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Historical Fiction

Gods of Jade and Shadow

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Gods of Jade and Shadow by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Format: Book
Who it’s for: Adults

Trapped in domestic drudgery in a small town in Yucatán, Mexico, Casiopeia Tun lives at the mercy of her wealthy and tyrannical grandfather, Cirilo. Despite her mother’s urging to keep her head down and do whatever their relatives might command, willful Casiopeia still has moments of quiet rebellion. These moments oftentimes attract the ire of her arrogant cousin, Martín, but Casiopeia is practical and does her best to not let him get under her skin. The unfairness of her life is not lost on her, though. She knows she was born under a rotten star, but in secret Casiopeia continues to dream of another life. A life of her own choosing.

In a small moment of defiance, Casiopeia goes through her grandfather’s things while the rest of the family is out. She expects to find hidden treasures in a wooden trunk, but instead she accidentally frees Mayan death God Hun-Kamé, Lord of Xibalba (the Mayan Underworld). Freeing him from his imprisonment binds Casiopeia and Hun-Kamé, their fates intertwined. Casiopeia agrees to help him take revenge on his twin brother and reclaim his throne. What other choice does she really have? This journey could give her a new life. It could also be her undoing. Either way, she will escape the life she’d been given.

Gods of Jade and Shadow promises Mayan Gods in 1920s Jazz Era Mexico, but also offers a magical fairytale inspired by Mexican folklore, a journey of self-discovery, slow burn romance, political and social commentary, and meditations on power, duality, freedom, and death.

Find Gods of Jade and Shadow in the catalog here!

Mirka Andolfo’s Mercy

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In the small frontier town of Woodsburgh, during the Klondike Goldrush, an enthralling stranger appears. She wants to purchase the demolished mineshaft on the outskirts of town. Meanwhile, when the streets are cloaked in darkness, something abhorrent and violent is targeting the unwary townspeople, leaving a bloody trail in its wake. There are monsters in this town, human and otherwise, and the strange new visitor might know something about it.

Mirka Andolfo’s Mercy is Victorian gothic meets sci-fi horror with equal parts gore, romance, and tragedy. The plot could be considered obscure and so the reader is left to interpret what exactly is going on all one their own. I didn’t mind being repeatedly confused because the art is gorgeous! How often can you call a parasitic entity beautiful? If you like carriage rides, tragic love stories and interdimensional realms, I suggest you find Mercy in the Library’s catalog or for instant download on Hoopla.

Dragonfly

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Title: Dragonfly by Leila Meacham
Format: Book, Book on CD, Large Print
Who’s It For: Adults

During the Nazi occupation of Paris, five Americans went undercover to ferret out German top secrets. In short, they were spies. Samuel Barton was a civil engineer who would gather intel on German blueprints. Christoph Brandt was a track-and-field coach.  He would teach sports in a private school to children of top German officials.  Brad Hudson would use his fly-fishing skills to befriend Nazis. Victoria Grayson’s fencing skills would open avenues with German elite.  And Bridgette Loring, fashion designer, would secrete knowledge through fashionable wives and girlfriends.  

Together, their team was known as “Dragonfly.”  Although they were all trained stateside by the Office of Secret Services, their true identities were  concealed from each other.  They each had a code name and an assumed name while in France: Samuel/Lodestar/Stephane, Christoph/Lapwing/Claus, Brad/Limpet/Barnard, Victoria/Limpet/Veronique, and Bridgette/Labrador/Bernadette.  Bridgette resided at a convent.  On the wall of the convent, she painted a mural through which she could relay secret messages to the others through changes to the art.  And team members weekly submitted intel to Bridgette through a mail drop.  Bridgette in turn transmitted messages back to their OSS case officer, Alistair Renault, via a hidden radio at the convent.

What could go wrong?  What could happen if team members bumped into each other in their assumed life?  If an American turned Nazi ran into his best friend in Paris, would he turn in his countryman?  What if a Nazi fell in love with one of the women?  Would any of the five survive this dangerous mission?

My son first read this story and recommended it to me.  And I loved it!  The narration switches from one team member to another and then to Alistair, their case officer, who is very concerned for these young people.  The timeline alternates from the past to 20 years later.  All of these elements contribute to the tension and drama of the story.  It was a page-turner!

If you enjoy being immersed in another place and time in history, I recommend this book to you.

Find Dragonfly in the catalog.

The Magician

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Title of novel, The MagicianTitle: The Magician by Colm Toíbín
Format: Novel
Audience: Adults

The Magician is a sweeping novel of unrequited love and exile, war and family, and a conflict between one’s own selfhood and deep, hidden emotions. A blend of personal struggles with global events, this is a fictional account of the German novelist, Thomas Mann, and his fascinating life, told by one of the greatest living writers of our time, Colm Toíbín.

Mann, a supporter of Germany’s ambitions in the year of 1914, soon finds his vision of a county on the eve of becoming a progressive nation built upon a platform of social reform divulge into disillusionment. A man who found himself on the wrong side of history in the First World War in his encouragement of a better, more expansive Germany, only to then witness the devolution of his nation in the hands of the Nazis, Mann was constantly at war with himself as he fought to not only understand the world around him, but who he was as well. Mann, who would write some of Europe’s greatest pieces of literature, was forever embattled with acclaim and contradiction, as he surrounded himself with a life that portrayed something entirely different than who he truly was.

Toíbín has created a breathtaking recounting of Thomas Mann’s life – a Nobel Prize and Goethe Prize winning author – in which should be viewed as a celebration of what a novel is able to accomplish and express.

Find The Magician in the catalog.

Sunflower Sisters

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Sunflower Sisters by Martha Hall Kelly
Format: Book, audiobook
Who it’s for: Adults

Take a step back in time to St. Mary’s County during the Civil War with this wonderful historical fiction story by New York Times bestselling author Martha Hall Kelly! The story begins with Georgeanna Woolsey, a socialite in New York City, who loathes slavery and wants to make a difference so becomes a Union nurse and ultimately finds herself working at the Army hospital at Point Lookout.  You’ll meet Jemma, a smart and kind enslaved girl from South Carolina who does all she can to keep her family together at the Peeler Plantation here in Southern Maryland which is owned by Anne-May, a young woman from New Orleans high society, who will do whatever she needs to in order to preserve her pampered lifestyle. (Peeler Plantation is based on Historic Sotterley.)

Ms. Kelly’s previous novels, Lilac Girls and Lost Roses, follow other historical characters from the Woolsey family across three generations of truly remarkable women.

You can meet the author! Register to join in on our virtual conversation with Martha Hall Kelly on January 5 at 6:30 p.m.

 

Find Sunflower Sisters in the catalog

The Darkwater Saga

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Recommended Series
Series Title: Darkwater Saga by Patrick W. Carr
First Book: The Shock of Night
Who it’s for: Teens & Adults

Brief Synopsis: A clean (no sex, gore, or swearing) medieval fantasy mystery with twists & turns, warring religions, gifted peoples, secret societies, battles between forces of good & evil, and complex characters that make one feel all the emotions set in one epic story told in 4 parts.

Review: The Darkwater Saga takes place in the fictional kingdom of Collum. Our hero is Willet Dura, a reeve, aka the King’s investigator. He fell in love with a Lady of the realm; so as a favor the King has made Willet a Lord; now they may marry. Willet is not a well-respected Lord or noble since he was not born to it and works a regular job. Willet is also looked down on and basically thought to be a little crazy because he survived a night in the Darkwater Woods. Everybody knows folks die or come out insane after a night in the Darkwater. 😬😨😱 Willet is even more suspect because he cannot remember his time in the Darkwater. Despite these difficulties, Lord Willet Dura is content as a typical working man.

Now the fantasy aspect comes in to play because in Collum there are people who are gifted. After Willet’s time in the Darkwater, he sometimes wakes up with blood on his clothes and no memory of how it got there. All Willet knows is that there is sure to have been a murder. A great thing for an investigator but is it a gift or a curse?

If one starts with book 1, The Shock of Night, many aspects of this world are not fully explained until almost the end of the book. I believe the author, Patrick W. Carr, wrote the free prequel, By Divine Right because some readers wanted more world building before they jumped right into the adventure. I learned about the prequel after reading book 1. The prequel is available on most major ebook platforms for free!😁👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾

In Collum, there are folks that are gifted. They are the upper class in society. Gifts of uncanny physical strength, music, mental ability, and other talents can be passed down in families. A relative typically inherits gifts but sometimes they go to an apprentice. The gifted can give it to them before they die. Most gifted train their successors so they know how to use their gift properly. Sometimes gifts can “go rogue” when the gifted person is unable to pass it on their appointed successor. That is what happens to our hero, Lord Willet Dura in The Shock of Night.  Willet wakes up with mystery blood on his clothes and knows he will be investigating a murder. For the first time, Willet finds the victim still alive. The stranger lives just long enough to pass his gift to Willet.  A gift that comes with additional responsibilities which Willet soon discovers he would rather not have. The dying man belonged to a group called the Vigil. The Vigil is a group of gifted individuals who seek to vanquish the evil in their world. They are like magical Navy Seals or very limited in power X-men.  Willet does not like this whatsoever but he has a mystery to solve. 🕵️‍♂️

Thus begins the epic adventure of Lord Willet Dura saving the kingdom of Collum from evil. There are many heartaches. At times, it seems like all hope is lost but good does triumph…eventually. Many battles against evil forces will ensue. Some characters will die or be seriously injured. All of them will have injuries to their soul. Miracles will happen. Revelations will be brought to light. Many (unlikely) lifelong friendships will be formed as Willet is joined/joins others to fight the evil that is trying to engulf the kingdom of Collum. They do win in the end. But every win was hard won with blood, sweat, and tears aplenty.😫😭

If you read Sharon Kay Penman’s 4 book series of medieval mysteries featuring Justin de Quincey as the investigator, you will like Lord Willet Dura and his investigative style. If you enjoyed the Lord of the Rings movies, you will enjoy the medieval adventure, magical happenings, and teamwork found in this series.  I read this series because I liked his Sword and the Staff series. While looking for something similar to Stephen R. Lawhead, I discovered Patrick W.Carr under the tag of Christian fantasy. A Christian publisher, Baker, publishes Carr’s books but neither of his series are what I think of as Christian fiction. Carr’s books are clean and have few things in them that might offend a Christian but are definitely not what I would classify as a Christian fantasy novel like say C.S. Lewis. I recommend the series to teens and adults that can handle violence, character deaths, and hard emotions. None of the books are standalones.  All the novels pickup right where one book ends. Luckily, the series is finished and no need to wait a year or more for the rest of the story.🎉😀

Patrick W. Carr’s Darkwater Saga is available on Hoopla!