The majority of the books I read are not set in the here and now, so today's Top Ten Tuesday prompt is right up my alley: Top Ten Books Set in Another Time (can be historical, futuristic, alternate timelines, etc.). Since historical fiction is one of my favorite genres, I'm going to stick with that, but to jive a little more on the time theme, I'm going to focus on historical novels I'm looking forward to reading that are coming out in the (near) future. I'll try to highlight titles I haven't mentioned here before.

As always, Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by the lovely Jana over at That Artsy Reader Girl.

1. The Artist of Blackberry Grange by Paulette Kennedy (coming May 1, 2025)—Set in 1925 in the Ozarks, this novel concerns Sadie Halloran, a grieving young woman in need of a new start. When she learns that her aunt—an artist who lives in a mansion on an Arkansas bluff—is in need of a live-in companion, she jumps at the opportunity. She's soon ensconced in an eerie, decaying house with her dementia-laden aunt who paints terrifying portraits and hints about dark family secrets. Is there any truth behind her aunt's mutterings? Sadie aims to find out...

2. Death at a Highland Wedding by Kelley Armstrong (coming May 20, 2025)—The Rip Through Time historical mystery series is one of my all-time favorites. It's about a homicide detective who is assaulted while visiting her dying grandmother in Edinburgh, Scotland. When Mallory awakens, she discovers she's still in the city, but it's now 1869 and she's inhabiting the body of a saucy young housemaid. Her boss, Dr. Duncan Gray, is a physician who moonlights as a medical examiner. As Mallory tries to figure out how to get herself home, she can't help but try to help Dr. Gray solve the cases of violent death that show up in his morgue, even if it means blowing her cover. Eventually, she tells him the truth and is able to aid him more openly.

In Death at a Highland Wedding, the fourth book in the series, Mallory and Duncan travel to the Highlands to attend an acquaintance's nuptials. While exploring the grounds of the groom's ancestral castle, they come across a wildcat caught in one of the groom's traps. The animal's wounds don't match its apparent cause of death, however, which puzzles Mallory and Duncan. When a murder occurs at the wedding, they find themselves investigating a strange and mysterious case.

3. Smoke on the Wind by Kelli Estes (coming June 24, 2025)—Also set in the Scottish Highlands, this novel is about two mothers traveling the West Highland Way with their sons, 200+ years apart. When Keaka Denney starts having strange visions of a woman from the past who's in dire need of help, it leads to an odd, logic-defying encounter that just might save both women. 

4. Wayward Girls by Susan Wiggs (coming July 15, 2025)—Based on a true story, Wiggs' newest concerns a group of young women who are inmates at a Catholic reform school in 1968. They've been brought there for various reasons—fighting, unwed pregnancy, same-sex attraction, protection, etc—and now must figure out how to survive their sentences without going mad. 

That's all the plot I can find for this one. The story sounds interesting but depressing, although the publisher's blurb promises that it's "life-affirming." I hope so! 

5. The Lies They Told by Ellen Marie Wiseman (coming July 29, 2025)—I don't always love Wiseman's books, but this one sounds too intriguing to miss. It's set in 1930s rural Virginia, against the backdrop of the eugenics movement in the United States which led to the forced sterilization of thousands of people because of their race, lack of education, poverty, disability, etc. Lena Conti, an unwed mother with a 2-year-old daughter, is left alone at Ellis Island when the rest of her family is sent back to Germany. A relative of the family, a widower with young children, agrees to house Lena in exchange for housework and childminding. As she adjusts to her new life in the Blue Ridge Mountains, she realizes that people in this tight-knit community are deathly afraid of the government, which is trying to paint them all as too backward and ignorant to have children and land. When Lena's worst fears are realized and she finds herself torn away from her daughter, she resolves to do anything she has to to get her back. 

6. Last Light Over Galveston by Jennifer L. Wright (coming August 1, 2025)—When something terrible happens, shattering Kathleen McDaniel's hopes for a privileged, peaceful life in New York, she runs as far and as fast as she can. She finds a home on Galveston Island, Texas, where she works at an orphanage helping the nuns care for the children. When her past comes callling at the same time the infamous 1900 hurricane starts brewing, Kathleen must find some way to survive everyting that is coming for her.

7. The Moonshine Women by Michelle Collins Anderson (coming August 26, 2025)—Prohibition may be in full force, but in the Missouri Ozarks, the Strong family does what it always has—makes moonshine. With their father drowning his grief over their mother's death in his own product, it's up to the three Strong sisters to keep the business running. That's no easy task with Prohibition agents hiding in every holler. When tragedy strikes, the women will have to fight even harder to keep their business and their family together.

8. The Austen Affair by Madeline Bell (coming September 16, 2025)—Romance really isn't my genre, but this love story just sounds like fun. It's about two actors who are starring together in an adaptation of Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey. There are plenty of emotions zinging back and forth between them...just not the good kind. When an electrical accident transports the sniping co-stars back to the Regency Era, they have to work together to figure out how to get home, preferably without totally screwing up history. Can they do it?

9. The Night We Became Strangers by Lorena Hughes (coming September 30, 2025)—In 1949, eleven years after a radio station dramatization of The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells convinced Americans that Martians were invading the planet, an Eucadorian station decided to broadcast their own version. Appalled listeners, terrified of impending alien gas raids, set fire to the radio station building, killing fifteen people. 

This novel tells this tragic true tale through the eyes of two journalists whose families were profoundly affected by what happened at the radio station. Although they don't trust each other, they decide to work together to find the answers both of them are desperately seeking. 

10. The Last Spirits of Manhattan by John A. McDermott (coming October 14, 2025)—Another novel that is based on a true story, this one takes place at a Manhattan house party thrown by Alfred Hitchcock in 1956. The famous movie director is delighted to announce to his celebrity guests that the venue he's chosen for his gala is known to be haunted. When ghostly happenings start occurring, Carolyn Banks (whose aunt owns the home) must confront some long-held family secrets. 

There you are, ten upcoming historical fiction titles that I can't wait to read. Are you a hist fic fan? Which are your favorites? If you're not into the genre, why not? I'd truly love to know. Leave me a comment on this post and I will gladly return the favor on your blog. 

I spent the weekend before last visiting family in the Columbia River Gorge, where rain showers and cool breezes reminded me of what Spring is supposed to be like. Guess what greeted me when I came home to the Arizona desert? Bright sunshine and blazing heat. The temperatures have been a little milder this week, but even still, our pool has been a popular place for family and friends lately!  *Sigh* While Spring in Arizona is nothing like the Pacific Northwest's version, it does bring the promised blossoms to add much-needed color to our parched, dry landscape. I know very little about flowers, but I am grateful for the cheery pops of pretty they bring. 

Today's Top Ten Tuesday prompt is appropriate for the season here in the U.S.: May Flowers. It's a choose-your-own adventure topic to celebrate Spring. I'm going to stay pretty basic and highlight ten books on my TBR list that have a type of flower in the title. I think I'll even be able to make it without repeating any of them. We'll see. I also just realized that they're all historical fiction. Does that genre lend itself more readily to flower-y titles? Interesting...

As always, this fun weekly meme is hosted by the lovely Jana over at That Artsy Reader Girl. Click on over to her blog to join in the party!

1. The Elusive Truth of Lily Temple by Joanna Davidson Politano—Private investigator Peter Driscoll has been hired to locate a priceless, legendary sapphire which is allegedly in the possession of silent film star Lily Temple. In an effort to get close to her, Peter enlists Lily's help with a case. As the two grow closer, their partnership becomes increasingly dangerous, not just for their physical well-beings but also for the state of their hearts.

2. White Rose by Kip Wilson—This historical YA novel revolves around Sophie Scholl, a real German woman who created a resistance group while she was in college called The White Rose to fight against the Nazis in non-violent ways. When their clandestine activities are discovered, Sophie and her fellow collaborators find themselves at the mercy of the very group they're trying to destroy.  

3. Under the Tulip Tree by Michelle Shocklee—At 16, Lorena Leland dreams of achieving fame and fortune by becoming a writer. The crash of the stock market in 1929 dashes her hopes as well as those of Americans all over the country, causing widespread unemployment, poverty, and depression. Desperate to help her family financially, Lorena takes a job interviewing the formerly enslaved for the Federal Writers' Project. As she grows close to one of her subjects, her eyes are opened and her heart expanded in ways she never could have predicted.

4. The Lost Girls of Willowbrook by Ellen Marie Wiseman—Sage Winters has been grieving the death of her twin sister for six years. When her resentful stepfather reveals the truth—Rosemary, who was always a little different, didn't die but was actually committed to the Willowbrook State School (a real institution that was eventually closed down because of the horrendous abuses that were committed there), from which she has just disappeared. Furious and determined to find out what happened to her sister, Sage gets herself committed to the school in order to find answers.

5. The Magnolia Palace by Fiona Davis—This dual-timeline novel centers around the Frick mansion, a real Gilded Age home in New York City that was turned into an art museum in the 1930s. In 1919, a down-on-her-luck artists' model is thrilled to land a position as the secretary for Helen Frick, the daughter of Henry Clay Frick, a wealthy robber baron. The longer Lillian is in the family's employ, the more she learns about them and their secrets, putting her very life at risk. Fifty years later, an English model arrives at the Frick mansion, now an impressive art museum. When she stumbles upon a series of messages hidden within the museum, she is led on a hunt for not just a concealed treasure, but also possibly the solution to a decades-old murder.

6. Lilac Girls by Martha Hall Kelly—Three women are at the heart of this World War II novel. Caroline Ferriday is a New York socialite who works at the French consulate. Kasia Kuzmerick is a Polish teen whose position as a courier for the resistance puts her in danger every day. Herta Oberheuser is a doctor who takes a job with the German government in order to escape her desolate life, only to find herself trapped in a position she's not sure she wants to be in. The three women's lives intersect when Kasia is sent to a concentration camp. 

Incidentally, this is the first book in a trilogy, all of which have flower titles.

7. The Wings of Poppy Pendleton by Melanie Dobson—On a night of celebration in her family's Thousand Islands castle, 4-year-old Poppy goes peacefully to bed. In the morning, she is nowhere to be found while her father's dead body lies in the smoking room. Eighty-five years later, Chloe Ridell lives on the island, where she is working to preserve the environment and breathe fresh life into her family's candy shop. When a young Pendleton relative shows up on her doorstep, Chloe is thrust into a search for answers about what happened to young Poppy so long ago.

8. Peony in Love by Lisa See—I can't find much in the way of a plot summary for this novel, but apparently, it's a ghost story set in 17th Century China.

9. The Lavender Garden by Lucinda Riley—As the last person in her family line, Emilie inherits a magnificent chateau and vineyard in the south of France. Along with the property comes a tower of debt and a mountain of secrets. Desperate to know what became of Constance Carruthers, a British woman who worked as an undercover agent in Paris during World War II, Emilie starts digging for answers in her new home.

10. the next book in the Myrtle Hardcastle mystery series by Elizabeth C. Bunce—I have to cheat a little in order to get ten different flowers on my list, so just go along with me here...Each of the installments in this entertaining middle-grade historical mystery series has a title that includes a play on the name Myrtle: Myrtle, Means, and Opportunity; Cold-Blooded Myrtle; In Myrtle Peril; etc. I'm not sure when the next one comes out, but I know it will have a "Myrtle" title when it does.

There you are, ten books on my TBR list with the names of flowers in their titles. Have you read any of them? What did you think? Can you think of any others I need to read? What spin did you take for your list today? I'd truly love to know. Leave me a comment on this post and I will gladly return the favor on your blog.

Happy TTT! 

Hill, dale, mountain, valley, ocean, swamp, gorge, narrow...there are hundreds of words to describe the geographical wonders of our world. Not surprisingly, many of them show up in the titles of books. Using this list as my guide, it didn't take me long to gather a bunch of them for today's TTT prompt: Top Ten Books With Geographical Terms in the Title (suggested by Lisa at Hopewell's Public Library of Life). I tweaked it just a tad by focusing on books on my TBR list. 

If you want to join in the TTT fun (and you do!), click on over to That Artsy Reader Girl for all the details.

1. These Silent Woods by Kami Cunningham Grant—It just so happens that my current read fits this week's topic. I'm enjoying this quietly compelling novel about a man and his 8-year-old daughter whose peaceful life in an isolated cabin is threatened by a string of events that could expose a dangerous secret from the past and destroy their idyllic existence forever. 

2. The Saints of Swallow Hill by Donna Everhart—In the middle of the Depression, a desperate widow disguises herself as a man in order to get a job at a turpentine camp in Georgia. Despite the grimness of her situation, she begins to envision a new life for herself, if only she can come to terms with the sins of her past.

3. The Quarry Girls by Jess Lourey—Thrillers about small towns with big secrets always appeal to me. This one concerns a Minnesota town where teenage girls are disappearing. Heather and Brenda are keeping a secret about something disturbing they saw one night. Are the incidents connected? Too scared to go to the authorities, Heather decides to investigate on her own...

4. Smile Beach Murder by Alicia Bessette—The first installment in a cozy mystery series, this one stars Callie, a woman who returns to her hometown in the Outer Banks after being laid off from her job as a reporter. Still haunted by the death of her mother, who fell from the top of the local lighthouse, Callie is shocked when another woman dies in the same manner. She doesn't believe either woman committed suicide, as the rumors suggest, so what did happen? Callie is determined to find out.

5. The Half-Life of Ruby Fielding by Lydia Kang—It's 1942 and the Fielding siblings are doing what they can for the war effort on the home front. When they discover a mysterious stranger hiding under their back stairs, they're drawn into her web, but who is she? And what does she want from them? Can they trust the enigmatic stranger or should they turn her in to the authorities?

6. On Gold Mountain: The One-Hundred-Year Odyssey of My Chinese-American Family by Lisa See—In this non-fiction book, See tells her family's story, starting with the emigration of her great-great grandfather from China to California.

7. Loch Down Abbey by Beth Cowan-Erskine—I've mentioned this dark comedy/murder mystery set in Scotland before. It sounds clever and funny.

8. The Lost Girls of Willowbrook by Ellen Marie Wiseman—Based on a true story, this historical novel is about Sage Winters, a girl who discovers her dead sister is actually alive. Sage knew her sister was different than other people, but does she really deserve to be institutionalized at the Willowbrook State School? Sage vows to find out the truth about her sister and the infamous school for herself, no matter what it takes.

9. The Marsh House by Zoë Somerville—This dual-timeline novel tells the story of two women in different eras and the mysterious, secret-filled house that ties them together.

10. Race to the Bottom of the Sea by Lindsay Eager—This rollicking middle-grade adventure tells the tale of Fidelia Quail, an 11-year-old who's wracked by guilt after her parents are killed in an accident involving a submarine Fidelia invented. When she's kidnapped by a treasure-obssessed pirate, she must use her vast knowledge of the sea to help him find what he seeks in order to avoid walking the plank. The discovery that her pirate captor is more than he seems throws her for a loop and plunges her head-first into a puzzling mystery.

There you are, ten books with geographical terms in the titles that I want to read. Have you read any of these? What did you think? Which titles and terms are on your list today? I'd truly love to know. Leave me a comment on this post and I will gladly return the favor on your blog.

Happy TTT!      

(Image from Barnes & Noble)

Although she's ten years old, Lilly Blackwood has never run outside, never played with other children.  Instead, she's confined to a small attic room with only her parents for (occasional) company.  Her mother—a religious zealot—insists the isolation is for her own protection.  If other people saw Lilly, she says, it would scare them.  When she is finally released from the home that has become her prison, Lilly's freedom is short-lived.  Sold by her mother to the circus, she becomes imprisoned again, just with a different jailer. 

Despite the bleak, often cruel world of the circus, Lilly finds a ragtag family and, for the first time, a sense of belonging.  When tragedy descends, however, it seems she may never find a happy ending ...

Twenty years later, Julia Blackwood returns to the home and horse farm she has inherited from her parents.  The place holds few happy memories for her.  Hoping to make peace with her past, Julia explores Blackwood House, especially the corners that were off-limits to her as a child.  Stunned to discover a hidden attic room and old circus photos featuring a striking young woman, she determines to uncover all of Blackwood House's secrets.  What she discovers—about her family and about herself—will shock her to her core.

The Life She Was Given by Ellen Marie Wiseman is an atmospheric, absorbing novel peopled with colorful, complex characters.  Told in the alternating voices of Lilly and Julia, it tells a vivid and compelling story.  Also a sad, sad one.  In fact, parts of the ending are so mournful that the novel, overall, feels less than satisfying.  While it offers a few sparks of hope and uplift, on the whole, The Life She Was Given is just depressing.  Engrossing, but pretty darn cheerless.  In the end, then, I found this one disappointing despite being well-written.  

(Readalikes:  Reminds me of Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen)  

Grade:

If this were a movie, it would be rated:

for language (no F-bombs), violence, blood/gore, sexual content, and disturbing subject matter

To the FTC, with love:  I bought a copy of The Life She Was Given from Amazon with a portion of the millions I make from my lucrative career as a book blogger.  Ha ha.