Love Lost in Time Cathie Dunn Blurb: A reluctant daughter. A dutiful wife. A mystery of the ages. Languedoc, France, 2018 Historian Madeleine Winters would rather research her next project than rehash the strained relationship she had with her late mother. However, to claim her inheritance, she reluctantly agrees to stay the one year required in her late mother’s French home and begins renovations. But when she’s haunted by a female voice inside the house and tremors emanatin

Book Blurb: 1990. The Soviet Empire is unraveling. A circus has just arrived in America. When the first privately owned Soviet circus arrived in America in 1990, as the Soviet Empire unraveled, its elite performers hoped to build cultural bridges through spectacular shows. Instead, this prestigious troupe faced a perilous journey through Cold War America. Circus director Yuri had to navigate treacherous waters where American mobsters, Soviet agents, and political forces circl

BOOK EXCERPT This excerpt establishes the main theme and the high stakes. Prologue Vienna, July 1847 Helga winces as a contraction ripples through her. She knows it is time. She dresses and then wakes her mother, who will accompany her to the lying-in clinic. Within the half-hour they are ready, shawls wrapped tightly around them. Helga clutches the banisters as she follows her mother down the stairs and out onto the street. Slivers of dawn start to separate the darkness as t

BOOK EXCERPT ‘Luigsech of the Cornovii?’ Boudicca stopped short, shock widening her bright eyes. ‘What in the name of Andraste are you doing here?’ She smiled ruefully. ‘I could ask you the same. We’re a long way from the lands of the Iceni.’ Boudicca’s face darkened. ‘We were bringing the tribe’s yearly tribute to the Roman scum.’ She gestured to the water. ‘It belongs to the gods now.’ Luciana frowned, regarding the woman. Boudicca, her childhood foe in the Beltane chariot

BOOK EXCERPT From Chapter 2 - A Garden’s Secret The abbess sat in her chambers, reviewing the abbey’s ledgers. Sister Agnes entered without waiting for the novice outside to announce her. “My child! What urgency drives you to burst in so?” “I must tell you what I’ve found, Mother. It is deeply troubling.” “Then speak, Sister.” “The piglets did not die by the blade alone. They were prepared first with a potion—I suspect monkshood, judging by the blue tint of their lips and ton

Book Blurb: Venice, 1710, Poinsettia Girl is based on the story of Agata de la Pieta, an orphan musician of the Ospedale de la Pieta. Ten-year-old Agata's world is shaken at the sudden death of her mother. Left only with her egregious father, a working musician in Venice, her ailing grandmother sends her to the well-known orphanage, hidden from everything she's ever known. Agata auditions for the conservatory style music school where music is both salvation and spectacle. Hid

Suzanne Kelman is a 2015 Academy of Motion Pictures Nicholl Finalist, Multi-Award-Winning Screenwriter and a Film Producer. As well as working in film she is also an International Amazon Bestselling Fiction Author of the Southlea Bay Series – The Rejected Writers’ Book Club, Rejected Writers Take the Stage and The Rejected Writers’ Christmas Wedding. Born in the United Kingdom, she now resides in Washington State. Buy Here: https://geni.us/cHscz Https://www.suzannekelmanautho

BOOK EXCERPT: DANCE OF THE EARTH, ACT 2 A little about Rose’s son, Walter, as a boy. Mother, when she came in, removing her gardening hat, was remarkably gentle. ‘Walter,’ she moved forward to hug him. ‘We’ve a lot to talk about. Dora, refreshments, I think.’ Dora nodded and hurried to the kitchen as Mother led him by the hand towards chairs stacked with things to pack. They moved aside a pile of cushions and settled not quite side by side, not quite facing each other. ‘ I a

Catherine writes historical fiction set primarily in Berlin, covering the period from the 1930s up to the fall of the Berlin Wall and dealing with the long shadows left by war. The Girl Who Told the Truth will be her thirteenth novel with Bookouture and there are more to come. Her books have been published by Grand Central Publishing in the USA and translated into a number of languages including French, Italian and, most recently, German.   becoming a full-time writer. She is

Book Excerpt Elena was struck by the cold, salty air against the water and the Lido perfectly displayed in the distance. She let the shoreline sky cleanse her, wading her conducting arms through the damp air. They sang a simple chant as they walked and made a half-circle with their backs to the water, close to the Prioress. A group of listeners stopped their errands as the rarely seen foundling girls alerted them with their song. It was uncommon for the public to interact wit

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

BOOK EXCERPT “I doubt Saint-Thomas d’Aquin bears any resemblance to how we remember it,” Papa grumbled, his tone plain. “And Paris is not the safest place to be for anyone these days.” “There’s talk of war in Paris now,” Florian added, absently chewing on his thumbnail. His words struck me like a cold gust of wind, leaving a sharp ache in the pit of my belly. I had heard rumours of war before, but they were just rumours; they had no reason to be true. The Bastille had fallen

BOOK EXCERPT Betsey gently pushed back the thin blanket, swung her feet over the side of the bed, and reached for her soft leather slippers, a Christmas present from Annie that she treasured. She tiptoed from the room, determined not to wake Ned if she could help it, for it was early and she had heard the church clock strike six. Closing the door quietly behind her, she descended the stairs and went to the kitchen, where she pulled the kettle forward onto the stove, for her f

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BOOK EXCERPT: I walked quickly to the hotel. It was just two blocks away, but by the time I got there, I was struggling to catch my breath. Like Teo on that last day, the small voice inside whispered, gasping for air at the top of the loft ladder. In the apartment, Nonna was packing, a handwritten list on the bed beside her valise. She’d brought only a few things to Palermo—a blouse, a pair of bloomers and stockings, her prayer book and rosary. Too few items, I thought, to wa

BOOK EXCERPT Chapter 2 - Australia, 1939 - 1941 General Nursing and Obstetrics qualifications clutched firmly in gloved hand, Annie waited for Iris and Verna on Oxford Street, Paddington, so they could walk along to Victoria Barracks together. She smoothed down her waisted floral dress, then touched her hat. Not often intimidated, Annie felt a flutter of nerves. What had seemed an easy decision did not feel so comfortable now. “G’day.” Startled from her doubts, Annie turned a

BOOK EXCERPT April 1471: Dawn on Easter Day, Barnet Heath. Eighteen-year-old Richard of Gloucester, brother of Edward IV, takes confession and prepares for his first taste of battle. They wake, those who have dared sleep, to a grey and muffled world. Overnight, heavy mist has fallen, and the air of early dawn is like a breath of winter. Beneath his coif, Richard’s hair sticks to his skull like goose grease, his cheeks sore and clammy. Worse is the effect of the sodden grass;