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  The Chocolate Maker's Wife - A...

  Karen Brooks

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  Australian bestselling novelist Karen Brooks rewrites women back into history with this breathtaking novel set in 17th century London—a lush, fascinating story of the beautiful woman who is drawn into a world of riches, power, intrigue…and chocolate. 
  Damnation has never been so sweet... 
  Rosamund Tomkins, the illegitimate daughter of a nobleman, spends most of her young life in drudgery at a country inn. To her, the Restoration under Charles II, is but a distant threat as she works under the watchful eye of her brutal, abusive stepfather . . . until the day she is nearly run over by the coach of Sir Everard Blithman. 
  Sir Everard, a canny merchant, offers Rosamund an “opportunity like no other,” allowing her to escape into a very different life, becoming the linchpin that will drive the success of his fledgling business: a luxurious London chocolate house where wealthy and well-connected men come to see and be seen, to gossip and plot, while indulging in the sweet and heady drink. 
  Rosamund adapts and thrives in her new surroundings, quickly becoming the most talked-about woman in society, desired and respected in equal measure. 
  But Sir Everard’s plans for Rosamund and the chocolate house involve family secrets that span the Atlantic Ocean, and which have already brought death and dishonor to the Blithman name. Rosamund knows nothing of the mortal peril that comes with her new title, nor of the forces spinning a web of conspiracy buried in the past, until she meets a man whose return tightens their grip upon her, threatening to destroy everything she loves and damn her to a dire fate. 
  As she fights for her life and those she loves through the ravages of the Plague and London’s Great Fire, Rosamund’s breathtaking tale is one marked by cruelty and revenge; passion and redemption—and the sinfully sweet temptation of chocolate. 
    
   

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  The Glass Woman - A Novel

  Caroline Lea

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  Shortlisted for the Historical Writers Association Debut Crown Award 
  In the tradition of Jane Eyre and Rebecca—The Glass Woman by Caroline Lea in which a young woman follows her new husband to his remote home on the Icelandic coast in the 1680s, where she faces dark secrets surrounding the death of his first wife amidst a foreboding landscape and the superstitions of the local villagers. 
  “Gripped me in a cold fist. Beautiful.” —Sara Collins, author of The Confessions of Frannie Langton 
  “An Icelandic Jane Eyre.”  —Sunday Times, London 
   
   
   
  Rósa has always dreamed of living a simple life alongside her Mamma in their remote village in Iceland, where she prays to the Christian God aloud during the day, whispering enchantments to the old gods alone at night. But after her father dies abruptly and her Mamma becomes ill, Rósa marries herself off to a visiting trader in exchange for a dowry, despite rumors of mysterious circumstances surrounding his first wife’s death. 
  Rósa follows her new husband, Jón, across the treacherous countryside to his remote home near the sea. There Jón works the field during the day, expecting Rósa to maintain their house in his absence with the deference of a good Christian wife. What Rósa did not anticipate was the fierce loneliness she would feel in her new home, where Jón forbids her from interacting with the locals in the nearby settlement and barely speaks to her himself.  
  Seclusion from the outside world isn’t the only troubling aspect of her new life—Rósa is also forbidden from going into Jón’s attic. When Rósa begins to hear strange noises from upstairs, she turns to the local woman in an attempt to find solace. But the villager’s words are even more troubling—confirming many of the rumors about Jón’s first wife, Anna, including that he buried her body alone in the middle of the night. 
  Rósa’s isolation begins to play tricks on her mind: What—or who—is in the attic? What happened to Anna? Was she mad, a witch, or just a victim of Jón’s ruthless nature? And when Jón is brutally maimed in an accident a series of events are set in motion that will force Rósa to choose between obedience and defiance—with her own survival and the safety of the ones she loves hanging in the balance.

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  Arguing with the Dead

  Alex Nye

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  The year is 1839, and Mary Shelley - the woman who wrote Frankenstein - is living alone in a tiny cottage on the banks of the river Thames in Putney. As she sorts through the snowstorm of her husband's scattered papers she is reminded of their past: the half-ruined villas in Italy, the stormy relationship with Shelley and her stepsister Claire, the loss of her children, the attempted kidnapping of Claire's daughter Allegra from a prison-like convent in Florence. And finally, her husband's drowning on the Gulf of Spezia as they stayed in a grim-looking fortress overlooking the sea. What she has never confided in anyone is that she has always been haunted by Shelley's drowned first wife, Harriet, who would come to visit her in the night as she slept with her two tiny children in a vast abandoned villa while Shelley was away litigating with lawyers. 
  Did Mary pay the ultimate price for loving Shelley? Who will Harriet come for next?

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  The Russian Countess

  Edith Sollohub

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  Separated from her three young sons, stripped of her possessions and fearing for her life, Countess Edith Sollohub found herself trapped in revolutionary Russia. The daughter of a high-ranking diplomat, Edith was destined to join the social and intellectual elite of Imperial Russia. As a child she spent the summers learning to ride and shoot on the family's country estate; during the winter months her parents hosted lavish parties in their luxurious St Petersburg Apartment. This privileged upbringing would ultimately help her survive the traumatic events of the 1917 revolution. This is Edith's personal account of her escape from Russia in which she assumed new identities as a Polish refugee, a travelling musician and even a Red Army nurse. She would endure hunger, imprisonment and loneliness in the quest to be reunited with her family.

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  The Saint’s Mistress

  Kathryn Bashaar

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  Told against the fourth-century backdrop of the fall of the Roman Empire and the rise of Christianity, The Saint's Mistress breathes life into the previously untold story of Saint Augustine and his mistress.
   
  Defying social norms and traditions, Roman aristocrat Aurelius Augustinus falls in love with Leona, a North African peasant. Leona comes into conflict with Aurelius's mother Monnica, his powerful patron Urbanus, and the Empire itself, in her fight to keep her family together and win legitimacy for her son. When Monnica and Urbanus succeed in separating Leona from her son and securing a more suitable fiancée for Aurelius, Leona commits herself to the Church.
   
  When many years later Leona and Aurelius, now Bishop Augustine, meet again, old passions re-ignite, perennial feuds smolder, and the fate of the Roman Empire in North Africa hangs in the balance.
   
  "Ask any author-sinners are more interesting than saints." -Michael Schmicker, investigative journalist and novelist

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  1915 - The War Years #2

  James Farner

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  The first brutal year of World War I has ended and now everyone understands this isn’t a war that will end by Christmas. With thousands lying dead on the fields of France and Belgium, the Keeton brothers continue to fight on. 
  Danny discovers the painful truth of what happened to his older brother Jacob Keeton, and realises not all enemies wear the uniform of a German soldier. A brief reprieve from the war allows him to live the life of a fifteen-year-old for a fleeting moment, before the war takes a new and brutal turn. 
  When Danny discovers the bullets of his own side can be just as deadly as those from Imperial Germany, death might be closer than he thinks. 
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  Other books in the War Years series: 
  1914 (The War Years Book 1) 
  Remember to check out my original Made in Yorkshire series, where you can meet the offspring of many of the characters featured here. It all starts with 1964 (Made in Yorkshire Book 1).

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