Showing results by publisher "Spoken Realms" in Historical Fiction

Elsie Hathaway has it all: beauty, brains, and a strong work ethic. Taken in by her aunt's loving family after her mother's death, Elsie has had every advantage and earned every honor her school bestows. Her older brothers and her father remained in the family home and over the years their visits to each other were sporadic. But one day she drops by unannounced and discovers that this is the place where she is needed most.

In the spring of 1916, we meet orphaned sister and brother Jay and Kew Martin in London. Jay (real name Jane Elizabeth) has run away from her strange, claustrophobic, interfering, well-heeled family to the simplicities of the Brown Borough (otherwise Hackney), to live amongst its working-class people, to a job as a bus conductor, and to discover her own wild self. Kew is on recuperative leave from the War, and manages to find Jay in her humble new abode. She begs him to preserve her newfound freedom and not reveal her whereabouts to their family.

The South had lost the Civil War and was losing its soul. Uniformed rebels who had fought honorably in the light of day now wore tattered sheets in the dark and burned crosses. In North Carolina’s Robeson county, the Ku Klux did not see the vengeance it was stirring up: Henry Berry Lowery’s gang of Swamp Outlaws, who ruthlessly protected themselves and the county’s Indians and Negroes. “We kill anyone who hunts us, from Sheriff on down,” Lowery promised, and by forays out of the swamps to keep that promise he became the highest-bountied outlaw in the nation’s history.

College senior Patty Wyatt is a fun-loving, headstrong, and intelligent girl who gets herself into mischief and learns valuable lessons, both in and out of the classroom. Written in 1903, this is Jean Webster’s first of many great American novels.

Conquering Passion introduces us to Rambaud, Antoine, and Hugh de Montbryce, brothers from a noble Norman family with a long and illustrious military history. The eldest brother, Ram de Montbryce, is an ambitious warrior, greedy for glory and power in the service of his friend, William the Conqueror. His heroism at the Battle of Hastings helps secure the Norman victory and earns him an earldom in newly conquered England.

A Tale of Two Cities is one of Charles Dickens’ later novels, published and serialized in 1859. It is a compelling tale of love, sacrifice, and redemption set against the backdrop of the violence and horror of the French Revolution.

"Cup of Gold" by John Steinbeck is a historical novel that follows the life of Henry Morgan, a Welshman who becomes one of the most notorious pirates of the Caribbean. The story begins with Henry's childhood in Wales, where he dreams of adventure and riches. He eventually leaves his home and becomes a bond servant in Barbados, where he learns about the harsh realities of life and begins to develop his ambitions.

The year is 1980. On a former French Plantation east of Chanthaburi, a very exclusive gathering brings together five extraordinary women. Stories were their business, and Gilda was at the top of the heap. There wasn’t a war she hadn’t reported, a scandal she hadn’t uncovered or a bestseller list she hadn’t topped. The Whisky & Ink Ladies Drinking Society numbered only five at any one time, no boys allowed. Its meetings took place every two years. And Claude, daughter of the late Ava Wood, wants in. If things go right, she’ll be initiated into WILDS at the end of the visit.

During World War I, an American secret service agent, Evelyn Erith, opens and deciphers a coded letter. It says the Germans believe that Kay MacKay, an American concentration camp escapee, knows The Great Secret. And that MacKay must be eliminated. Erith finds McKay, saves him from German agents and convinces him to join U.S. Intelligence. Together they venture undercover into the Swiss Alps to discover and expose The Great Secret. The future of Europe depends on it!

The sales of this story outpaced Alice in Wonderland by 10 times. Hesba Stretton was the pen name of Sarah Smith, and she was one of the most popular writers of the 19th century. This is Stretton's best-selling masterpiece relating a story that resonated with Charles Dickens who would become an editor for many of her works. Stretton had a heart for writing and a heart for the poorest of children.

When Mr. Lepel and his friend Mr. Rothsay return from travels abroad, a half-forgotten play witnessed in Italy lingers uneasily in their memories. A subsequent visit to a quiet country estate draws Mr. Lepel into the lives of those around him, as a young woman at the gate becomes the unknowing centre of rival affections. As illness, friendship, and good intentions begin to intersect, events unfold that will test loyalty and conscience, and lead toward consequences no one has foreseen.

According to legend, in 1910, Marie Belloc Lowndes attended a London dinner party where a guest told her that his mother’s butler and cook claimed they had once rented rooms to Jack the Ripper, the notorious mass murderer. The idea for “The Lodger” was born. Mr. and Mrs. Bunting have sunk their savings into their house with plans to let rooms. But no lodgers have materialized, and they are on the verge of penury when, one foggy night, a knock on the door brings Mr. Sleuth, an unassuming gentleman whose needs are perfectly suited to the suite of rooms the Buntings have to rent.

Lady Chatterley's Lover is D. H. Lawrence's last novel. First published privately in 1928, Lady Chatterley's Lover was banned from wider publication in the UK until 1960 and was the subject of censorship and book banning in the United States and elsewhere. Its erotic subject material, colorful language, and discussion of interclass relations were deemed obscene.

Sophia Westcott has mourned her late husband for a respectable amount of time by society's standards. She was now a dowager Duchess and independent in her own right. She was Sophie. Her life on her own terms. Sinclair Montgomery was returning home. The second son, now the heir. He had mourned the passing of his brother as he travelled abroad. In all his wildest dreams Sin never imagined to be stunned so forcefully by a vision of beauty. And so captivated by the inner workings of another's mind.

This book has all the makings of a fairy tale. The lovely orphaned girl, Phoebe Deane, lives with her kind but ineffectual half-brother but is treated like an unpaid servant by his shrewish wife. A crude widower with a houseful of children is determined to have her. He repulses her but her sister-in-law helps with the scheme to get her in his clutches. Phoebe is in despair and would prefer death to living with a tyrant. Along comes a fairy godmother full of sympathy and plans to help her - and a handsome stranger....

New York City, 1832. Clarissa Tanner is carefree and lighthearted until the sudden death of her parents. Forced to pay off family debts or lose her horse farm, she’s given one choice: auction off her beloved horses or reluctantly enter 1830s New York Society social season to face the dreaded marriage market. Nicholas is a man on a mission, searching for his missing brother. Fearing Liam may be the victim of foul play, Nicholas needs to keep a low profile while conducting his search.

Lean Times in Lankhmar, a gripping novella by Fritz Leiber Jr, follows the divergent paths of Faford and the Gray Mouser in the city of Lankhmar. The Gray Mouser becomes a Lieutenant for the city's top extortioner, dealing with the various religious sects on the Street of the Gods. Meanwhile, Fairford becomes an acolyte for the dottering apostle of the god, Issac of the Jug, setting the stage for a clash of interests between our two heroes. As the Issac of the Jug religion gains popularity and wealth, the Mouser is tasked with extracting funds from Fairford's mentor.

Charles Boswell's short story "Monsters of Monarchy", Terror Tales, May 1940 features Roman emperor Caligula (12 BCE-24 CE), one of the most notorious Roman emperors. Known for his incestuous relationship with his sisters, and for his cruelty and madness, which culminated in Caligula naming his horse Roman consul and declaring himself a god. Caligula's brief reign and life turn into a complex and fascinating story of a boy-emperor thoroughly unprepared for the throne, who, in the early years of the Roman Empire, tried to make Rome an absolute monarchy but failed.

Constance Reid marries Sir Clifford Chatterley, Baronet, who comes home from the Great War grievously injured. He is paralyzed from the waist down and must rely on Constance for all his needs. Constance finds living in mining country formidable and depressing until she meets Sir Clifford's gamekeeper, Oliver Mellors. They enter into an affair which makes Constance realize living with the mind alone is only half a life.

This gripping thriller takes listeners on an adrenaline-filled journey through the shadowy world of sabotage in 1942 America. Ric Dymond is an inexperienced young FBI agent on a mission to bring a covert and deadly sabotage plot hatched by the German Abwehr to justice. Ric is forced to go undercover and rely on his wits and intuition to uncover the unknown saboteurs, aware that another uncover agent was brutally murdered. But the mission is further complicated when Ric meets an old flame, throwing his resolve and focus into question.