Archives de catégorie : Historical Fiction

WHERE ONLY STORMS GROW d’Alyssa Colman

For Fans of the I Survived series and The War That Saved My Life, this gripping middle-grade novel is set during one of the most dangerous storms in American history.

WHERE ONLY STORMS GROW
by Alyssa Colman
Farrar, Straus and Giroux BYR, August 2025
(via Sterling Lord Literistic)

It’s been four years since rain fell on the Oklahoma panhandle and the closeness between the Stanton twins has dried up as much as the land. Howe Stanton has been practicing running away and longs for the family to quit this land of dust where only troubles grow. Despite the scoliosis that causes Joanna Stanton near-constant pain, she isn’t ready to give up like her brother. But when Daddy leaves the family behind to find work in California, saving the farm from ruin falls on Howe’s unwilling and Joanna’s uneven shoulders.

To pay the mortgage, Joanna takes a job at the local hospital and discovers purpose in helping others. Howe finds unexpected joy in caring for his father’s horse and escapes in a borrowed book.

But then a tragedy in town reveals the dust’s deadly dangers. With the worst storm of the Dust Bowl bearing down on their home, Howe and Joanna must put aside their differences and work together, or everyone and everything they love will be lost to the dust.

Alyssa Colman is the author of The Gilded Girl, which won the 2021 Northern Lights Book Award for middle-grade fantasy. Publishers Weekly called the story “a thoughtful and imaginative exploration of friendship, internal change, and perseverance” in a starred review. Alyssa lives in northern Virginia with her family.

A BEAUTIFUL AND TERRIBLE MURDER de Claire Andrews

Perfect for fans of Stalking Jack the Ripper, this historical murder mystery follows the cunning Irene Adler as she teams up with the mysterious Sherlock Holmes to discover who is murdering Oxford’s elite students in the All Souls class.

A BEAUTIFUL AND TERRIBLE MURDER
by Claire Andrews
Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, August 2025
(via Dystel, Goderich & Bourret)

Irene Adler is no ordinary young lady. She’s at the top of the ranks in the All Souls cohort, a competitive preparatory class reserved for Oxford’s brightest minds. But her peers and professors don’t know she’s a lady at all. To them, she is Isaac Holland.

Keeping up her disguise gets trickier when All Souls students start dying, one by one. Determined to find out who’s responsible for the deaths, Irene—as Isaac—teams up with fellow classmate and roommate Sherlock Holmes to track down clues. Their mission grows more dangerous by the day as someone tries to frame Isaac for the murders, and Irene’s own father, Dean Moriarty, begins to threaten her seat in school.

Readers will love following these classic and beloved characters through the twists and turns in the dark halls of Oxford, and discovering what secret lies behind the glitz and glamor of the elite.

Claire M. Andrews was raised in both Alaska and Scotland, but currently lives in Vermont. When not writing, she can usually be found outside swimming, skiing, or hiking across the state’s famous green mountains. She is the author of the Daughter of Sparta series and can be found on Instagram and Twitter at @cmandrewslit.

THE NINE MOONS OF HAN YU AND LULI de Karina Yan Glaser

Breathtaking suspense, unforgettable characters, and a pinch of magic combine in the dual stories of two young people—one in 731 China, and one in 1931 Chinatown—on perilous journeys to save their families. An instant classic from the beloved and bestselling author of the Vanderbeekers series.

THE NINE MOONS OF HAN YU AND LULI
by Karina Yan Glaser
Allida/HarperCollins, September 2025

In ancient Chang’An, Han Yu sells steamed buns in a bustling market full of whispers about his ability to summon tigers.

In New York’s Depression-era Chinatown, Luli gazes out from the roof of her parents’ restaurant, dreaming of dim sum and Chinese art.

Familiar rhythms rule the contained-but-contented lives of Han Yu and Luli. But when plague strikes Chang’An and financial crisis threatens Luli’s family, Han Yu and Luli must each venture out into the larger world—and into danger-filled adventure—to save what they love most. Filled with wondrous caves and conniving thieves, desert storms and magical lakes, Karina Yan Glaser’s epic and rewarding novel is a testament to the bravery required to face the unknown and the power of art to connect us through the ages.

“A page turner that is at once epic and intimate. This is a must read!” —Lisa Yee, New York Times bestselling author of The Misfits

Karina Yan Glaser is the author of the New York Times bestselling Vanderbeekers series and the stand-alone novel A Duet for Home, which received three starred reviews and has been nominated for more than a dozen state awards. A former middle school teacher, Karina lives in Harlem, New York City, with her husband, two teens, and an assortment of pets and houseplants. One of her proudest achievements is raising two kids who can’t go anywhere without a book.

EVERYTHING LOST RETURNS de Sarah Domet

With timely themes and complex characters, and focusing on the desires, flaws, dreams, and relationships between many different types of women across several decades, this will be perfect for book clubs.

EVERYTHING LOST RETURNS
by Sarah Domet
Flatiron Books/SMP, February 2026

It’s 1910 and Opal, on the run from her abusive husband, has become an Earthshine girl—working in a factory owned by the illustrious Tuttle family to make the extremely popular Earthshine soap. Despite her newfound financial independence, Opal can’t help but notice that many of the Earthshine girls are falling sick, and they all suffer the same symptoms—is it possible that the soap, and the Tuttle family, could be responsible?

Meanwhile, in 1986, struggling soap opera actress Nona Dixon owes everything to Bertie Tuttle, who put Nona’s face on Earthshine soap when she was a child and made her a star. But when Nona starts doing some digging on her benefactor, she begins to uncover a dark history surrounding Bertie, Opal, and the soap that binds all three women together.

Gorgeously written and intricately constructed, EVERYTHING LOST RETURNS is a story of friendship and betrayal, guilt and redemption, and the power we have, in our own small way, to change the course of history

Sarah Domet’s debut novel, The Guineveres, received rave reviews everywhere from The New York Times Book Review to People Magazine to Elle. Sarah lives in Savannah, Georgia.

THE PAPER BIRDS de Jeanette Lynes

Imagine you have only a pencil and paper, a pocketful of hunches, and your puzzle-solving skills to help end the war.

THE PAPER BIRDS
by Jeanette Lynes
HarperAvenue/HarperCollins Canada, June 2025

Fresh out of high school, Gemma Sullivan lands what she believes is an office job, only to learn that she’s been hired for top-secret government codebreaking work in a cottage in Mimico, Ontario. The codebreaking “Cottage”—run by the brilliant, eccentric Miss Fearing, who was trained at England’s Bletchley Park—pulls Gemma in with its urgent lure and mystery. But along with this comes an oath of lifelong secrecy.

Gem can’t tell anyone about her job, not even her elderly Aunt Wren, who has raised her since the age of three after the tragic death of Gem’s parents. Her aunt harbours a deep love for crossword puzzles and Tarot cards and an equally passionate hatred for war after the death of her own fiancé in World War I. The last thing she’d want for her niece is a job that involves anything to do with the war.

The codebreaking is intense, even mind-numbing at times. One day during her lunch break Gem goes for a walk and discovers a German POW camp not far from the cottage. At the barbed-wire fence, she encounters a prisoner named Toby. Even though she risks losing her job, or worse, if she’s caught fraternizing with the enemy, Gem can’t stop visiting him. After several weeks of risky conversations, Toby disappears from the camp.

While Gem grows into her engrossing job, she hadn’t anticipated the tremendous mental strain it would cause, and she struggles with the burden of secrecy both at work and in her private life. As Gem is pulled deeper into wartime intelligence work, she becomes an integral part of the codebreakers’ circle. The Cottage codebreaking unit is small but determined; her female coworkers all possess a range of complementary skills. But in order to be successful, they must learn to work together.

THE PAPER BIRDS is a WWII love story that reveals the struggles and sacrifices of everyday working women during the war and highlights the previously unknown codebreaking work undertaken by women in Canada during the war. This novel is both one woman’s story, and many.

JEANETTE LYNES is the author of the bestselling novel The Apothecary’s Garden, a finalist for a High Plains Book Award and two Saskatchewan Book Awards. Her second novel, The Small Things That End the World, won the 2019 Fiction Prize at the Saskatchewan Book Awards. Her first novel, The Factory Voice, was longlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize and a ReLit Award. She has also written seven books of poetry. Her forthcoming non-fiction book Apron Apocalypse: Lyric Essays received the John V. Hicks Long Manuscript Award. A settler, Jeanette Lynes grew up on the traditional territory of the People of the Three Fires: the Ojibway, Odawa, and Potawatomi Nations of Anishinabek peoples. Since 2011 she has directed the MFA in Writing at the University of Saskatchewan on Treaty 6 Territory and the Homeland of the Métis. THE PAPER BIRDS is her fourth novel.

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