Showing up at #4 is 'The Tory Widow' by Christine Blevins. While Grace and Rico's romance grows more tumultuous, Angela disguises herself as a man and joins Zapata's rebel army to avenge her family. Meanwhile, sixteen-year-old Mexican-American Angela Sanchez is forced to fend for herself after government soldiers invade her parents' estate. English ex-patriot Grace Knight runs a luxurious and world-renowned hotel in the city, and has fallen in love with the soldier Rico. In 1913 Cuernavaca, the lives of two disparate women converge during the bloody conflict of the Mexican Revolution. Gulf Coast territory for the Spanish empire.įor #3 we find 'Last Train from Cuernavaca' by Lucia St. Panfilo de Narvaez and some 600 men set out across the Atlantic with the goal of claiming U.S. As social distinctions erode in the wake of the calamity, the enslaved Estebanico becomes peer to his fellow Spanish explorers. But after making landfall in Florida, a host of dangers including starvation, disease, and Native American opposition gradually claim their lives. Gulf Coast territory for the Spanish empire.

Based on a real, disastrous 16th-century conquistador expedition, this gripping novel imagines the chaotic conquest from the perspective of one of the crew's four survivors, a Moroccan slave. But after he's involved in a case of mistaken identity, James discovers that navigating this new, very genteel world is going to be far more dangerous than he could've imagined.Īt #2 is 'The Moor's Account' by Laila Lalami. Lauded as a hero, he finds himself shedding his merchant rank for a more lofty status, eventually making his way into the domain of nobility. James, a lowly cobbler, is swept up in the action and ends up becoming an unlikely savior of the castle. At the treacherous border between England and Wales in the 12th century, the English castle town of Dansford is besieged by Welsh soldiers. Filled with the turbulence of war and intrigue, here, in no particular order, are ten captivating works of historical fiction that are sure to keep readers on the edge of their seats.įor #1 we get 'Defender of the Realm' by Corey Holst.

From England in the Middle Ages to New York City during World War II, the titles included on this list mine stirring drama from history both recent and long past.

Apricots and Wolfsbane by K.M. Pohlkamp