Catherine Abbott has everything a young lady of quality could wish for in England, 1660’s. She lives on her father’s comfortable estate in the village of Wells, Buckinghamshire and she’s soon to be wed to Miles Houghton, a childhood friend recently returned from several years in France. For Miles, the wedding is just the ticket to free him from his rather large gambling debt. His heart isn’t in it, though, as he still yearns for the Parisian nightlife.
However, Catherine has had an interest in science, books, and “the mysteries of this world” that inspires her to make complex drawings of butterflies and track the constellations in the night skies. Can she be happy as an idle wife? When she meets Simon, a young doctor who has been assigned to care for her aging, gout-ridden father, she begins to dream of a different future, impossible, she understands, but she still can dream, right?
Then the Black Plague strikes England. Taking orders from Simon whom he has grown to respect, Lord Abbott orders the village of Wells to be quarantined and ships Catherine’s brother Charles off to the colonies. Miles, unwilling to be hemmed in, flees without a word to Catherine, ignoring their planned nuptials. She, who once helped a servant girl in the throes of childbirth, finds a way to assist Simon in treating plague victims. He recognizes Catherine’s remarkable medical talents and begins to envision a way he and she might someday make a medical partnership. Or will their relationship go beyond the professional?
Award-winning writer Halverson has given us a character so completely believable, and so empathetic that readers will fall in love with her from the opening scene, when, as a little girl, Catherine sneaks out one night to observe the movements of the stars. We are hooked and are convinced that this heroine is a prodigy who will only find what she seeks in life by breaking the bounds of convention. Drawing on events of the time, such as England’s trade with India, the colonization of America, the controversial issue of autopsies as a means of studying illness, and of course the horrors of the plague itself, Halverson reveals extensive research into the century she writes about. And employing rich idiomatic phrasing and restrained but appropriate accents as needed, she shows her gift for the sound as well as the sense of well-constructed prose. In a short Afterword, the author relates the story of a little English village on which she patterned her fictional Wells, where quarantine did serve to save lives at the time of the Black Plague.
Set against the backdrop of England’s Black Plague, one woman bravely challenges the rules of stature and class to find her true love and true calling. Historical romance readers will enjoy curling up with Halverson’s first book in The Stockbridge Series and look forward reading the next one.
Hana Samek Norton begins her epic and engrossing novel of historical fiction, The Serpent’s Crown; A Novel of Medieval Cyprus, with this quotation: “It sometimes happens that exploits, however, known and splendidly achieved, come, by length of time, to be less known to fame, or even forgotten among posterity.” (Itinerarum Peregrinorum et Gesta Regis Ricardi) How fortunate for readers, then, that the author brings to life a captivating chapter of history that occurred in Cyprus and Jerusalem in the early thirteenth century.
Alisdair “Dair” Fitzstuart, spy and war hero, wants to enjoy a carefree life now that his service to his country is over. After spending years creating the daredevil reputation that has earned him fame beyond his heroic war efforts, he’s eager to return to the London town life, sample the season’s beauties, and carouse with his lifelong friends, but when his latest escapade literally throws him into the arms of Rory Talbot, his plans are turned upside down.
An intractable and pampered debutante with plenty of pluck turns detective in Jennifer Kincheloe’s award-winning debut The Secret Life of Anna Blanc.
In the tradition of H. G. Wells and Isaac Asimov, K.B. Shaw’s From the Shadows piques the reader’s imagination. In the world where Cameron Rush, a shy, geeky boy from Wisconsin, and Rosa Costas, the bright, sassy daughter of a New Mexico ranch foreman, live, twenty-first-century technology makes a quantum leap and changes the nature of human experience.
Have you ever wondered what might happen if you unknowingly ripped a hole in the space-time continuum? Jake and Kix find out firsthand just how much madness can ensue when this exact conundrum befalls them in Wizzy Wig: Thanatos Rising Book Two by Tiffany Pitts, a fun and quirky Sci-Fi romp that fans of Terry Pratchett and Douglas Adams are sure to enjoy.
In Amaska, residents serve Anur, the God of Justice. Amaskans, men and women, train with a rigor akin to the Spartans to be in peak physical strength and to be ever alert for the presence of danger. Yes, the Amaskans kill, but only to right a wrong as directed by the “Order.” They take no delight in carnage, but they will not stand idly by when someone is suffering an injustice. Knives are their weapon of choice. When not in combat, they identify themselves proudly with tattoos of circles on their jaws.
