Showing titles in Historical

In 1933 in the Shenandoah Valley, there isn't a place for Lum (short for Columbia), a 33-year-old intersex woman. She travels by schedule from one branch of the family to another, assisting with cooking, childcare, and housework. Always an outsider, even in her own family, Lum secretly collects postcards of people like the Dog-faced Girl, imagining their stories, and nurtures her lifelong friendship with Smiley, an African-American man who sells furniture, odds and ends, and a little moonshine.

Lancelot, the greatest Knight of Camelot is almost flogged to death, exiled, and stripped of the King's grace. Separated from the man he loves and the kingdom he calls home, he travels from England to Europe to begin a lonely, desperate life when he meets someone who will alter his perspective forever.

This audiobook journeys back to 1957 Los Angeles, where James Whale, the once-famous director of such classics as Frankenstein and Bride of Frankenstein, is living in retirement, haunted by his past. Rescuing him from his too-vivid imagination is his gardener, a handsome ex-marine. The friendship between these two very different men is sometimes tentative, sometimes touching, often dangerous - and always captivating.

Three lives. One man. Christopher Marlowe was the first rock star poet, a spy, an atheist, a gay rebel whose controversial plays thrilled audiences and challenged the government. Christopher Wild is Kathe Koja’s new novel, a daring remix of eras - the glitter and threat of Elizabethan England, a grimy mid-20th century, and a dark near-future of constant surveillance - as Marlowe loves and fights and writes his way through every dangerous age.

Born and raised a gypsy in the late 11th century, Teman values freedom over everything. He and his best friend, Jasim, are thieves for hire - until one night when they're caught and their precious freedom is revoked. Given the choice between the dungeons or palace pleasure slavery, they become slaves, but Teman vows to escape someday.

WWII. 1942. Will's brother is fighting the war in the Pacific, but Will is forced to remain behind. Will takes his brother's place in the academic world of Indiana University, where he meets two students and two soon-to-be-legendary men who will change his life forever. Will thought he was the only boy attracted to other males, but when he sneaks into Professor Kinsey's marriage course he realizes his mistake. Will meets Ben, who he suspects is not unlike himself.

When archaeologist Anna Baring announces the founding of the Lady Adventurers Club in May 1923, none of the other three members expect to ever meet again. After all, they live halfway around the world from each other. What could possibly bring them together once more? Then they each receive an unexpected letter. Anna has found a tomb that promises to be even grander than that of King Tutankhamun, and she wants them to come to Egypt for the opening. It's the find of the century. The tomb will make old Tut look like a pauper. But will the women of the Lady Adventurers Club get to see it?

Charming rascal Tristan Northwood seems to have it all: an ancient name, a noble inheritance, and a lovely wife. Women love him, men admire him, and it seems there is nothing he can’t do, whether it’s seducing a society wife or winning a carriage race. Little does society suspect that the name means nothing to him, the fortune is in his father’s hands, and he has no interest in his wife except a very distant friendship. Society bores him, and he takes dares because he only feels alive when he’s dancing on the edge...until his wife’s brother comes home from the wars.

Squire William Raven has only one goal: to finally receive his spurs and become a knight. When his lord, Sir Robert de Cantilou, returns from a five-year crusade in the Holy Land, William wants nothing more than to impress him. After Sir Robert's return, noble guests arrive from France, bringing intrigue to the castle. William is oblivious to the politics, as he's distracted by nightly visits from a faceless lover, a man who pleasures him in the dark and then leaves....

The writing's on the wall for Harry Kvist. Once a notorious boxer, he now spends his days drinking, and his nights chasing debts amongst the pimps, prostitutes and petty thieves of 1930s Stockholm. When women can't satisfy him, men can. But one biting winter's night he pays a threatening visit to a debtor named Zetterberg, and when the man is found dead shortly afterwards, all eyes are on Kvist. Kvist's struggle to clear his name will lead him from the city's slums, gangster hideouts and gambling dens to its most opulent hotels and elite nightclubs.

1883. Thaniel Steepleton returns home to his tiny London apartment to find a gold pocket watch on his pillow. Six months later, the mysterious timepiece saves his life, drawing him away from a blast that destroys Scotland Yard. At last, he goes in search of its maker, Keita Mori, a kind, lonely immigrant from Japan. Although Mori seems harmless, a chain of unexplainable events soon suggests he must be hiding something. When Grace Carrow, an Oxford physicist, unwittingly interferes, Thaniel is torn between opposing loyalties.

Settembre 1939. Aldo, ventenne fiorentino, giunge a San Domino, l’isola delle Tremiti scelta dal regime fascista come confino per chi era accusato di omosessualità. I cosiddetti “femminielli” alloggiano in due baracche fatiscenti, con un secchio a fare da gabinetto e un camino mal funzionante per le notti più fredde. Sono perlopiù siciliani, perché arrestati per un omicidio avvenuto anni prima a Catania e tuttora impunito, che continua a perseguitarli.

*Note: this is a prequel related to the Devil & Angel stories. Tall, dark and devilishly handsome footman Kent Lynch takes the new hall-boy, young comely Gavin under his wing… brooding his with instruction in his duties and methods, and giving him discipline when needed, which Gavin quite enjoys. In the grand, bustling halls of Westbury Estate, a tale of forbidden love and unexpected connection unfolds. At the center of this story are Kent, a seasoned and disciplined servant, and Gavin, a young hall boy whose arrival at the estate brightens footman Kent Lynch's days… and nights.

Soho 1925. Two young men meet - for one of them this is love at first sight, for the other only lust and guilt.... Paul Harris returns to England from self-imposed exile in Tangiers for an exhibition of his paintings. He leaves behind Patrick, the man he has loved since they met in the trenches in 1918, needing to discover if he has the strength to live without him and wanting to explore the kind of life he might have lived had it not been for the war. In Bohemian Soho, Paul meets Edmund....

Two Shakespearean actors in an unconventional marriage get caught up in a renowned director’s scheme that will bring them closer than ever or rip them apart for good. Up-and-coming stage actress Margaret Shoard has just taken a bow as Lady Macbeth, the role she has always believed was destined...

On every visit to Madame Delacroix's brothel, Nathaniel Travers requests the same man. Stunningly handsome and highly skilled, Jasper not only shares Nate's fondness for wickedly erotic games and black leather corsets, but he has become a trusted confidant. And Jasper's the only person who knows Nate longs for a committed relationship with his childhood friend, Peter Edmonton. Unrequited love hurts, but it hurts even more when the object of affection is in love with another.

In the frigid winter of 1891, with the nation still reeling from the Barings bank crisis, Inspector Philemon Raft returns from an involuntary sabbatical and is tasked with solving the kidnapping of highly placed peer Alice Dewberry. Thrust into a sordid underworld where the upper classes indulge in disreputable overseas investments designed to fatten their pocketbooks, Raft finds himself at loose ends without his companion, Constable Freddie Crook.

New York Times and USA Today Bestseller In this stunning new historical novel inspired by true events, Kim van Alkemade tells the fascinating story of a woman who must choose between revenge and mercy when she encounters the doctor who subjected her to dangerous medical experiments in a New York...

Lieutenant Tom Donald envies everything about fellow officer Frank Foden - his confidence, his easy manner with the men in the trenches, the affectionate letters from his wife. Frank shares these letters happily, drawing Tom into a vicarious friendship with a woman he's never met. Although the bonds of friendship forged under fire are strong, Tom can't be so open with Frank - he's attracted to men and could never confess that to anyone.

Jonty Stewart is handsome and outgoing, with blood as blue as his eyes. When he takes up a teaching post at the college where he studied, his dynamic style acts as an agent for change within the archaic institution. He also has a catalytic effect on Orlando Coppersmith.