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In the Shadow of the Storm: The King's Greatest Enemy #1

Anna Belfrage

2017 Finalist
385 Pages
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Fiction - Historical - Personage

2017 Finalist
Adam de Guirande owes his lord, Roger Mortimer, much more than loyalty. He owes Lord Roger for his life and all his worldly goods, he owes him for his beautiful wife – even if Kit is not quite the woman Lord Roger thinks she is. So when Lord Roger rises in rebellion against the king, Adam has no choice but to ride with him – no matter what the ultimate cost may be.

England in 1321 is a confusing place. Edward II has been forced by his barons to exile his favourite, Hugh Despenser. The barons, led by the powerful Thomas of Lancaster, Roger Mortimer and Humphrey de Bohun, have reasons to believe they have finally tamed the king. But Edward is not about to take things lying down...

Adam fears his lord has over-reached, but Adam has other matters to concern him, first and foremost his new wife, Katherine de Monmouth. His bride comes surrounded by rumours concerning her and Lord Roger, and he hates it when his brother snickers and whispers of used goods.

Kit has the misfortune of being a perfect double of Katherine de Monmouth – which is why she finds herself coerced into wedding a man under a false name.

Domestic matters become irrelevant when the king sets out to punish his rebellious barons. The Welsh Marches explode into war, and soon Lord Roger and his men are fighting for their very lives. When hope splutters and dies, when death seems inevitable, it falls to Kit to save her man – if she can.

In the Shadow of the Storm is the first in Anna Belfrage’s new series, The King’s Greatest Enemy, the story of a man torn apart by his loyalties to his lord, his king, and his wife.

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The Laird's Kidnapped Bride

Mysty McPartland

2017 Finalist
119 Pages
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Fiction - Historical - Personage

2017 Finalist
Furious and out for blood when she finds herself kidnapped of the streets of Stirling, Fern promises herself whoever was behind this fiendish act would pay with their life. When the filthy, stinking heathen who had stolen her informs her that she’s his contracted bride, she refuses to believe him. Beside she’s about to marry someone else, moreover she would have nothing to do with a man who would dishonour her by keeping his fat doxy in residence. There was nothing else for her to do but escape. Managing to outwit the reeking lunatic, she remains hidden for several days. Hunger and thirst drive her from her hiding place and she is outraged to find herself captured once more. The final blow to her freedom is the contract he thrusts in her face, declaring everything he said was true. Defeated but still proud she agrees to the marriage but rejects sharing a bed with him, and to keep him out of hers she refused to bath or keep clean. It was time to fetch his bride, and Cameron sent men to procure her. Once he set eyes on her and was drawn to her sweet clean scent, he knew he had to have her. Her beauty was another reason he was determined to wed her. Though he hadn’t bedded his mistress for some time, he realized he had made a tactical error in letting her stay. The insults from his bride at times insulted him and amused him. He was frantic when she somehow manages to escape her locked room. Continuously, he searches for her without any success. It was impossible for her to slip away so it only meant she was hiding somewhere close. He is determined to find her and once he does they will be married at once. As the days pass, he grows more alarmed for her safety but finally just as he is growing desperate, she reappears. Once she sees proof he was telling the truth she reluctantly agrees to marry him but he is mistaken that she has given up fighting him and stirring up trouble.

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Days of Sun and Glory

The King's Greatest Enemy #2
Anna Belfrage

2017 Honorable Mention
418 Pages
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Fiction - Historical - Personage

2017 Honorable Mention
Adam de Guirande has barely survived the aftermath of Roger Mortimer’s rebellion in 1321. When Mortimer manages to escape the Tower and flee to France, anyone who has ever served Mortimer becomes a potential traitor – at least in the eyes of King Edward II and his royal chancellor, Hugh Despenser. Adam must conduct a careful balancing act to keep himself and his family alive. Fortunately, he has two formidable allies: Queen Isabella and his wife, Kit.

England late in 1323 is a place afflicted by fear. Now that the king’s greatest traitor, Roger Mortimer, has managed to evade royal justice, the king and his beloved Despenser see dissidents and rebels everywhere – among Mortimer’s former men, but also in the queen, Isabella of France.

Yet again, Kit and Adam are forced to take part in a complicated game of intrigue and politics. Yet again, they risk their lives – and that of those they hold dear – as Edward II and Mortimer face off. Once again, England is plunged into war – and this time it will not end until either Despenser or Mortimer is dead.

Days of Sun and Glory is the second in Anna Belfrage’s series, The King’s Greatest Enemy, the story of a man torn apart by his loyalties to his lord, his king, and his wife.

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Madame Presidentess

Nicole Evelina

2017 Honorable Mention
430 Pages
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Fiction - Historical - Personage

2017 Honorable Mention
Forty-eight years before women were granted the right to vote, one woman dared to run for President of the United States, yet her name has been virtually written out of the history books.

Rising from the shame of an abusive childhood, Victoria Woodhull, the daughter of a con-man and a religious zealot, vows to follow her destiny, one the spirits say will lead her out of poverty to “become ruler of her people.”

But the road to glory is far from easy. A nightmarish marriage teaches Victoria that women are stronger and deserve far more credit than society gives. Eschewing the conventions of her day, she strikes out on her own to improve herself and the lot of American women.

Over the next several years, she sets into motion plans that shatter the old boys club of Wall Street and defile even the sanctity of the halls of Congress. But it’s not just her ambition that threatens men of wealth and privilege; when she announces her candidacy for President in the 1872 election, they realize she may well usurp the power they’ve so long fought to protect.

Those who support her laud “Notorious Victoria” as a gifted spiritualist medium and healer, a talented financial mind, a fresh voice in the suffrage movement, and the radical idealist needed to move the nation forward. But those who dislike her see a dangerous force who is too willing to speak out when women are expected to be quiet. Ultimately, “Mrs. Satan’s” radical views on women’s rights, equality of the sexes, free love and the role of politics in private affairs collide with her tumultuous personal life to endanger all she has built and change how she is viewed by future generations.

This is the story of one woman who was ahead of her time – a woman who would make waves even in the 21st century – but who dared to speak out and challenge the conventions of post-Civil War America, setting a precedent that is still followed by female politicians today.

Winner - First Place – Chaucer Awards for Historical Fiction (U.S. women’s history)
Honorable Mention – Reader’s Favorite Book Awards, Fiction – Historical Personage category

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A Strange Beginning

Book 1 of The Byron Series
Gretta Curran Browne

2017 Honorable Mention
428 Pages
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Fiction - Historical - Personage

2017 Honorable Mention
He was later to become known as "The most beautiful and most famous man in England" -- but not yet...
Beginning when he is a boy of ten years old, we join George Gordon when he is living a miserable life with his manic Scottish mother in a few rented rooms above a shop in Aberdeen; unaware that his true surname is not Gordon, and that his true heritage is with the English aristocracy - who soon come to claim him.
A life of wealth and privilege is then bestowed upon him, which eventually sets the stage for him to prove his own individual worth, in his own way, and in his own time.
 Meticulously researched, and adapted into novel form, 'A Strange Beginning' is the first of a series of books about the most iconic young man of his time, whose fame still lives on today.
 "My name alone shall be my epitaph."

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Blood Moon

The Mercy Carver Series Book 2
Jana Petken

2017 Bronze Medal
470 Pages
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Fiction - Historical - Personage

2017 Bronze Medal
The unthinkable has happened. America is embroiled in a Civil War and Virginia has been invaded by a Union army. Mercy Carver ignores the dangers that surround her and treads a precarious road, using only her youthful passion and guile to guide her, and the runaway slaves she continues to aid. Jacob, now an officer in the Confederate Cavalry, fights his demons and his growing mistrust of Mercy, whilst his old friend, Isaac Bernstein, a surgeon in the Union Army, refuses to give up on his pursuit of Mercy's affections. Where will Mercy meet her destiny? Will it be in the Confederate camp or will her journey take her to the Union cause.

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Struggles of the Women Folk

T M Brown

2017 Silver Medal
112 Pages
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Fiction - Historical - Personage

2017 Silver Medal
This is the literary award winning story of Georgie. The one constant in her life was her relationship with the Lord.  Coming of age down south in the 1930s was hard for a black girl.  Georgie dreamed of a better life.  Even with an almost unshakeable faith, she experiences great loss, losing friends and family, as well as the love of her life. And still, she remains strong.
 
This emotional and inspiring story with a gritty dialogue is loosely based on stories that TM's grandmother shared with her. TM Brown's signature writing style is captivating. It will transport you to a place where you're walking alongside Georgie. You will feel her pain, her desires, her faith. But BEWARE!! You'll find it difficult to stop reading once you start.

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Unexpected Gifts

When Ancestors Come Back to Help
S. R. Mallery

2017 Gold Medal
277 Pages
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Fiction - Historical - Personage

2017 Gold Medal
A TRUE AMERICAN FAMILY SAGA: Can we learn from our ancestors? Do our relatives’ behaviors help shape our own?
In "Unexpected Gifts" that is precisely what happens to Sonia, a confused college student, heading for addictions and forever choosing the wrong man. Searching for answers, she begins to read her family’s diaries and journals from America’s past: the Vietnam War, Woodstock, and Timothy Leary era; Tupperware parties, McCarthyism, and Black Power; the Great Depression, dance marathons, and Eleanor Roosevelt; the immigrant experience and the Suffragists. Back and forth the book journeys, linking yesteryear with modern life until finally, by understanding her ancestors' hardships and faults, she gains enough clarity to make some right choices.

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Béla's Letters

Jeff Ingber

2016 Honorable Mention
598 Pages
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Fiction - Historical - Personage

2016 Honorable Mention
“Béla’s Letters,” a historical fiction novel spanning eight decades, revolves around the remarkable life of Béla Ingber, who was born before the onset of WWI in Munkács, a small city nestled in the Carpathian Mountains. The book tells of the struggles of Béla and his extended family to comprehend and prepare for the Holocaust, the implausible circumstances that the survivors endure before reuniting in the New World, and the crushing impact on them of their wartime experiences together with the feelings of guilt, hatred, fear, and abandonment that haunt them. At the core of the novel are the poignant letters and postcards that family members wrote to Béla, undeterred by the feasibility of delivery, which were his lifeline, even decades after the war ended.

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Ludwika

A Polish Woman's Struggle To Survive In Nazi Germany
Christoph Fischer

2016 Finalist
243 Pages
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Fiction - Historical - Personage

2016 Finalist
It’s World War II and Ludwika Gierz, a young Polish woman, is forced to leave her family and go to Nazi Germany to work for an SS officer. There, she must walk a tightrope, learning to live as a second-class citizen in a world where one wrong word could spell disaster and every day could be her last. Based on real events, this is a story of hope amid despair, of love amid loss . . . ultimately, it’s one woman’s story of survival.
Editorial Review:

"This is the best kind of fiction—it’s based on the real life. Ludwika’s story highlights the magnitude of human suffering caused by WWII, transcending multiple generations and many nations.

WWII left no one unscarred, and Ludwika's life illustrates this tragic fact. But she also reminds us how bright the human spirit can shine when darkness falls in that unrelenting way it does during wartime.

This book was a rollercoaster ride of action and emotion, skilfully told by Mr. Fischer, who brought something fresh and new to a topic about which thousands of stories have already been told."