New books by Historical Novel Society members, February 2026
The following Historical Novel Society members are celebrating the release of their new books – congrats to all! If you’re a current HNS member who’s written a historical novel or nonfiction work published (or to be published) in September 2025 or after, send the following details to us by April 7, 2026: author, title, publisher, release date, and a blurb of one sentence or less. Please shorten your blurbs down to one sentence, as space is limited. Details will appear in the May 2026 issue of HNR. Submissions may be edited.
Dave Schechter’s A Life of the Party (Fulton Books, Feb. 2025) evokes the adventures of a Jewish woman from a privileged, religious background who devoted more than four decades of life to the cause of working men and women as a member of the Communist Party.
Love Habit by TL Clark (Steamy Kettle Publishing, Mar. 1, 2025) is a medieval romance about novice monks who must try to balance love and liturgy.
The Better Angels by Robin Holloway (Holand Press, June 5, 2025) weaves the true story of Laura Towne, a Northern abolitionist whose faith, courage, and compassion enabled her to travel to the Sea Islands of South Carolina in 1862 to teach former slaves in the vortex of the Civil War.
In Unspoken (A Dust Novel), an HNS Editors’ Choice title written by Jann Alexander (Black Rose Writing, July 2025), set in a Texas town where nobody knows how to fix air you can’t breathe, one tenacious girl makes her stand — and faces what’s unspoken.
Set in Viking-era Ireland, James Murphy’s The Sword of Malachy-High Kings Book 1 (Independently published, July 7, 2025) tells the story of Brian Boru and Malachy Mor, two men who both rose to be High King of Ireland.
The Strange Story of Maria Hallett by Richard F. Zapf (World Castle Publishing, Aug. 3, 2025) is an imaginative retelling of the wreck of the pirate galley Whydah in 1717, which alternates between the 18th century and the present, and includes romance, a magic book, and a centuries-old unpaid debt.
An Author’s Research Notes on Medieval England by TL Clark (Steamy Kettle Publishing, Sept. 8, 2025) will walk you through all the fundamental things you need to know with an overview of the entire medieval period, from key events to the weather and even their toilet habits. Also, swearing.
In The Tide Waits for No Woman by Richard K. Perkins (Köehler Books, Sept. 16, 2025), it’s 1860, and a recently widowed young woman risks everything to join the Underground Railroad, but when she’s stranded in the Maine wilderness by successive blizzards, she must fight for survival—and for a freedom larger than her own.
Scott Badler’s Becoming JFK: John F. Kennedy’s Early Path to Leadership (Bancroft Press, Sept. 23, 2025) is an intimate portrait of Jack Kennedy’s formative years from 1935-1946, and his journey to find his voice, purpose, and resilience.
In Skip Carter’s Solitary Journey, Emperor Gallienus’ Sole Reign During the Chaos of Third Century Rome (Ingram Spark, Sept. 26, 2025), Emperor Gallienus, sole ruler after his father is captured by Persians, must defend the entire empire against invading tribes and internal revolts, deal with a restive Senate, and guard against tempting women willing to use any means available to advance their own interests.
Edward Parr’s Tamanrasset: Crossroads of the Nomad (Edwardian Press, Oct. 1, 2025), set in the uncharted Sahara at the dawn of the 20th century, the fates of four strangers haunted by loss become entwined by a journey across a desert on the brink of war.
In A. E. Macdonald’s The Macdonalds of Cedar Park (Skye Lewis Books, Oct. 14, 2025), on Saturday, the family went skiing and shopping, the next day, Pearl Harbor was attacked, on Monday, the country was at war, and the Macdonald family’s lives were changed forever.
Steve Vesce’s One Ordinary Man (Verlibri Media LLC, Oct. 15, 2025) is a historically accurate novel about the inspiring, surprising, and remarkable true story of Harry L. Hopkins—who grew from obscurity to play a leading and pivotal role in helping America overcome the Great Depression, defeat Fascism, and win World War II.
Moving among generations of a German-Jewish-American family, Red Anemones by Paula Dail (Historium Press, Oct. 17, 2025) is a poignant exploration of the intricate bonds, untold secrets, and unspoken legacies our ancestors bestow upon us.
After being ensnared by the French Secret Service into suppressing the army mutinies in the trenches in the First World War, patriot and staunch Catholic Antoine Martinet finds himself travelling to colonial Indochina to track down communists in the jungle and then returning to France to go undercover to prevent an extremist right wing group, the Cagoule, from overthrowing the Popular Front government in The Hooded Man, v.1 of the Dark Years Trilogy by Charles Searle (The Book Guild, Oct 28, 2025).
In The Life and Death of Abercrombie Lyle by Stephen Small (Palatine Publishing, Oct. 30, 2025), Great War veteran Abercrombie finds friendship in the turbulent Milan of 1919 with Brio, a charismatic journalist, and Carla, his beautiful wife; but when Brio takes a job with Mussolini, he throws Carla into Abercrombie’s arms and lights a twenty-year fuse of betrayal, deceit and revenge.
In Samantha Ward-Smith’s Ravenscourt (Mabel and Stanley Publishing, Oct. 31, 2025), set in 1880s Venice, a disgraced viscount meets a tragic widow with whom he finds solace and redemption—until they return to England where Ravenscourt, her late husband’s decaying manor, draws him into a labyrinth of desire, deception, and a madness that whispers from the walls.
Sarah Good’s crime was not witchcraft; it was poverty, in The Life & Times of Sarah Good, Accused Witch by Sandra Wagner-Wright (Wagner-Wright Enterprises, Nov. 14, 2025).
Cheryl Potts’ debut, The Castles of Ann Lynch (MJA Publications, Nov. 22, 2025), inspired by a true story, tells of the author’s great-grandmother coming to America from Ireland in 1860 as a fourteen-year-old orphan.
In The Diva’s Daughter by Heather Walrath (The Book Guild, Nov. 28, 2025), a young aspiring singer in 1930s Europe fights to achieve her operatic dreams while confronting personal loss, political pressure, and the secrets of her famous mother’s past.
Michelle Elliott’s Of Heaven and Hellfire (Self-published, Dec. 5, 2025), set in 1587 in England, features Beth Dudley, who serves as a quiet maid in the grand halls of Bodsworth Manor, where loyalty to Queen Elizabeth is law–and hiding a Catholic priest is treason.
Julian Hawthorne, son of famous novelist Nathaniel Hawthorne, joins Sherlock Holmes in a murder investigation involving a contemporary Count of Monte Cristo in Sherlock Holmes and the Adventure of the American Scalawag by Daniel D. Victor (MX Publishing, Dec. 8, 2025).
Brodie Curtis’s third historical novel Showboat Soubrette (Westy Vistas Publishing, Dec. 10, 2025) explores the romantic yet bigoted and sometimes lawless antebellum riverboat era when a river pirate viciously assaults star singer Stella Parrot, and she and her friends must run for their lives on the lower Mississippi River.
In the 1970s, singer Gunnar Erickson and guitarist Step Townsend leave small-town Nebraska for the burgeoning music scene of Los Angeles- only to struggle with the consequences of their fame when they make it big in Perfect Cadence by Tamar Anolic (Independently published, Dec. 15, 2025).
Catherine McCullagh’s latest alternate history novel, Murder and Masquerade (Big Sky Publishing, Dec. 30, 2025), takes place in London, 1946; an Irish policeman and ex-resistance leader joins forces with the man he hates obsessively, a former SS general, to thwart a fascist plot to overthrow the government and return Britain to a Nazi dictatorship.
The Double Standard Sporting House by Nancy Bernhard (She Writes Press, Jan. 20) is a timely and moving story about the women of an elite 19th-century New York City brothel fighting the corrupt Tammany Hall political machine.
The Last Gypsy Queen by Linda Paul (Black Rose Writing, Apr 16) follows a young Romani woman forced to read tarot cards at an amusement park, preventing her from becoming the doctor she longs to be while also facing prejudice and sabotage, demanding a choice between loyalty to her ancient heritage or pursuing her dreams.
In Fables & Lies by Elisabeth Storrs (The Book Guild, Apr. 28), set in 1940s Berlin, museum assistant Freyja Bremer marries SS scholar Kaspar Voigt to protect her father, unaware of his role in Himmler’s schemes; after falling for archaeologist, Darien Lessing, Freyja is drawn to aid a Jewish doctor, confronting moral corruption as she risks everything to safeguard truth, treasure and love amid chaos.
Lottie elopes with an actor when she is seventeen and a game of wits ensues, each vying for control in a world of comedy, illusions, and sleight of hand as they tour the length and breadth of Victorian Britain till tragedy strikes and the future is suddenly impossible to imagine, as told in Disappearing Acts by Helen Graham (Troubadour Publishing, May 28).
Miranda Miller’s seventh novel, The Fairy Visions of Richard Dadd, telling the story of the celebrated Victorian painter Richard Dadd, confined to Bedlam after committing patricide, who is haunted by vicious fairies, his dead father and the Egyptian god Osiris, will be reissued by Never Give Up Books in June 2026.
In 1944, Deirdre Rowan from neutral Éire is a receptionist at the Mayfair Ladies’ Club, and is soon hot on the trail of a handful of members and staff who are suspected of spying for the British Union of Fascists; the new and enigmatic manager, Maxwell Forster, with his slight foreign accent, does not escape her attention either, but in an unexpected way, as told in Molly Green’s Wartime Secrets at the Mayfair Club (Avon/HarperCollins, June 4).
In Kim Rendfeld’s Duchess of the New Dawn (independently published, June 16), Chiltrude, the daughter of Francia’s ruling family, defies her kinsmen and risks everything to seize her heart’s desire, protect her child, and preserve her new homeland’s cherished independence.
In Daughters of Naples by Diana Giovinazzo (Alcove Press, July 21), set in the 1940s in Naples, three sisters’ lives are forever changed by war; as one runs a dress shop, another is a midwife, and the youngest joins the Italian resistance, each must navigate the boundaries of love, loyalty, and survival in a city under siege.
The King’s Ghost (Fitzroy Books/Regal House, July 21), the third volume of A. L. Sirois’ YA trilogy set in ancient Egypt’s Third Dynasty, unfolds as follows: on the day of King Djoser’s coronation, a priest is found dead in the Temple of Ptah, and the young architect Imhotep is convinced that it’s no coincidence–but the death masks a secret that poses a direct threat to him and Djoser both.
