2026 Editorial Reviews | The Historical Fiction Company

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A Sir Anthony Standen Adventure - an Editorial Review of "Serpent's Teeth"

A Sir Anthony Standen Adventure - an Editorial Review of "Serpent's Teeth"

A Sir Anthony Standen Adventure - an Editorial Review of "Serpent's Teeth"

Book Blurb: It’s Paris, 1617, and Maria is desperately trying to avert the execution of her physician husband Manuel. Despite her friendship with the young King Louis XIII, his execution cannot be delayed indefinitely. Who could have added hemlock to the medicine Manuel had given the tailor? Concino Concini seems the most likely suspect, but when he is murdered by order of King Louis, and his wife Leonora sentenced to death, all hope seems lost. Leonora denies all knowledge o

4 days ago4 min read

The Futility of War and the Courage of Those Who Carry On - an Editorial Review of "Straight Lines and Brown Brogues"

The Futility of War and the Courage of Those Who Carry On - an Editorial Review of "Straight Lines and Brown Brogues"

The Futility of War and the Courage of Those Who Carry On - an Editorial Review of "Straight Lines and Brown Brogues"

Book Blurb: When the battlefields fall silent, only two kinds of people remain: the dead, and those left to carry on. For Joseph, a young map maker, the lines he once traced with certainty are forever altered by war in a distant country - a conflict that shapes his life long after he returns home.As he builds a new life and family, the threads of loss, trust, and unexpected kinship continue to weave through his days, guiding his steps in ways he never imagined. Amid the famil

5 days ago4 min read

A Sheltered Daughter Now a Wanted Fugitive - an Editorial Review of "Le Renarde Noire: The Black Fox"

A Sheltered Daughter Now a Wanted Fugitive - an Editorial Review of "Le Renarde Noire: The Black Fox"

A Sheltered Daughter Now a Wanted Fugitive - an Editorial Review of "Le Renarde Noire: The Black Fox"

Book Blurb: All she wanted was to dodge an arranged marriage to a man she’d not seen in ten years. Now she’s robbing the most dangerous men in the country. France. 1787. Once a Marquis’ sheltered daughter, now a wanted fugitive, Éliane de Vauclair rises to become La Renarde Noire — The Black Fox — armed with but a mask, a pistol, and enough bravado to shame a bandit. Mud-spattered carriages. Gilded Salons. A society built on secrets. She stalks the King’s Highway, relieving t

6 days ago5 min read

The Theft of Classic Paintings Long After WWII - an Editorial Review of "Paris After the Storm"

The Theft of Classic Paintings Long After WWII - an Editorial Review of "Paris After the Storm"

The Theft of Classic Paintings Long After WWII - an Editorial Review of "Paris After the Storm"

Book Blurb: What if the masterpieces stolen during World War II were still being stolen after it ended? Paris, 1947. The city is rebuilding after years of Nazi occupation, and inside the Louvre, thousands of recovered works of art wait to be reunited with the families they were stolen from. Émile Rothstein understands better than most what was lost during the war. A gifted artist and the Louvre’s youngest Director of Restorations, Émile survived the occupation alongside his J

7 days ago5 min read

What if Napoleon Won the Battle of Waterloo - an Editorial Review of "The Debt of Free Men"

What if Napoleon Won the Battle of Waterloo - an Editorial Review of "The Debt of Free Men"

What if Napoleon Won the Battle of Waterloo - an Editorial Review of "The Debt of Free Men"

Book Blurb: What if…Napoleon won the Battle of Waterloo? Jean-Pierre Bengoa, a fusilier in the French army, will not only witness Napoleon’s legendary 1814 and 1815 campaigns, but his actions will have unknown consequences that will echo through time. But first he must take the leap from boy to man as he seeks adventure and glory. He must risk his father’s wrath as his desires lead him away from the seminary where he has spent the past two years. He may soon come to regret wh

Nov 44 min read

A Summer of Secrets - an Editorial Review of "Misty Rivers"

A Summer of Secrets - an Editorial Review of "Misty Rivers"

A Summer of Secrets - an Editorial Review of "Misty Rivers"

Book Blurb: She was only twelve years old when the farm became hers to save. In the closing years of the nineteenth century, young Misty Rivers refuses to abandon the Arkansas farm her father built. With both parents gone and the land struggling beneath the relentless summer sun, she faces challenges far beyond her years. Armed with determination, a trusted shotgun, and her fiercely loyal hound Roscoe, Misty battles failing crops, dangerous strangers, and the untamed frontier

Nov 34 min read

Real Events and Survivor Memories - an Editorial Review of "Beneath the Canopy"

Real Events and Survivor Memories - an Editorial Review of "Beneath the Canopy"

Real Events and Survivor Memories - an Editorial Review of "Beneath the Canopy"

Book Blurb: Inspired by real events and survivor memories WWII. Nazi-occupied Netherlands. Two kids. One war. Johanna runs for her life. As bombs fall and gunfire echoes, an air raid tears her world apart and when the smoke clears, her baby sister is gone. Fleeing with her pregnant mother, Johanna now faces hunger, fear, and a winter that will strip away childhood, test her strength, and end months later with her in the same clothes. Orphaned by war, Rein steals from a Nazi b

Nov 24 min read

The Real History of Wartime Federal Nurses - an Editorial Review for "Sparrow's Song"

The Real History of Wartime Federal Nurses - an Editorial Review for "Sparrow's Song"

The Real History of Wartime Federal Nurses - an Editorial Review for "Sparrow's Song"

Book Blurb: Shortly after Kathryn Scheibel leaves her cigar‑making job in 1917, she enters the Army School of Nursing, a pioneering WWI nurse‑training program that offers the education she’s longed for but couldn’t afford. More than two decades later, her career carries her, as an instructor, into the Cadet Nurse Corps, the federal WWII nursing‑education initiative created to support the war effort. There she sees the same pressures she once felt now directed at students with

Oct 184 min read

The Price of Survival in America - an Editorial Review of "The Refugees: Family Threads"

The Price of Survival in America - an Editorial Review of "The Refugees: Family Threads"

The Price of Survival in America - an Editorial Review of "The Refugees: Family Threads"

Book Blurb: Two centuries. One family. The price of survival in America. When sixteen-year-old Mary Johnson arrives in the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1630, she dreams of freedom and a new life. But when a desperate act of violence forces her into exile, she must choose between family loyalty and forbidden love, setting in motion a legacy that will haunt her descendants for generations. A century later, the family is thrust into the upheaval of the Revolutionary War, a time f

Oct 174 min read

A Multigenerational Epic Tracing the Great Migration - an Editorial Review for "Divining Freedoms"

A Multigenerational Epic Tracing the Great Migration - an Editorial Review for "Divining Freedoms"

A Multigenerational Epic Tracing the Great Migration - an Editorial Review for "Divining Freedoms"

Book Blurb: Divining Freedom is a multigenerational epic tracing the Great Migration and its aftermath — the journey of Black Americans who escaped the Jim Crow South, built institutions in the promised cities of the North, and discovered that freedom in America is never granted, only contested. Set across 128 years and five generations in Detroit, East St. Louis, and the rural South, the novel follows the builders and the betrayers — the men who constructed churches, politic

Oct 155 min read

Revealing the Man Behind America's Most Enigmatic Founding Father - an Editorial Review of "The Thunder and the Silence"

Revealing the Man Behind America's Most Enigmatic Founding Father - an Editorial Review of "The Thunder and the Silence"

Revealing the Man Behind America's Most Enigmatic Founding Father - an Editorial Review of "The Thunder and the Silence"

Book Blurb: A sweeping historical novel revealing the man behind America’s most enigmatic Founding Father—Benjamin Franklin, whose brilliance built a nation but shattered his family… From Boston’s candlelit print shops to Paris’s glittering salons, The Thunder and the Silence follows Benjamin Franklin’s rise—from runaway apprentice to statesman—and the family torn apart along the way. For readers of Wolf Hall and The Book of Lost Names, this is Franklin’s story as you’ve neve

Oct 125 min read

A Sweeping Italian American Story - an Editorial Review of "Beyond the Copper Horizon"

A Sweeping Italian American Story - an Editorial Review of "Beyond the Copper Horizon"

A Sweeping Italian American Story - an Editorial Review of "Beyond the Copper Horizon"

Book Blurb: What would you do for your family? An epic saga inspired by real lives. BEYOND THE COPPER HORIZON brings a sweeping Italian-American immigrant story vividly to life. Opening at the Battle of Novara in 1849, conscripted farmer Domenico Zanotto returns home to his alpine village of Cuceglio anticipating domestic peace in a burgeoning Italian nation. The war-scarred, cavalryman is instead devastated by lost love and violent nightmares. He questions God and labors in

Oct 114 min read

Back to the Dangerous Days of Marie de Medici - an Editorial Review of "Serpent's Teeth"

Back to the Dangerous Days of Marie de Medici - an Editorial Review of "Serpent's Teeth"

Back to the Dangerous Days of Marie de Medici - an Editorial Review of "Serpent's Teeth"

Book Blurb: It's Paris, 1617, and Maria is desperately trying to avert the execution of her physician husband Manuel. Despite her friendship with the young King Louis XIII, his execution cannot be delayed indefinitely. Who could have added hemlock to the medicine Manuel had given the tailor? Concino Concini seems the most likely suspect, but when he is murdered by order of King Louis, and his wife Leonora sentenced to death, all hope seems lost. Leonora denies all knowledge o

Oct 104 min read

Two Women Linked 150 Years Apart - an Editorial Review of "What Time Has Kept"

Two Women Linked 150 Years Apart - an Editorial Review of "What Time Has Kept"

Two Women Linked 150 Years Apart - an Editorial Review of "What Time Has Kept"

Book Blurb: Two women, 150 years apart, linked by an enduring archaeological mystery "An intriguing and absorbing novel, meticulously researched." -Fiona Valpy, internationally bestselling author of The Sky Beneath Us In 1870s Scotland, Christian Maclagan--one of Britain's first female archaeologists--struggles for recognition in a world determined to silence her. Emboldened by her acquisition of a rare Neolithic carved stone ball, she becomes obsessed with unlocking its anci

Oct 96 min read

A Story of Two Worlds - an Editorial Review of "Island of Silver"

A Story of Two Worlds - an Editorial Review of "Island of Silver"

A Story of Two Worlds - an Editorial Review of "Island of Silver"

Book Blurb: A story of two worlds – one of darkness as the First World War rages in Europe – and one of ineffable light, where a little girl named Lorley lives through her jewel bright imagination. Lorley has a golden life on the island of Guernsey. Blessed with a wondrous imagination, she sees magic all around her. She dreams of mermaids in the waves and angels in the mist, a young girl who sees heaven in the wildflowers. But beyond this tiny island in the sea, the First Wor

Sep 255 min read

What Became of a Lost Colony - an Editorial Review for "A Strange and Terrible Wonder"

What Became of a Lost Colony - an Editorial Review for "A Strange and Terrible Wonder"

What Became of a Lost Colony - an Editorial Review for "A Strange and Terrible Wonder"

Book Blurb: Eleanor Dare, daughter of Roanoke's Governor John White, has no choice but to accompany her overly ambitious husband Ananias and her idealist, yet inexperienced father to England's new colony. Manteo of Croatoan wants nothing more than to cast off his association with the English and return home. Haunted by memories of an unexplainable event, he sets out to find the truth about what was brought to Roanoke by the English two years before as a weapon against the Sp

Sep 234 min read

Where the War Doesn't End - an Editorial Review of "Blueland"

Where the War Doesn't End - an Editorial Review of "Blueland"

Where the War Doesn't End - an Editorial Review of "Blueland"

Book Blurb: April 1865. Before the Civil War draws its final breath, Captain Alden Zur deserts the Union Army with three hardened soldiers: men fleeing the brutality of what they’ve seen, haunted by what they’ve done. With his family in tow, Alden leads them west—not in search of hope, but distance from a nation unraveling. The journey is unforgiving. Hunger gnaws. Violence stalks. Lawlessness erodes any semblance of order. Trust becomes a gamble, mercy a risk, and with every

Sep 194 min read

In 1912, Women Weren't Meant to Fly - an Editorial Review of "Beyond the Sky's Edge" (Hold Sept 8)

In 1912, Women Weren't Meant to Fly - an Editorial Review of "Beyond the Sky's Edge" (Hold Sept 8)

In 1912, Women Weren't Meant to Fly - an Editorial Review of "Beyond the Sky's Edge" (Hold Sept 8)

Book Blurb: They tried to keep her grounded. Livvie Newcomb dreams of more than what society dictates. When a tragedy strikes, she is drawn into the daring new world of aviation at Kinloch Field in St. Louis, where flying machines promise freedom unlike anything she has ever known. Yet in 1912, women weren't meant to fly. Facing ridicule, financial hardship, and fierce opposition, Livvie refuses to abandon the sky. As mysterious acts of sabotage threaten her training and long

Sep 175 min read

The Last Christian King of Jerusalem - an Editorial Review of "Blood and Faith"

The Last Christian King of Jerusalem - an Editorial Review of "Blood and Faith"

The Last Christian King of Jerusalem - an Editorial Review of "Blood and Faith"

Book Blurb: On July 4, 1187, Guy de Lusignan led twenty thousand men into the desert and lost everything. His army was annihilated at the Horns of Hattin. Jerusalem fell within months. The most sacred relic in Christendom was captured. History remembers Guy as the king who destroyed the Crusader States. But that is only half the story. Blood and Faith follows Guy from his arrival in the Holy Land as an ambitious younger son from France through his marriage to Princess Sibylla

Aug 315 min read

An Medieval Epic of Love, Loyalty, and Betrayal - an Editorial Review of "Lady of the Castle"

An Medieval Epic of Love, Loyalty, and Betrayal - an Editorial Review of "Lady of the Castle"

An Medieval Epic of Love, Loyalty, and Betrayal - an Editorial Review of "Lady of the Castle"

Book Blurb: GOLD MEDAL WINNER — Readers’ Choice Book Awards (2026) GOLD BOOK AWARD — Literary Titan (2026) ★★★★★ HIGHLY RECOMMENDED — The Coffee Pot Book Club (2026) SHORTLISTED — Historical Novel Society First Chapters Competition (2026) For a woman, holding power in a man's world is dangerous; holding faith in an intolerant one is deadly. England, 1185. Nicola de la Haye, constable of Lincoln Castle, commands her fortress with hard-won authority. Determined to protect her f

Aug 306 min read

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