveston, the beautiful, dark-eyed Jean captures Eaves’ heart and they marry—just months before he’s sent to war. Called to aerial combat in the Fifteenth Air Force, Eaves and his B-24 crew run the gauntlet of flak and battle the Luftwaffe to deliver thei
DK Marley
Dec 20, 20255 min read
The Psychological Toll of War - an Editorial Review of "The Choice Within"
Book Blurb: Save. Kill. Live. Die. How much do I give? 1944 , and war rages in the Pacific. Two young recruits from opposing sides destined to cross paths without ever meeting, changing their lives forever… Honolulu —Devoted nurse Lieutenant Jeannette Crawford has been working tirelessly, with dedication and wisdom beyond her years, to help wounded US servicemen on home soil face their greatest enemy—time. Wanting to do more, she volunteers to serve on a hospital ship, hoping
DK Marley
Dec 19, 20256 min read
A Chilling Tale Before the Salem Witch Trials - an Editorial Review of "The Widow of Hartforde"
Book Blurb: A chilling historical horror novel of witch trials, survival, and the true monster hiding among us. Connecticut Colony, 1662 During a midnight witch trial, an unsettlingly woman confesses to making a pact with the Devil—after encountering a terrifying beast in the woods. Her words send a shiver through newcomer Rebecca Easton. She’s seen that creature too. But when Rebecca dares to speak the truth, suspicion turns on her. Accusations fly. The townspeople whisper.
DK Marley
Dec 18, 20255 min read
Secrets Along the Silk Road - an Editorial Review of "The Weaver's Tapestry"
Book Blurb: Her father vanished along the Silk Road. Now, his secrets from a painful past return with the appearance of a mysterious weaver. After her mother dies in childbirth, Saina’s distraught father sells her into servitude and disappears on the Silk Road . Now a young woman, she has gained favor serving the head wife in a bustling roadside inn outside the ancient trade city of Samarkand. When a mysterious weaver and his handsome grandson arrive from a distant city, brin
DK Marley
Dec 12, 20257 min read
A Valiant Woman Rising to Defeat the Roman Republic - an Editorial Review of "Social War"
Book Blurb: Psychologically abused Helena escapes her peasant upbringing in the olive groves only to become a slave in the house of General Sulla. When her natural genius is spotted by Sulla’s ailing spymaster, Demophon, he trains her to be his eyes and ears in Rome. After the only man who treats her with respect is crucified by Sulla, Helena is set on a path of vengeance. Always riddled with self-doubt, she manipulates hand-picked agents to make herself rich and powerful. In
DK Marley
Dec 8, 20254 min read
The Medieval Heroine History Tried to Forget - an Editorial Review of "Lady of Lincoln"
Book Blurb: A true story. A forgotten heroine. In a time when women were told to stay silent, could she become the saviour her people need? 12th-century England. Nicola de la Haye wants to do her duty. But though she’s taught a female cannot lead alone, the young noblewoman bristles at the marriage her father has arranged to secure her inheritance. And when an unexpected death leaves her unguided, the impetuous girl shuns the king’s blessing and weds a handsome-but-landless k
DK Marley
Dec 7, 20255 min read
A Sense & Sensibility Sequel Starring Margaret Dashwood - an Editorial Review of "A Return to Norland"
Book Blurb: Margaret Dashwood, the youngest sister of Elinor and Marianne Dashwood, has grown up in the shadows of her two siblings, and is thought by her family, when we first observe her in Sense and Sensibility at the tender age of thirteen, to be ‘a good humoured well-disposed girl; but as she had imbibed a good deal of Marianne’s romance, without having much of her sense, she did not, at thirteen, bid fair to equal her sisters at a more advanced period of life.’ But Marg
DK Marley
Dec 6, 20257 min read
2026 HFC Book of the Year contest now open!
NOW OPEN for editorial review requests and contest entry! www.thehistoricalfictioncompany.com/book-awards/award-submission #bookcontest #bookawards #thehistoricalfictioncompany $2500 CASH PRIZE - Deadline November 15, 2026 - Winners announced on New Year's Day 2026!!
DK Marley
Dec 5, 20251 min read
The Costume Could Hide Her Scars but Not the Truth - an Editorial Review of "Tangled in Water"
Book Blurb: 1932. Natalia is 16 and a bootlegger's daughter, playing the mermaid mascot on a rundown paddlewheel used to entertain brewers and distributors. A sequined costume hides her scarred and misshaped legs, but it can't cover up the painful memories and suspicions that haunt her. An eccentric healer who treats patients with Old Country tonics, tries to patch wounds, but only adds to the heartache. A fierce storm threatens to destroy everything, including a stash of sto
DK Marley
Dec 4, 20254 min read
War and Influenza Changed Their Lives Forever - an Editorial Review of "An Echo of Ashes"
Book Blurb: An Echo of Ashes is a story lost to time, then found again in century-old letters that lay in a tattered box. Based on actual events taken from the pages, this story tells of when the Great War and the Spanish Influenza forever altered the lives of millions, including a family of subsistence farmers who also worked the oil fields of Pennsylvania. Ella and Almon make their home in the backcountry. Almon and his sons work in the oil fields, just as their forefathers
DK Marley
Dec 3, 20255 min read