Kathleen Williams Renk’s novel "Vindicated" reimagines Mary Shelley’s life through diary entries. At fourteen, Mary misses her mother, Mary Wollstonecraft, who died while giving birth to her. So she adopts the mantle of a free... Read More

In Joanna Davidson Politano’s "The Love Note", an aspiring nurse finds a love letter and is drawn toward a painful family secret. In the summer of 1865, Willa turns down her fourth marriage proposal. Knowing that unmarried women are... Read More

Gentility wears a burglar’s mask in "The Gentleman and the Thief", a proper romance set in the criminal underworld of Victorian London. Hollis coasts on his good name while supporting himself as a penny dreadful author. Ana, a... Read More

Cathy Gohlke examines spousal abuse and restored faith in "Night Bird Calling", an engrossing novel about a woman’s flight to rural Appalachia. In 1941, just after her mother’s death, Lilliana overhears her husband Gerald conspiring... Read More

War and politics rip a family apart in Marco Balzano’s historical novel I’m Staying Here. When Mussolini tries to Italianize their German-speaking town in Northern Italy, many of Trina’s neighbors hope that Hitler will invade and... Read More

In Wendy Voorsanger’s novel "Prospects of a Woman", a woman travels to Gold Rush California, where her New England upbringing, femininity, and traditional role are challenged. In California, Elisabeth and her husband Nate discover that... Read More

Alan Rose’s literary novel "As If Death Summoned" is about grief and community in the time of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. The book’s unnamed narrator has returned to the US from Australia, where he spent a decade with his partner, Gray,... Read More

In the historical novel "The Reluctant Patriot", flawed individuals strive to stay true to their values after war disrupts their lives. In Susan Lohafer’s poignant historical novel "The Reluctant Patriot", a father is accused of... Read More