Depression Era Historical Fiction

In the heart of the Appalachians, an ancient power stirs—and a family must decide whether to hide or fight. For generations, the Reillys have practiced the old druidic ways in secret: communing with spirits, binding themselves to beasts, and guarding the wilds of Virginia. But the 1930s bring new enemies. Coal barons and their hired guns want the land. Mafia enforcers smell moonshine profits. And the people of Amber’s Hollow, trapped in the middle, are running out of time. Now Sean Reilly, a novice still awaiting his first animal form, must stand with his father, Erin the scarred bear, ...

Time traveling from the Orwellian world of 2032 is forbidden. But this doesn’t stop Emma, twin brother Ethan, and their special friend Zak from hijacking a time machine — destination 1932. Four years earlier, at the age of seventeen, they embarked on a failed mission to save the life of Jack Kennedy. Now they are attempting to exhume Franklin D. Roosevelt. His political life and the future of American democracy drowned in the swamp lands of Washington D.C. that steamy, violent night of the Bonus March Massacre. The squatter camp is a “Hooverville”— a chaotic quilt of canvas, ...

In depression era America, 1933, three men become unlikely friends on the hobo trail after being accused of crimes they didn't commit.

It's a boring, hardscrabble life for three sisters growing up on a Michigan farm in the throes of the Great Depression. But when young Nellie, digging for pirate treasure, discovers the tiny blue-black hand of a dead baby, rumors begin to fly. Narrated by Nellie and her two older sisters, the story follows the girls as they encounter a patchwork of threatening circumstances and take it upon themselves to solve the mystery.

THE RETURN OF MARY After fourteen exceptionally long years, Mary Bentley, who was missing since the age of five has at last been found by her mum through what most would consider a profound miracle. Now a young woman, she must learn to reacquaint herself with the her biological family who are essentially strangers to her. But what will happen to the relationship between Mary and the loving Irish couple who raised her as their own for all of those years? They live a simple life on a rural farm in Dixon, England, and forge through life with very few luxuries, but have given Mary a God-fearing...

When Works Progress Administration editor Millie Lang finds herself on the wrong end of a potential political scandal, she’s shipped off to Montana to work on the state’s American Guide Series—travel books intended to put the nation’s destitute writers to work. Millie arrives to an eclectic staff claiming their missed deadlines are due to sabotage, possibly from the state’s powerful Copper Kings who don’t want their long and bloody history with union organizers aired. But Millie begins to suspect that the answer might instead lie with the town’s mysterious librarian, Alice Monroe.

WW II has ended, yet the extreme woes of wounded and mentally traumatized soldiers abound throughout the world. Teramo, Italy 1945Forty-two year old Sarah Puglia had been forced to remain in England during the horrors of WW II with her British family the Bentley's; due to it being extremely unsafe for a British subject to venture back into Italy which is where she calls home with Lorenzo her Italian husband. During the six excruciatingly long years apart, Sarah's husband had been conscripted to be a foot soldier against his will to fight for the Italian Army. In the final year of the war, ...

After twenty years in a loveless marriage, Evelyn Henderson will do anything to escape her stifling suburban life. She boards a train for Reno, Nevada, a former frontier town that’s booming thanks to “six-weekers”: women from all walks of life who take up residence there just long enough to secure an uncontested divorce—a right they don’t yet have in their home states.

Birdie Jennings dreams of a big life beyond her small town of Mt. Sterling, Kentucky—beyond her mundane job tying tobacco leaves at Wrights Factory, beyond her position as the baby of the family. Her life changes when she meets smooth-talking Jimmy Walker. Jimmy makes big promises for an exciting life together, and Birdie is quickly swept off her feet. But some short years after they marry, Jimmy disappears without a trace, leaving Birdie hurt and alone with their two toddlers. Out of money and out of options, Birdie moves back home with her overbearing mother.

It’s 1931, tens of thousands have been evicted from their homes, breadlines are blocks long, shantytowns are everywhere, and over 200,000 children are homeless. Brianna Quinn, whose husband was killed in a board racing accident and now has her destitute in-laws, Edward and Francis, living with her, keeps the wolf from her door by being a part time cat burglar. When she learns that Edward’s brother, Brody, an accountant and courier for the private and secretive Whitter Bank, went missing while delivering 500 double eagles to a bank patron, she decides to find out what happened to him. ...

This is a recipe book with recipes dating back to The Great Depression. It is two complete book in one, and shares ways to cook simply when times are hard. These simple ways are something learned during tough times, and passed on today.

Babe is a charismatic and widely loved man, a gambler with a gift for gab that often gets him out of tricky situations. He’s also a dreamer, something he shares with his patient and loving wife, Rosie. They both yearn for financial stability and see the land they own as insurance for future generations. But when Babe and a few comrades enlist in a scheme that improbably falls apart, he endangers the little security the family has. On the verge of losing everything, what’s a family man to do? If you’re a gambler like Babe, you double down and risk it all for one big score.

Virginia, 1930s. The Great Depression has settled over tobacco country, where the land can be both a family’s lifeblood and its undoing. Samuel Carter, a quiet farmer bound to the soil his kin have worked for generations, shoulders the weight of drought, debt, and solitude. His world is measured in planting and harvest, storms and silences. Clara Evans, a determined young reporter from the city, arrives to bring “fresh perspective” to the county’s small newspaper. With sharp eyes and a compassionate voice, she writes of lives overlooked — the struggles and quiet strengths of a ...

With mysterious serial murders putting peaceful Lexington, Alabama, on edge, Jessie and Hubert Wiggins’ steadfast calm and devotion to each other reassures everyone that faith will see them through. But Jessie and Hubert have paid a terrible hidden cost to maintain their devout facade and respectable standing. Nothing can allay the guilt they feel—or stop the growing distrust between them.

Artie Call can’t get a break. Orphaned during the Great Depression, Artie finds himself leading a life of crime, stealing food, and hanging with the wrong people to survive. When his mischief lands him in juvenile court, a fellow church goer takes him in. But the trials and tribulations don’t end there. After enduring unkind and unyielding treatment at home, Artie is sent back to juvenile hall. Down on his luck and with nowhere to go, Artie falls back into old patterns. Until Mary Wilkerson, a feisty widow, sees potential in Artie and takes him in. Ray McCandless, the wise yet firm ...

She was the last person to see him alive. Hannah Granville knew there would never be answers to her questions. How could Father commit suicide, leaving his wife and children destitute? Did he have any inkling of their fate? How did she fail to understand his intention? Could she have saved him? Was he a coward? Too busy making a living to spend time in the past, Hannah is virtually alone in the world. Her siblings have been taken in by relatives across the country; her mother, too frail and distraught to care for herself much less her children. The only thing getting Hannah through most ...

A used carousel arrives with one song and one ghost—and both demand to be heard. When bootstrapping boardwalk owner Roscoe Sterling buys a used carousel to revive his Depression-era seaside attraction, he expects nickels and crowds—not a calliope that screams at 3 a.m. and a woman with milk-white eyes drifting through the rain. The ride came from Avonberry Park, where a suspicious inferno ended a marriage and a business—yet the burn-streaked horses and their haunting waltz have found a new home on the New Jersey shore. As Roscoe races to assemble the carousel before Memorial Day, the ...

"Bridges We Build" takes readers into the heart of Watertown, New York, during the darkest days of the Great Depression. Through the eyes of Maggie O'Connor, a resilient housewife, the novel explores the intertwining lives of working-class families, small business owners, and local leaders as they struggle to survive—and ultimately rebuild—amidst economic collapse. From factory layoffs to neighborhood food drives, Maggie becomes the emotional anchor of her community, finding strength in resourcefulness and solidarity. As her husband Jim grapples with the shame of losing his job and ...

A veteran of the Great War, Jesse Cole is grateful for the quiet life he now leads. But when his closest friend runs afoul of local criminals Frog and Squirrel Fenley, Jesse is forced to spin his moral compass and enter a violent and volatile underworld. There he encounters corrupt lawmen, hired assassins, and a dark family secret that will upend all he once knew. Complicating matters are Texas Ranger Amon Atkins—who arrives to investigate the Fenleys just as their empire is threatened by a deadly new competitor—and the green-eyed, raven-haired Adaline, a love Jesse thought he’d lost forever.

Amanda Lawrence, a charming, sheltered New York socialite, falls in love with Jonathan Dartland, a part-Apache mining engineer who belongs to the vastness of the Arizona desert. Amanda responds to his strength and self-reliance, but has nothing and nobody to guide her when she follows him to the grim town of Lodestone.