A young woman in 19th-century England grapples with memory loss in this riveting historical from Linder (When Tomorrow Came). Meg Foxcroft has just decided to marry longtime beau Tom McGwen when strangers break into her uncle’s apothecary and attack her, causing injuries that erase all her memories. She’s rescued by Benedict Cunningham, a wealthy lord who invites her to recover at his sprawling estate. A brokenhearted Tom finally tracks her down, but Meg wants nothing to do with the apparent stranger. Her new high-society life isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, however, and when she becomes the target of several more attacks she seeks comfort in Tom. The more she gets to know her even-keeled ex, the more she understands why she’d been drawn to him in the first place, but with evidence emerging that Meg is entangled in a much-larger conspiracy, they’ll need to draw on their faith to protect themselves while planning a future together. Linder weaves a taut mystery into a sizzling romance, and brings Meg’s sense of disorientation to life with vivid prose (following the attack, she feels “empty, hollow, like a book ripped of all its pages”). This addictive Regency romance has thrills to spare. (Nov.)

Reviewed on 08/29/2025 | Details & Permalink

Farnsworth (The Curator’s Secret) kicks off the Twenty-Niners of the Georgia Gold Rush series with an animated romance set in a bustling 19th-century Southern town brimming with thieves and double-crossers. Genny Gillbard, known as the Songbird of Auraria, spends her days crooning at local saloons for money and dodging the advances of her guardian, Charles Martin, the wealthy mine owner to whom her father entrusted her when he died. After Genny discovers Charles is hatching a plan to steal gold from a rival mine—potentially risking Genny being kidnapped by the mine’s owners as payback—she tries to escape on horseback, but falls and breaks her leg on surveyor Jesse Holden’s land. Jesse offers to hide Genny in his cabin and temporarily marry her to change her legal status as Charles’s ward. She reluctantly agrees, and they slowly bond over their faith and emotional scars, including the death of Jesse’s wife and Genny’s unstable childhood. But Charles and his minions won’t let Genny go so easily, and Jesse ’s forced to take desperate measures to keep her safe. While the gold-stealing scheme can be tough to keep track of, tense action scenes and tender romance carry the layered plot to its satisfying conclusion. Fans of high-stakes romantic historicals will be swept up. (Nov.)

Reviewed on 08/22/2025 | Details & Permalink

Todd (Even If We Cry) delivers a pulse-pounding tale of survival at sea during WWII. Withdrawn 41-year-old piano teacher Mary Cornish is an unlikely candidate for wartime heroics, but when her reverend encourages her to apply for a program seeking adults to accompany children out of war-torn England to Canada, she finds unexpected purpose in the task. In September 1940, Mary boards the SS City of Benares and quickly bonds with the 15 young girls in her charge. But when the ship’s torpedoed by Nazis, Mary is separated from the girls and stranded on a lifeboat with ailing Father O’Sullivan and six young boys. As the days tick by without rescue—and as their food and water supplies dwindle and storms threaten to overturn the boat—Mary leans on her faith and the swashbuckling stories of Bulldog Drummond, an adventure-seeking WWI veteran who first appeared the novels of H.C. McNeile, to raise her charges’ spirits. Based on documents written by people connected with the real-life sinking of the Benares, including diary entries from the children’s parents, the novel adeptly blends suspense and emotional depth as Mary struggles with her faith amid the cruelties of war. Fans of historical fiction will be rapt. (Nov.)

Reviewed on 08/22/2025 | Details & Permalink

Shepard Gray (B Is for Bonnet) returns to the quiet community of Walden, Ohio, for this touching entry in the Amish ABCs series. Levelheaded Beth Schrock, formerly a high-powered real estate agent, is staying with her Amish grandparents in Walden after getting pregnant following a drunken night with an old friend. Restless and eager to take her mind off things, she volunteers at a local candle-making factory run by John “Junior” Lambright. Though the chemistry between the two is instant, the situation’s anything but easy—rumors about the pair fly around town, plus Beth blames herself for her pregnancy and thinks Junior would be making a mistake by getting involved with her. Meanwhile, in a story line continued from the previous books, Beth’s older brother, Martin, has decided the Amish life isn’t for him but isn’t willing to give up on his love for devout Patti Coblentz. Despite a few minor plot holes, Shepard Gray unfurls a layered narrative that probes love, obligation, and forgiveness against the backdrop of culture clashes between Amish and Englisch. Series fans will be satisfied. (Nov.)

Reviewed on 08/15/2025 | Details & Permalink

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