Cheryls Favorite Historical Fiction
Discover Cheryl's top picks in historical fiction! Explore her favorite books that bring the past to life with captivating stories and rich, immersive settings.
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Silent Lies
by M. L. Malcolm
Inspired by true stories from the author's family, Silent Lies tells the story of Leo Hoffman, a dashing young Hungarian with a gift for languages who inadvertently becomes embroiled in an international counterfeiting scheme during the general chaos following WWI.When the botched plans end in a murder, Leo flees to the scandal-filled city of Shanghai, hoping to make a new life there for himself and the woman he loves.However, one small compromise sets off a series of events that will eventually threaten everything he holds dear, as Leo discovers that the nefarious gangsters who run Shanghai from the shadows do not intend to let him escape his past.Malcolm blends real historical figures with fascinating fictional characters to recreate an engrossing but rarely-explored piece of the past. Filled with intrigue, passion, history and adventure, Silent Lies recaptures a glittering world that no longer exits, while spinning the riveting tale of a family caught up in the tumultuous events of the decadent era between the two world wars.
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Deceptive Intentions
by M. L. Malcolm
Leo Hoffman is a man of many contradictions. He's a Hungarian national traveling on a French passport, a wealthy businessman with no visible means of support, and a devoted father who hasn't seen his daughter in years. He is also a spy.Recruited by the Allies to help lay the groundwork for their invasion of North Africa, Leo intends to do as little spying as possible; he just wants earn his American citizenship, get to New York, and find his daughter. But while Leo dodges death in Morocco, two women from his past conspire to make sure he never gets that chance.As she did in Silent Lies, M.L. Malcolm vividly recaptures rarely-explored pieces of the past by blending real historical figures with fascinating fictional characters. From the Allies' early espionage efforts during World War II to Robert Kennedy's war on the mafia twenty years later, Deceptive Intentions tells the riveting story of two families struggling with the choices that war forced them to make, and the consequences that take a generation to unfold.
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Mistress of the Sun
by Sandra Gulland
An eccentric young woman's love for a wild white stallion tempts her into using an ancient magic that overshadows her subsequent life and leads to her affair with the charismatic Louis XIV.
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Tales of Passion, Tales of Woe
by Sandra Gulland
In the second novel in the acclaimed Josephine B. Trilogy, Sandra Gulland offers a sweeping yet intimate portrayal of the political and personal struggles of the wife of the most powerful man in the world. Tales of Passion, Tales of Woe is the much-awaited sequel to Sandra Gulland's highly acclaimed first novel, The Many Lives & Secret Sorrows of Josephine B. Beginning in Paris in 1796, the saga continues as Josephine awakens to her new life as Mrs. Napoleon Bonaparte. Through her intimate diary entries and Napoleon's impassioned love letters, an astonishing portrait of an incredible woman emerges. Gulland transports us into the ballrooms and bedrooms of exquisite palaces and onto the blood-soaked fields of Napoleon's campaigns. As Napoleon marches to power, we witness, through Josephine, the political intrigues and personal betrayals -- both sexual and psychological -- that result in death, ruin, and victory for those closest to her.
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The Many Lives & Secret Sorrows of Joséphine B.
by Sandra Gulland
'You will be unhappily wed. You will be widowed. You will be Queen.' To fourteen-year-old Rose, eldest daughter of a poor plantation landlord, the fortune teller's prophecy is both thrilling and laughable. Poorly educated and without a dowry, it seems unlikely she will find any husband, much less a king. But history tells a different tale. In this beautifully crafted novel, Sandra Gulland pulls back the veil of history to reveal the extraordinary life of the woman who will one day be known as Joséphine Bonaparte, wife of the emperor who will rule all France.
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The Last Great Dance on Earth
by Sandra Gulland
The Last Great Dance on Earth is the triumphant final volume of Sandra Gulland's beloved trilogy based on the life of Josephine Bonaparte. When the novel opens, Josephine and Napoleon have been married for four tumultuous years. Napoleon is Josephine's great love, and she his. But their passionate union is troubled from within, as Josephine is unable to produce an heir, and from without, as England makes war against France and Napoleon's Corsican clan makes war against his wife. Through Josephine's heartfelt diary entries, we witness the personal betrayals and political intrigues that will finally drive them apart, culminating in Josephine's greatest tragedy: her divorce from Napoleon and his exile to Elba. The Last Great Dance on Earth is historical fiction on a grand scale and the stirring conclusion to an unforgettable love story.
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The Birth of Venus
by Sarah Dunant
Turning fifteen in Renaissance Florence, Alessandra Cecchi becomes intoxicated with the works of a young painter whom her father has brought to the city to decorate the family's Florentine palazzo.
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Beneath a Marble Sky
by John Shors
Journey to dazzling seventeenth-century Hindustan, where the reigning emperor, consumed with grief over the tragic death of his beloved wife, commissions the building of the Taj Mahal as a testament to the marvel of their love. Princess Jahanara, their courageous daughter, recounts their mesmerizing tale, while sharing her own parallel tale of forbidden love with the celebrated architect of the Taj Mahal. This impressive novel sweeps readers away to a historical Hindustan brimming with action and intrigue in an era when, alongside the brutalities of war and oppression, architecture and the art of love and passion reached a pinnacle of perfection.-Back cover.
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Moloka'i
by Alan Brennert
This richly imagined novel, set in Hawai'i more than a century ago, is an extraordinary epic of a little-known time and place---and a deeply moving testament to the resiliency of the human spirit. Rachel Kalama, a spirited seven-year-old Hawaiian girl, dreams of visiting far-off lands like her father, a merchant seaman. Then one day a rose-colored mark appears on her skin, and those dreams are stolen from her. Taken from her home and family, Rachel is sent to Kalaupapa, the quarantined leprosy settlement on the island of Moloka'i. Here her life is supposed to end---but instead she discovers it is only just beginning. With a vibrant cast of vividly realized characters, Moloka'i is the true-to-life chronicle of a people who embraced life in the face of death. Such is the warmth, humor, and compassion of this novel that "few readers will remain unchanged by Rachel's story" (mostlyfiction.com).
