Historical Women

Women can be heroes. When twenty-year-old nursing student Frances “Frankie” McGrath hears these words, it is a revelation. Raised in the sun-drenched, idyllic world of Southern California and sheltered by her conservative parents, she has always prided herself on doing the right thing. But in 1965, the world is changing, and she suddenly dares to imagine a different future for herself. When her brother ships out to serve in Vietnam, she joins the Army Nurse Corps and follows his path.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER GMA BOOK CLUB PICK AN NPR BOOK OF THE YEAR From the New York Times bestselling author of I Was Anastasia and Code Name Hélène comes a gripping historical mystery inspired by the life and diary of Martha Ballard, a renowned 18th-century midwife who defied...

Told through the experiences of the four women who loved him, this imaginative account of Frank Lloyd Wright's raucous life blazes with Boyle's trademark wit and invention. Boyle's protean voice captures these very different women and, in doing so, creates a masterful ode to the creative life in all its complexity and grandeur.

The incomparable Civil War diarist Mary Chesnut wrote that she had the luck “always to stumble in on the real show.” Married to a high-ranking member of the Confederate government, she was ideally placed to watch and to record the South’s headlong plunge to ruin, and she left in her journals an unsurpassed account of the old regime’s death throes, its moment of high drama in world history. With intelligence and passion she described the turbulent events of politics and war, as well as the complex society around her.

In 1631 Elizabeth Winthrop, newly widowed with an infant daughter, set sail for the New World. Against a background of rigidity and conformity she dared to befriend Anne Hutchinson at the moment of her banishment from the Massachusetts Bay Colony; dared to challenge a determined army captain bent on the massacre of her friends, the Siwanoy Indians; and, above all, dared to love a man as her heart and her whole being commanded.

The tide is turning against the colonists in the Revolutionary War, and 18-year-old Elizabeth Morris cannot sit by idly. Quietly disdainful of her Tory parents, who drag her along to society events and welcome a British soldier into their home during their occupation of New York City, Elizabeth decides to take matters into her own hands. She realizes that, as a young woman, no one around her believes that she can comprehend the profound implications of being a nation at war - she is, effectively, invisible. And she can use this invisibility to her advantage.

She's an unconventional lady who has traveled the world, practices the art of self-defense most excellently, and has an interesting tattoo in—ahem—a very unusual place. He's a former member of the Metropolitan Police, now a private investigator, who grew up on the poverty-ridden streets of Edinburgh and has worked the dangerous back alleys of London's notorious East End. A vicious murder brings them together in a race against time that takes them from the sordid back streets of London into the elite private clubs of the powerful and rich.

Nestled into the cliffs in southern Italy's Amalfi coast, Positano is an artist's vision, with rows of brightly hued houses perched above the sea and picturesque staircases meandering up and down the hillside. Santina, still a striking woman despite old age and the illness that saps her last strength, is spending her final days at her home, Villa San Vito. The magnificent 18th-century palazzo is very different from the tiny house in which she grew up. And as she decides its fate, she must confront the choices that led her here so long ago.

Discover the timeless tale of sisterhood and self-discovery with a fresh twist in "Little Women: Adapted for Modern Readers." This edition revitalizes Louisa May Alcott's heartwarming classic by updating the language and formatting for today's audience while preserving the original charm and depth. The modernized typography and clarified dialogue make this beloved story more accessible, allowing readers to seamlessly connect with the March sisters and their journey through life's triumphs and trials. Step into the world of 19th-century New England, where the March family navigates love, ...

A World War II historical fiction novel set in Nazi-occupied Paris, this story follows a young female medical student drawn into resistance espionage, moral compromise, and a high-stakes romantic entanglement. Written for readers of Kristin Hannah, Kate Quinn, and Pam Jenoff who love emotionally driven wartime stories inspired by real operations. Paris, 1942. Beneath occupation and fear, Océane Bell dreams only of healing. A French American medical student at the Sorbonne, she divides her days between study and tending the wounded at Hôtel-Dieu, determined to save lives rather than gamble...

Beth Crawford is fleeing the shadow of her late husband’s deadly debts, desperate to protect her young son. She hides in plain sight by joining a long cattle drive, hoping the endless trail will keep them safe. Yet the farther she travels beside Jake, the rugged trail boss, the harder it becomes to guard her own heart. Jake Thornton commands the cattle drive with discipline and experience, a man shaped by loss and hardened by responsibility. He reluctantly accepts Beth on as camp seamstress and medical tender, but it’s her courage and the gentle care she shows her son that reach a place...

Only a woman with an iron backbone could succeed as an undertaker in Victorian England, but Violet Morgan takes great pride in her trade. While her husband, Graham, is preoccupied with elevating their station in society, Violet is cultivating a sterling reputation for Morgan Undertaking.

When Nicole Rayburn adds a historic bookshop to her list of promotional venues, she meets the owner, Deborah Dolan, who’s desperate to discover what happened to her Victorian ancestor. A well-respected playwright, Edgar Hilliard seemingly had it all: professional success, a thriving business, and a loving family, but according to family lore, Edgar walked out one night, never to return, an unfinished manuscript his only legacy to future generations.

Cordelia Fletcher awakens in a stranger’s home with no memory of who she is or how she came to be lying alone on the prairie. What she does know is that the quiet strength of the widowed rancher who rescued her stirs something deep within her, something that feels both dangerous and safe all at once. Micah Redmond has lived three years in the shadow of grief, his heart buried alongside the wife he lost. Devoted only to his daughter and his ranch, he never imagined fate would place a mysterious young woman in his care, one whose presence unsettles his resolve to remain alone forever. As ...

Take a tour of the past and uncover stories of the women whose lives and achievements have shaped our modern world. In Life Lessons from Historical Women, Eleanor Morton celebrates the ordinary women whose decisions and accomplishments in their everyday lives resonate with us today. Whether it's what we can learn from the first woman to summit Everest or the trailblazing ladies who confirm that pockets have always been must-have in women's clothing, Eleanor writes with humour and a sincere respect for our history, and imparts valuable lessons for the modern female.

When Aunt Adeline goes missing, it is up to her niece, Charlotte, to uncover the clues of her deeply hidden family secrets and the town she calls home.

With courage, grace, and powerful insight, bestselling author Kristin Hannah captures the epic panorama of World War II and illuminates an intimate part of history seldom seen: the women's war. The Nightingale tells the stories of two sisters, separated by years and experience, by ideals, passion and circumstance, each embarking on her own dangerous path toward survival, love, and freedom in German-occupied, war-torn France—a heartbreakingly beautiful novel that celebrates the resilience of the human spirit and the durability of women. It is a novel for everyone, a novel for a lifetime.

Josephine's life story was as turbulent as the age, an era of revolution and social upheaval, of the guillotine and of frenzied hedonism. With telling psychological depth and compelling literary grace, Carolly Erickson brings the complex, charming, ever resilient Josephine to life in this memorable portrait, one that carries the reader from the sensual richness of her childhood in the tropics to her final lonely days at Malmaison.

They were the women who loved the men America feared. From Prohibition-era Chicago to postwar Miami, Mafia Women chronicles the real lives of the wives, mistresses, and molls who stood beside the kingpins of organized crime. Through years of meticulous research and rare historical accounts, it unveils the hidden side of America’s underworld—the women who endured loyalty, betrayal, and survival in a world ruled by power and blood. Among them are Viola O’Banion, who defied the Church for love; Mae Capone, the steadfast wife who outlived a legend; Evelyn “Billie” Frechette, who paid ...

INTO THE AMERICAS (A novel based on a true story) is a gritty, real-life adventure based on one of history’s greatest survival stories. It was inspired by the diary entries of young English blacksmith John Jewitt during his time aboard the brigantine The Boston and also during his sojourn at Nootka Sound, on North America's western seaboard, from 1802 to 1805. Written by father-and-son writing team Lance & James Morcan (authors of The World Duology and The Orphan Trilogy), INTO THE AMERICAS is a tale of two vastly different cultures – Indigenous North American and European civilization ...