Wirgau (The Stars in April) draws from the legend of Agent 355, a female member of the Culper Ring spy network, for this textured tale of the American Revolution. It’s 1779 in New York City, and 21-year-old Betty Floyd, who grew up in a Long Island family loyal to the Crown, toes a determined line of neutrality, caring for rebel prisoners by day while attending lavish Loyalist balls by night. After a Patriot prisoner she’s befriended is murdered by British officers, she joins the Culper Ring, a group of spies working for the American rebels and led by George Washington. Her British Loyalist society connections prove useful for gathering intelligence, a project that grows increasingly risky as Loyalist soldiers comb the city for spies. When Betty develops feelings for an alluring British major, her undercover status is threatened as she’s torn between her desires, her faith, and the nation’s future. Wirgau’s tense, twisty plot unfolds against the backdrop of a richly detailed portrait of a Revolutionary era filled with grime, bustling industry, divided loyalties, and plenty of secrets. Fans of historical suspense will be swept up. (Oct.)

Reviewed on 08/08/2025 | Details & Permalink

Peterson wraps up the Hope of Cheyenne series (after Designed with Love) with a propulsive tale of a marriage of convenience giving rise to romance. It opens in 1890 Chicago, where doctor Carrie Vogel meets Spencer Duval—a Pinkerton agent who has spent his life hunting for Eugene Astor, the man who killed his father—in a theater group. When Carrie’s fiancé passes her neurological research off as his own, she ends things and prepares to return to her hometown of Cheyenne, Wyo. As new evidence suggests that Astor might be hiding in Cheyenne, Spencer proposes the pair fake a marriage as a cover to investigate. The two marry in a civil ceremony and set about fabricating the relationship, but it isn’t so easy to fool Carrie’s eagle-eyed police chief father. When real feelings blossom on both sides, they’ll need to draw on their faith to be honest with both Carrie’s family and one another, all while guarding against new dangers stirred up by Spencer’s investigation. The characters’ fully fleshed-out backstories and the dynamic central mystery intertwine for a plot that’s rich in suspense and emotion. Series fans and newcomers alike will be eager to come along for the ride. (Oct.)

Reviewed on 08/08/2025 | Details & Permalink

Curtis (Angel from the East) continues the Blooms of the Bitterbush series with this propulsive if heavy-handed historical. It’s 1920 when Curtis and Eliza Morgan’s daughter, Lizzie, heads from her parents’ rural Idaho home to Boise in search of adventure and money to prop up her family’s struggling ranch. Things start out badly when she discovers the restaurant where she’d planned to work has burned down. They get worse when she finds a seamstress job at a tailor’s shop that turns out to be owned by Benton Calloway—a thief who’d been jailed for stealing from her father but is now out of prison and plotting revenge. Benton’s terrible to work for, but Lizzie’s determined to stay long enough to uncover what he’s planning. In the process, she forges an improbable bond with Benton’s good-hearted son Josiah, an accountant who’s working to repay people his father has cheated. But when Lizzie’s suspicions are stirred up by some incriminating evidence, it seems unlikely she’ll ever see Josiah as anything other than a Calloway. While the message of forgiveness is overdone—everyone except Benton preaches its value—the romance between the opposite-sides-of-the-tracks leads has enough momentum and twists to keep readers invested. Those seeking a fast-paced western romance will be satisfied. (Sept.)

Reviewed on 08/01/2025 | Details & Permalink

Haynes (Passages of Hope) opens a vivid window into Black Southern history with this memorable and resonant addition to the Enduring Hope series. It’s 1902 and ambitious Tuskegee Institute student Lealia Bevard is thrilled to be returning to Birmingham, Ala., where the upcoming National Baptist Convention is taking place and where Lealia hopes to win a scholarship to Howard University. Joining her is Milton Rafferty, a fellow star student and Birmingham native, who harbors a distinct bitterness toward their hometown. Milton and Lealia start the trip determined to stay out of each other’s way: Milton mistakes Lealia’s plucky confidence for arrogance, and Lealia wants no distractions from her goal. But after a stampede at their church (based on the 1902 Shiloh Baptist Church Stampede following a Booker T. Washington speech, which left 150 dead), they set aside their differences and work together to help uplift the community. Meanwhile, their discovery of an unsolved murder launches Lealia and Milton on an investigation that forces them to confront their feelings for Birmingham, each other, and the church that raised them. While the plot devices can feel heavy-handed, Haynes crafts well-rounded leads, and the nuanced discussions of personal and collective trauma following the stampede add emotional depth. Fans of historical fiction won’t want to put this down. (Oct.)

Reviewed on 08/01/2025 | Details & Permalink

The changing fortunes of newspaper publishing provide the backdrop for this spirited second-chance romance from Fuller (The Marriage Pact). Accountant Jade Smith and columnist Sebastian Hudson first bond while working at the Democrat Gazette in 1994 Little Rock, Ark. Just as sparks start to fly, Jade’s offered a high-paying job at a media conglomerate in Atlanta, which would give her the resources to adopt the troubled foster brother, Logan, she’s told no one about, including Seb. Ten years later, Jade’s still working in Atlanta and trying to keep Logan out of trouble, while Seb runs a struggling local paper in Arkansas, the Clementine Times. Jade’s boss decides to acquire the newspaper and sends her to convince Seb to sell. Her return stirs up dormant passions, but when Seb starts to suspect that she’s feigning her feelings to strike a deal, it’ll take plenty of faith to help the pair mend things—and for Jade to finally open up about the rocky childhood she’s hidden from many in her life. Though Fuller’s lighthearted story brims with quirky characters and southern charm, she adeptly weaves the main narrative with a moving plotline about the challenges of an upbringing in the foster care system and its lasting consequences on kids and families. Readers will race through this. (Sept.)

Reviewed on 08/01/2025 | Details & Permalink

Bischoff DeWitt (Writer on the Wall) puts an early-20th-century spin on Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice in this enjoyable if somewhat bloated romance. Twenty-year-old Lizbeth Bennet has spent all her life on her family’s small Appalachian farm, so when she discovers the town’s mine is up for sale—risking, with it, the possible sale of surrounding parcels of land, including her family’s—she’s determined to hang on to her home. Soon a group of coal barons eager to make the acquisition descend on the town, among them handsome bachelor William Drake, to whom Lizbeth’s instantly attracted. As they bond over their faith Lizbeth starts to believe in Drake’s purported plan to preserve the residential areas—until she hears a rumor he intends to seize most of the town’s land and rejects him. By the time Lizbeth realizes there might be more to the wealthy businessman than meets the eye, it may be too late for a romance or to save the farm, which has sunk into deeper financial straits. While the love story’s enlivened with rich historical detail, drawn-out scenes and blunt characterization (“She and he existed at opposite ends of industrialization. He the money. She the humanity”) cause the narrative to sag in places. The result is a fun but flawed tale of opposites attracting. (Oct.)

Reviewed on 07/25/2025 | Details & Permalink

Woods Fisher (A Healing Touch) returns to small-town Stoney Ridge, Pa., for this immersive contemporary. Ruth “Dok” Stolzfus has devoted her life to serving the Amish community of Stoney Ridge as a physician and knows she needs help to keep her thriving practice running. Still, the three new employees she’s hired fresh out of school might be harder to manage than she’d bargained for: doctor Charlie King is amiable but barely passed his med school classes, nurse Evie Miller is a fast learner but preoccupied by her secret crush on Charlie, and smart but standoffish doctor Wren Baker wants little to do with the Amish community. Dok leans on Evie as she struggles to train the three without getting enmeshed in their lives. But when she discovers the real reason Wren’s come to Stoney Ridge, secrets surface that force the community to contend with its past and a troubling culture of silence around medical issues, especially those pertaining to mental health. Fisher probes these issues—and the complex ways Amish life clashes with broader society—with sensitivity and without losing the texture that lends the narrative its small-town charm. Series fans and newcomers alike will be hooked. (Oct.)

Reviewed on 07/25/2025 | Details & Permalink

Cossette (Shield of the Mighty) returns to the barren landscapes of ancient Israel for the enthralling latest in the King’s Men series. Gavriel, a Hebrew soldier and weapons-maker, has dreamed all his life of fighting for his tribe. After his impulsiveness lands him in one too many ill-advised tussles, Yonatan, the son of King Saul, orders him on a diplomatic mission to evacuate an allied tribe of Kenites from a future battle site. Gavriel’s reckless behavior on the mission results in him being forced to marry Zahava, a Kenite chieftain’s daughter and talented metalsmith who’s been passing off her work as her father’s. Despite their differences, Gavriel can’t help but fall for the confident weapons-maker. But as the Kenites and Israelites travel back to safety in Be’er Sheva, word spreads of the mysterious Kenite metalsmith in their party, and Gavriel must decide how far he’ll go to shield his new wife from those who wish to exploit her skills for their own gain, including a fearsome Philistine king. Cossette weaves heart-pounding adventure with the enchanting central love story, and leaves plenty of loose threads to whet readers’ appetites for the next installment. Series fans won’t be able to put this down. (Aug.)

Reviewed on 07/18/2025 | Details & Permalink

Regency romance meets the 21st-century dating world in this funny, heartfelt tale of a spunky podcaster’s search for love from Rushmeyer (The Lost Manuscript). Zoe Dufour, 29, encourages the listeners of her Regency-themed advice podcast to hold out for their modern-day Mr. Darcy. But a breakup followed by a string of bad dates makes her more tired than ever of leaving the search to chance, so she draws up a list of 30 “ways to meet and secure a suitor” to complete before her 30th birthday. She plans to tick them off at the Minnesota Marriage Mart, a Regency-themed singles retreat she and her podcast cohost have been invited to. Between etiquette lessons and formal balls, she gets to know and starts to fall for charming Ben Rowley. Meanwhile, podcast audio engineer Harrison Lundquist begins to realize his feelings for Zoe are more than friendly and grows suspicious of the too-smooth Ben. For her part, Zoe will have to rely on her faith and intuition to choose the perfect partner. Harrison and Zoe’s alternating perspectives churn up plenty of tension as the two find their way to one another, and the proliferation of fun period-themed details, including “I Luv Darcy” onesie pajamas, will keep readers amused. It’s a charming take on the challenges of modern romance. (Sept.)

Reviewed on 07/18/2025 | Details & Permalink

Two cynics find unexpected joy in the holiday season and each other in this fun romance from St. Amant (Where I Found You). When Holly Sinclair gets laid off from her job as a social media manager two weeks before Christmas, it’s just one more reason to despise a holiday that falls on—and always overshadows—her birthday. Her sympathetic older brother Ryan persuades her to head home to Ohio, where he reintroduces her to his friend Nick Kinsley, who hopes to be Holly’s date to their parents’ holiday bash. But when it turns out Nick’s only there to persuade the Sinclairs to invest in his summer camp nonprofit, an irritated Holly decides to get even by feigning over-the-top, grating holiday cheer. Nick’s annoyed but can’t help the attraction he feels toward Holly, who likewise struggles to keep plotting against someone so handsome and likable. With plenty of flirty banter and holiday hijinks, the narrative sprints toward its sweet conclusion but leaves enough room for character development to keep readers emotionally invested in the enemies-to-lovers romance at its center. This is irresistible. (Sept.)

Reviewed on 07/04/2025 | Details & Permalink