Auckland Council Libraries: Historical fiction new titles

New titles

Ngā Taitara hōu

Historical%20fiction

True
Waiting for the miracle  by Anna McPartlin

Waiting for the miracle

Anna McPartlin

"2010: Caroline has hit rock bottom. After years of trying, it's clear she can't have children, and the pain has driven her and her husband apart. She isn't pregnant, her husband is gone and her beloved dog is dead. The other women at her infertility support...

Request
A schoolmistress at war by Eileen Ainsworth Ramsay

A schoolmistress at war

Eileen Ainsworth Ramsay

"Growing up as a schoolmaster's daughter in rural Scotland, Kirsty Robertson has always dreamt of following in her father's footsteps and becoming a schoolmistress. And when her father dies suddenly, she becomes even more determined to make him proud....

Request
Bobby's war by Shirley Mann

Bobby's war

Shirley Mann

An inspiring and uplifting tale of women on the home front. For fans of Annie Groves and Nancy Revell. On the ground, the crowd of men stood with their mouths agape, watching the wings soar into the air, the tail kept impressively steady and the small plane...

Request
Resistance by Mara Timon

Resistance

Mara Timon

"Three women. One mission. Enemies everywhere. Would you have what it takes to go behind enemy lines? May, 1944. Cecile. Leonie. Dominique. Three very different women, with different strengths and skills. But to succeed, they need to work together. Their...

Request
A simple wish by Rosie Goodwin

A simple wish

Rosie Goodwin

"1885. Ruby Carter works hard in her parents' bakery. Whilst life isn't easy, she's happy enough - her gentle mother protects young Ruby from her cruel father and loves her unconditionally. So, when her mother falls ill, Ruby is heartbroken and when, from her...

Request
The Glasgow girl at war by Eileen Ainsworth Ramsay

The Glasgow girl at war

Eileen Ainsworth Ramsay

"1930s Scotland. Ferelith Gallagher has been brought up in a convent in Glasgow, but dreams of bigger and better things. With no money behind her, and no family to speak of, she travels to Edinburgh to study to be a lawyer - a brave choice for a woman in the...

Request
The gypsy's daughter by Katie Hutton

The gypsy's daughter

Katie Hutton

"Harmony 'Harry' Loveridge is growing up on a farm in post-war Kent. With a Gypsy for a father, she has had a somewhat unconventional, yet happy life. But Harry has always hoped for more. And with ambitions to go to university, and a scholarship in sight, it...

Request
A Christmas to remember by Anton Du Beke

A Christmas to remember

Anton Du Beke

"Return to the Buckingham Hotel in Anton Du Beke's sparkling new novel . . . London, 1938. As the threat of war looms ever closer, the Buckingham Hotel's difficulties grow. Still reeling from the events of last year, and with guests decreasing as foreign...

Request
The canal boat girl by Sheila Newberry

The canal boat girl

Sheila Newberry

"Wales, 1883. Young Ruth Owen, a talented musician with a scholarship to a prestigious music school, has a sparkling career ahead of her. But after a run-in with her mysterious tutor she flees to London, leaving everything and everyone behind. London, 1897....

Request
The wild date palm by Diane Armstrong

The wild date palm

Diane Armstrong

During a train journey across Turkey's Anatolian Plain in 1915 during World War I, Shoshana Adelstein witnesses the slaughter of the Armenians and knows she has just come face to face with her destiny. Convinced that her Jewish community in a small outpost of...

Request
The engraver's secret by Lisa Medved

The engraver's secret

Lisa Medved

Spanish Netherlands, 1620s. Raised by her father Lucas to know her mind, Antonia Vorsterman sees everything that goes on in her world - all the rivalries and jealousies that course through the artists' studios and workshops of Antwerp. Drawn into the lively...

Request
The royal librarian by Daisy Wood

The royal librarian

Daisy Wood

Windsor, 1940. War rages, and as bombs rain down across Britain, nowhere is safe: not even a royal palace. Secretly tasked with foiling a suspected plot, Sophie Klein is placed in the Royal Library at Windsor Castle, where the princesses reside. But when she...

Request
The underground library by Jennifer Ryan

The underground library

Jennifer Ryan

When the Blitz threatens the heart of a London neighbourhood, three young women must use their fighting spirit to keep their community together in this heartwarming novel from the author of The Kitchen Front. On the day Juliet Lansdown reports to work for the...

Request
The divorcées by Rowan Beaird

The divorcées

Rowan Beaird

Lois Saunders thought that marrying the right man would finally cure her loneliness. But as picture-perfect as her husband is, she is suffocating in their loveless marriage. In 1951, though, unhappiness is hardly grounds for divorce - except in Reno, Nevada. ...

Request
Restless Dolly Maunder by Kate Grenville

Restless Dolly Maunder

Kate Grenville

Dolly Maunder is born at the end of the nineteenth century, when society's long-locked doors are just starting to creak ajar for determined women. Growing up in a poor farming family in rural New South Wales, Dolly spends her life doggedly pushing at those...

Request
The children of Jocasta by Natalie Haynes

The children of Jocasta

Natalie Haynes

In The Children of Jocasta, Natalie Haynes retells the Oedipus and Antigone stories from the perspectives of the women the myths overlooked. My siblings and I have grown up in a cursed house, children of cursed parents . . .Jocasta is just fifteen when she is...

Request
Song of the huntress by Lucy Holland

Song of the huntress

Lucy Holland

FROM THE BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF SISTERSONG 'Lucy Holland's lyrical prose and powerful storytelling will lure you in' Jennifer Saint, author of Ariadne A must-listen for fans of Circe, Song of the Huntress recasts the folklore behind the Wild Hunt into a dark,...

Request
Arcadia by Lauren Groff

Arcadia

Lauren Groff

Lauren Groff's acclaimed debut novel The Monsters of Templeton was short-listed for the Orange Prize. Her second novel, Arcadia opens in the late 1960s with a group of young idealists forming a commune in western New York State. Into this group is born Bit,...

Request
A thousand ships by Natalie Haynes

A thousand ships

Natalie Haynes

Longlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction 2020One of the Guardian's 'Best Books of 2019''With her trademark passion, wit, and fierce feminism, Natalie Haynes gives much-needed voice to the silenced women of the Trojan War' Madeline Miller, author of CirceIn...

Request
Annie Dunne by Sebastian Barry

Annie Dunne

Sebastian Barry

Annie Dunne and her cousin Sarah live and work on a small farm in a remote and beautiful part of Wicklow in late 1950s Ireland. All about them, a way of life is about to disappear. Like two old rooks, they hold to their life, cherishing everything. When...

Request
Matrix by Lauren Groff

Matrix

Lauren Groff

Request
The temporary gentleman by Sebastian Barry

The temporary gentleman

Sebastian Barry

Jack McNulty is a 'temporary gentleman', an Irishman whose commission in the British army in the Second World War was never made permanent. In 1957, in his lodgings in Accra, he sets out to write his story. He is an ordinary man, both petty and heroic, but he...

Request
The secret scripture by Sebastian Barry

The secret scripture

Sebastian Barry

Roseanne McNulty, once one of the most beautiful and beguiling girls in County Sligo, Ireland, is now an elderly patient at Roscommon Regional Mental Hospital. As her hundredth year draws near, she decides to record the events of her life, hiding the...

Request
Stone blind by Natalie Haynes

Stone blind

Natalie Haynes

'So to mortal men, we are monsters. Because of our flight, our strength. They fear us, so they call us monsters.' Medusa is the sole mortal in a family of gods. Growing up with her Gorgon sisters, she begins to realize that she is the only one who experiences...

Request
Brotherless night by V. V. Ganeshananthan

Brotherless night

V. V. Ganeshananthan

Brought to you by Penguin.Sixteen-year-old Sashi wants to become a doctor. But over the next decade, as a vicious civil war tears through her hometown of Jaffna, her dream takes her on a different path as she sees those around her, including her four beloved...

Request
Becoming Madam Secretary by Stephanie Dray

Becoming Madam Secretary

Stephanie Dray

She took on titans, battled generals, and changed the world as we know it...New York Times bestselling author Stephanie Dray returns with a captivating and dramatic new novel about an American heroine Frances Perkins. Raised on tales of her revolutionary...

Request
The teashop girls at war by Elaine Everest

The teashop girls at war

Elaine Everest

It is 1942, and with the country still at war, the girls who work for Joe Lyons are praying for their loved ones to return home safely. Happily married, Rose is busy with staffing problems at the teashop with many women taking on war work. Rose dreams of her...

Request
The girl from Moscow by Julia Levitina

The girl from Moscow

Julia Levitina

1983, Moscow. Twenty-one-year-old Ella dreams of stardom and playing Natasha Rostova in War and Peace at the Moscow Theatre Academy. One day when meeting her friend Vlad in the city, she finds herself in the middle of a protest and attracts the glare of the...

Request
The great divide by Cristina Henríquez

The great divide

Cristina Henríquez

It is said that the Canal will be the greatest feat of engineering in history. But first, it must be built. Ada Bunting, a bold 16-year-old from Barbados, arrives alone in Panama as a stowaway alongside thousands of other West Indians seeking work in the grand...

Request
The Falmouth frigate by James Nelson

The Falmouth frigate

James Nelson

The year 1777 is bleak indeed for the cause of American Independence, with the British army twice defeating Washington and taking the capital city of Philadelphia and the Royal Navy sweeping aside the defenses of the Delaware Bay. For Captain Isaac Biddlecomb...

Request
Ladies' rest and writing room by Kim Kelly

Ladies' rest and writing room

Kim Kelly

Christmastime, 1922. Sydney is at last waking from the nightmare of the Great War, and rekindled hope brings a burst of new energy to the city. Dotty Bluebrook does not share the shift in mood. Drifting through her rich-girl routine of shopping and social...

Request
Murder in Venice by Martha Bond

Murder in Venice

Martha Bond

Murderous secrets are lurking in the City of Canals! 1923. Lottie Sprigg is a lowly maid. But when she's hired by a wealthy heiress, she embarks on a thrilling journey across Europe and beyond. Lottie's expecting exciting exploits and spectacular sights. But...

Request
A celebration on Coronation Street by Maggie Sullivan

A celebration on Coronation Street

Maggie Sullivan

Josie Grimshaw has moved to Coronation Street to live with her mother's old friend, Elsie Lappin. The street is excited for the upcoming coronation of the new queen, Elizabeth, but Elsie is finding it hard to celebrate anything after the loss of her husband....

Request
Chloé by Katrina Kell

Chloé

Katrina Kell

Taking the reader from Victoria's wild shipwreck coast to the artists' studios of revolutionary Paris and the bloody battlefields of Flanders, this sweeping novel reimagines the volatile history of the beautiful and enigmatic young woman immortalised in one of...

Request
The hidden life of Cecily Larson by Ellen Baker

The hidden life of Cecily Larson

Ellen Baker

Orphan Train meets Before We Were Yours meets Water for Elephants in this compelling multigenerational novel of survival, love, and the families we make. In 1924, four-year-old Cecily Larson's mother reluctantly drops her off at an orphanage in Chicago,...

Request
The Women by Kristin Hannah

The Women

Kristin Hannah

The missing. The forgotten. The brave... The women. From master storyteller Kristin Hannah, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Nightingale and The Four Winds , comes the story of a turbulent, transformative era in America: the 1960s. The Women is that...

Request
The things we didn't know by Elba Iris Pérez

The things we didn't know

Elba Iris Pérez

The inaugural winner of Simon & Schuster's Books Like Us contest, Elba Iris Pérez's lyrical, cross-cultural coming-of-age debut novel explores a young girl's childhood between 1950s Puerto Rico and a small Massachusetts factory town.Andrea Rodríguez is nine...

Request
The star on the grave by Linda Margolin Royal

The star on the grave

Linda Margolin Royal

There is more than one way to save a life ... In 1940, as the Nazis sweep toward Lithuania, Japanese diplomat Chiune Sugihara defies his own government and secretly issues thousands of visas to Jewish refugees desperate to flee. After the war, Sugihara is...

Request
Sinners of starlight city by Anika Scott

Sinners of starlight city

Anika Scott

FROM INTERNATIONALLY BESTSELLING AUTHOR ANIKA SCOTT Madame Mystique is a performer extraordinaire, come to work her scandalous magic at the glittering 1933 Chicago World's Fair. Of African American and Sicilian heritage, Mystique - aka Rosa Mancuso - and her...

Request
Hard by a great forest by Leo Vardiashvili

Hard by a great forest

Leo Vardiashvili

'I gasped, laughed, and wept my way through it' KHALED HOSSEINI'Tender and raw and funny, it's a rattling good read' COLUM McCANN'A wildly charming debut - propulsive, funny, and profound' ELIF BATUMANTbilisi's littered with memories that await me like...

Request
All the golden light by Siobhan O'Brien

All the golden light

Siobhan O'Brien

1918, Belowla. As the Great War grinds to an end, Adelaide Roberts accompanies her father to a rugged island off the south coast of New South Wales. While loss and deprivation have decimated the country, Ada dreams of a life filled with purpose and hope. On...

Request
The shadow network by Deborah Swift

The shadow network

Deborah Swift

England, 1942. Having fled Germany after her father was captured by the Nazis, Lilli Bergen is desperate to do something proactive for the Allies. So, when she's approached by the Political Warfare Executive, Lilli jumps at the chance. She's recruited as a...

Request
The women by Kristin Hannah

The women

Kristin Hannah

It would be the journey of a lifetime . . . 'Women can be heroes, too'. When twenty-year-old nursing student, Frances "Frankie" McGrath, hears these unexpected words, it is a revelation. Raised on California's idyllic Coronado Island and sheltered by her...

Request
The boy with the star tattoo by Talia Carner

The boy with the star tattoo

Talia Carner

From acclaimed author of The Third Daughter comes an epic historical novel of ingenuity and courage, of love and loss, spanning postwar France when Israeli agents roamed the countryside to rescue hidden Jewish orphans--to the 1969 daring escape of the Israeli...

Request
The diamond of London by Andrea Penrose

The diamond of London

Andrea Penrose

Even with her privileged life, Lady Hester Stanhope knows that claiming the adventurous life she truly wants will not be easy, thanks to her eccentric father's stifling grip. With the help of her renowned statesman uncle William Pitt the Younger, she takes on...

Request
Can't I go instead by Lee Geum-yi

Can't I go instead

Lee Geum-yi

Can't I Go Instead follows the lives of the daughter of a Korean nobleman and her maidservant in the early 20th-century. When the daughter's suitor is arrested as a Korean Independence activist, and she is implicated during the investigation, she is quickly...

Request
Battle lord by P.W Finch

Battle lord

P.W Finch

AD 1066. Cerdic is a prisoner of war. Captured after the Battle of Hastings, his fate is in the hands of the victorious Norman count Cynric, who is in no mood to feed and look after worthless Englishmen as the army moves inland. His survival depends on his...

Request
The spice maker's secret by Renita D'Silva

The spice maker's secret

Renita D'Silva

1939, India. Bindu holds her baby close, listening to the monsoon raging outside. She tries to hide her tears behind her sari as she hands her baby into a stranger's arms, wondering if she will ever see her child again ... When their small savings run out,...

Request
Quint by Robert Lautner

Quint

Robert Lautner

Before there was Jaws, there was ... QUINT! This powerful and brilliant literary story takes a character who, through Peter Benchley's novel and particularly Steven Spielberg's film, has become etched in our cultural imagination: Quint, the taciturn and...

Request
King of Camberwell by Mary Jane Staples

King of Camberwell

Mary Jane Staples

Sammy has always had an eye for business and a good deal and is determined to expand the family business. But as his mighty empire grows, his assistant Susie Brown has plans of her own ... Susie has always adored Sammy and has decided that he will be the man...

Request
The lost child by Kathleen McGurl

The lost child

Kathleen McGurl

1912. As the steamship Carpathia takes the survivors of the Titanic to New York, a woman desperately searches the decks for her baby, thrust into the arms of another passenger as a lifeboat left, and now nowhere to be found. 2022. When archivist Jackie finds a...

Request
The temple of Fortuna by Elodie Harper

The temple of Fortuna

Elodie Harper

The final instalment in Elodie Harper's Sunday Times bestselling Wolf Den Trilogy Amara's journey has taken her far; from a slave in Pompeii's wolf den to a high-powered courtesan in Rome... though her story is not over yet. While Amara plays for power in...

Request
The world and all that it holds by Aleksandar Hemon

The world and all that it holds

Aleksandar Hemon

'This life-stuffed novel is Aleksandar Hemon's masterpiece' - David Mitchell, author of Cloud AtlasThe epic, cross-continental tale of a love so strong it conquers the Great War, revolution, and even death itself.As the Archduke Franz Ferdinand arrives in...

Request
The haunting of tram car 015 by P. Djèlí Clark

The haunting of tram car 015

P. Djèlí Clark

P. Djeli Clark returns to the historical fantasy universe of A Dead Djinn in Cairo with the otherworldly adventure novella The Haunting of Tram Car 015. Cairo, 1912: The case started as a simple one for the Ministry of Alchemy, Enchantments and Supernatural...

Request
The Lazarus project by Aleksandar Hemon

The Lazarus project

Aleksandar Hemon

Bosnian-American author and MacArthur genius recipient Aleksandar Hemon pens novels of high insight and deft literary accomplishment. The Lazarus Project, alternating between turn-of-the-century Chicago and modern times, features a man attempting to reimagine...

Request
Murder at the fashion house by Sonia Parin

Murder at the fashion house

Sonia Parin

Lighthearted 1920s cozy mystery. Evie, Countess of Woodridge, is on a mission to rescue her favorite modiste from the consequences of an unfavorable review. Her quest is a timely diversion as her granny, Toodles, appears to be suffering from a case of...

Request
The shadow king by Harry Sidebottom

The shadow king

Harry Sidebottom

Alexander of Macedon was just twenty years old in 334BC when he set out with a small army to challenge Persia, the largest and most powerful empire in the world. The Macedonians marched East into the unknown, won battles against overwhelming odds, stormed...

Request
The killing of Louisa by Janet Lee

The killing of Louisa

Janet Lee

In New South Wales in 1888, Louisa Collins was sentenced to hang after being tried multiple times for the alleged murders of her two husbands. The testimony of her young daughter helped to decide her fate. This clever and compelling novel recreates Louisa's...

Request
Foster by Claire Keegan

Foster

Claire Keegan

A small girl is sent to live with foster parents on a farm in rural Ireland, without knowing when she will return home. In the strangers' house, she finds a warmth and affection she has not known before and slowly begins to blossom in their care. And then a...

Request
Beautiful innocence by Beryl Matthews

Beautiful innocence

Beryl Matthews

London, 1900. Hester Stanmore watches in disbelief as the jury declares her attacker 'not guilty', and the courtroom erupts into chaos. The man in the dock is being congratulated as if he were a hero, but she has seen the madness in his eyes when he had...

Request
The house on Rye Lane by Susan Allott

The house on Rye Lane

Susan Allott

2008. The house Maxine and Seb have just bought was a bargain - a huge Georgian townhouse on the edge of Peckham Rye, it needs a lot of work but Max couldn't resist it. Now they are in, though, nothing seems to be going right - and as the problems mount up,...

Request
Daughters of Warsaw by Maria Frances

Daughters of Warsaw

Maria Frances

In a world torn apart by war, she'll risk her life to save them. 1942, Warsaw. Young Sofia finds herself leading a double life when she is enlisted to help the fearless Irena Sendler save hundreds of Jewish children from the Warsaw Ghetto. Every night, Sofia...

Request
All the brave fellows by James Nelson

All the brave fellows

James Nelson

1777. Captain Isaac Biddlecomb, together with his wife and child, is bound for Philadelphia aboard the brig Charlemagne. His orders are to take command of the newly-built frigate Falmouth and take her out to sea before she is taken by General Richard Howe's...

Request
Grace by Paul Lynch

Grace

Paul Lynch

Early one October morning, Grace's mother snatches her from sleep and brutally cuts off her hair, declaring, 'You are the strong one now.' With winter close at hand and Ireland already suffering, Grace is no longer safe at home. And so her mother outfits her...

Request
Nemesis by Wilbur A. Smith

Nemesis

Wilbur A. Smith

Paris, 1794. Revolutionary fervour has erupted into the Reign of Terror. A young man, Paul Courtney, hides in a crowd watching as the condemned are brought to the guillotine. Among them is Constance Courtney, Paul's mother. As he watches her brutal execution,...

Request
Murder by candlelight by Faith Martin

Murder by candlelight

Faith Martin

The Cotswolds, 1924. At the Old Forge in the quiet village of Maybury-in-the-Marsh a cry of anguish rings out - lady of the house Amy Phelps has been discovered dead. But with all the windows and doors to her room locked from inside, how - and by whom - was...

Request
A wild & true relation by Kim Sherwood

A wild & true relation

Kim Sherwood

Devon, 1703. On the night of the Great Storm, the infamous smuggler Tom West confronts his lover, Grace, convinced she's betrayed him to the authorities. After a violent encounter that leaves Grace dead and her cottage in flames, Tom flees, taking Grace's...

Request
Bonfire night by Anna Bliss

Bonfire night

Anna Bliss

An inspiring story of star-crossed love and female independence. London, 1936: At twenty-one, Kate Grifferty is a press photographer in a Fleet Street agency, an unusual job for a young woman. But Kate is both talented and daring, recklessly going wherever the...

Request
The light of Luna Park by Addison Armstrong

The light of Luna Park

Addison Armstrong

A nurse's choice. A daughter's search for answers. New York City, 1926. Nurse Althea Anderson's heart is near breaking when she witnesses another premature baby die at Bellevue Hospital. So when she reads an article detailing the amazing survival rates of...

Request
Quarterdeck by Julian Stockwin

Quarterdeck

Julian Stockwin

Thomas Kydd was promoted to acting lieutenant at the bloody Battle of Camperdown in October 1797. Now, he must sit an examination to confirm his rank. But this is only the first of many obstacles for a man from humble origins. If he is to avoid spending the...

Request
Galatea by Madeline Miller

Galatea

Madeline Miller

From the internationally bestselling and prize-winning author of The Song of Achilles and Circe, an enchanting short story that boldly reimagines the myth of Galatea and Pygmalion. In Ancient Greece, a skilled marble sculptor has been blessed by a goddess who...

Request
Echoes of war by Tania Blanchard

Echoes of war

Tania Blanchard

Calabria, Italy, 1936 In a remote farming village nestled in the mountains that descend into the sparkling Ionian Sea, young and spirited Giulia Tallariti longs for something more. While she loves her home and her lively family, she would much rather follow in...

Request
This other Eden by Paul Harding

This other Eden

Paul Harding

Brought to you by Penguin.LONGLISTED FOR THE 2023 BOOKER PRIZESet at the beginning of the twentieth century and inspired by historical events, This Other Eden tells the story of Apple Island: an enclave off the coast of the United States where waves of...

Request
Children of the Siege by Diney Costeloe

Children of the Siege

Diney Costeloe

A lost child, a family divided, the bitter backdrop of war. After the Franco-Prussian War and the siege of 1870-71, the St Clair family return to Paris, seeking refuge and security, only to be swept up into the terrible cruelties and violence of the Commune....

Request
Murder at the tea party by Sonia Parin

Murder at the tea party

Sonia Parin

Warning: Afternoon tea with Lady Woodridge can and will be fatal. Evangeline "Evie" Parker, Countess of Woodridge, has trekked out to her country estate, Halton House. It's time to pick up the reins and re-establish herself in the district. No easy task when...

Request
Heart of oak by Alexander Kent

Heart of oak

Alexander Kent

It is February 1818, and Adam Bolitho longs for marriage and a safe personal harbour. But with so much of Britain's fleet redundant, he knows he is fortunate to be offered HMS Onward, a new 38-gun frigate whose first mission is not war but diplomacy, as...

Request
The providence rider by Robert R. McCammon

The providence rider

Robert R. McCammon

The narrative begins in the winter of 1703, with Matthew still haunted by his lethal encounter with notorious mass murderer, Tyranthus Slaughter. When an unexplained series of explosions rocks his Manhattan neighbourhood, Matthew is forced to confront a new...

Request
The splendour before the dark by Margaret George

The splendour before the dark

Margaret George

With the beautiful and cunning Poppaea at his side, Nero Augustus commands the Roman Empire, ushering in an unprecedented era of artistic and cultural splendour. Although he has yet to produce an heir, his power is absolute. But in the 10th year of his reign,...

Request
Lord Hornblower by C. S. Forester

Lord Hornblower

C. S. Forester

Having received strict and confidential orders from high above, C.S. Forester's inimitable hero must recapture The Flame, a brig which has been taken over by a band of mutineers. Voyaging to the Bay of Seine in order to rescue the captive Lieutenant Augustin...

Request
Conspiracy of angels by Brian John

Conspiracy of angels

Brian John

This tale is set in the year 1810 and follows hot on the heels of the story recounted in Sacrifice. An ex-slave is shipwrecked on the shore of Skomar Island and two strange objects found on his person end up in the possession of Mistress Martha Morgan of Plas...

Request
Murder at the mansions by Sara Rosett

Murder at the mansions

Sara Rosett

South Regent Mansions has all the modern conveniences . . . including murderLondon, February, 1924. Discreet sleuth for the high society set, Olive Belgrave is delighted with her new flat at South Regent Mansions where she's made several friends, including the...

Request
Moonlight and the pearler's daughter by Lizzie Pook

Moonlight and the pearler's daughter

Lizzie Pook

Western Australia, 1886. As the pearling ships return to Bannin Bay after a long diving season, twenty-year-old Eliza Brightwell nervously awaits the arrival of her father's boat. But when his lugger finally limps in, it brings with it a tale of tragedy:...

Request
Unfailing love by Janette Oke

Unfailing love

Janette Oke

Lillian Walsh and Grace Bennett have learned so much already about caring for children in distress. It hasn't been easy, but it becomes even more difficult when they suddenly discover that three children have run away. Concerned for the trio's safety, the...

Request
Chenneville by Paulette Jiles

Chenneville

Paulette Jiles

Consumed with grief, driven by vengeance, a man undertakes an unrelenting odyssey across the lawless post-Civil War frontier seeking redemption in this fearless novel from the award-winning and New York Times bestselling author of News of the World. Union...

Request
The French affair by Theresa Howes

The French affair

Theresa Howes

A country at war. A dangerous secret. After a failed honey-trap mission for British Intelligence leads to the breakdown of her marriage, French journalist Iris escapes to Dijon, seeking refuge in the cottage of her beloved aunt, Eva. But Eva is gone, the...

Request
The wilderness way by Anne Madden

The wilderness way

Anne Madden

1861, Donegal, Ireland. Ten years ago Declan Conaghan's father died in the Great Famine, and since then, Declan has kept his promise to keep his family out of the workhouse. But all that is threatened with the arrival of new landlord, John Adair. Adair is...

Request
Looking back by Josephine Cox

Looking back

Josephine Cox

From the moment she learns of the stranger's visit, Molly Tattersall is filled with a sense of fear. Then her mother disappears, leaving behind a letter asking Molly to take care of her five brothers and sisters. Molly's wayward father rejects his...

Request
One illumined thread by Sally Colin-James

One illumined thread

Sally Colin-James

In Judea, under the brutal rule of King Herod, a woman yearns for a child but is outcast when she does not fall pregnant. Against all convention, she masters the art of glassblowing, a creative act she believes will keep her dream of motherhood alive. In...

Request
The duchess by Wendy Holden

The duchess

Wendy Holden

1928. A middle-aged foreigner comes to London with average looks, no money and no connections. Wallis's first months in the city are lonely, dull and depressing. With no friends of her own, she follows the glamorous set in magazines and goes to watch society...

Request
The Guernsey Girls by Mary Wood

The Guernsey Girls

Mary Wood

January 1936. After the hard work of being a maid at Wallington Manor in the lead-up to Christmas, Annie is very excited at the prospect of going home to Bethnal Green. She has missed her family, but the money she earns keeps them all afloat. Harriet, is from...

Request
A shop in the High Street by Grace Thompson

A shop in the High Street

Grace Thompson

Edward Jenkins dreams of opening a sports shop in the Welsh town of Pendragon Island. Then his ambitions become a possibility through his and his sister Margaret's inheritance, but Margaret has plans of her own. Can Edward stand up to her for the very first...

Request
Rose and the Burma sky by Rosanna Amaka

Rose and the Burma sky

Rosanna Amaka

Brought to you by Penguin.For fans of Yaa Gyasi, Esi Edugyan and James Baldwin - gripping and intimate historical novel of a black soldier's experience in the Second World War - a rare, moving and authentic tale of love and sacrifice by the acclaimed...

Request
Command by Julian Stockwin

Command

Julian Stockwin

Thrilled at his first command, a little brig sloop called Teazer; Thomas Kydd must race to bring his ship to battle readiness in order to defend Malta against Barbary corsairs. But his jubilation does not last long--peace is suddenly declared. Instead he sets...

Request
The second death of Edie and Violet Bond by Amanda Glaze

The second death of Edie and Violet Bond

Amanda Glaze

Sacramento, 1885 Edie and Violet Bond know the truth about death. The seventeen-year-old twins are powerful mediums, just like their mother--Violet can open the veil between life and death, and Edie can cross into the spirit world. But their abilities couldn't...

Request
The salt eaters by Toni Cade Bambara

The salt eaters

Toni Cade Bambara

A community of Black faith healers witness an event that will change their lives forever in this "hard-nosed, wise, funny" novel (Los Angeles Times). Set in a fictional city in the American South, the novel also "inhabits the nonlinear, sacred space and sacred...

Request
Warrior prince by J. C. Duncan

Warrior prince

J. C. Duncan

Prince. Mercenary. Exile. The lost throne of Norway must be won in foreign lands. 1030 AD. Some men are gifted a crown. Others have to fight to claim it.Exiled from Norway, Harald Sigurdsson, brother to murdered King Olaf, must battle mercilessly for survival...

Request
The fortune tellers' secret by Maggie Mason

The fortune tellers' secret

Maggie Mason

Blackpool, 1922. Martha and Trisha may have escaped poverty, but their fortunes have yet to turn. Blissfully happy on her wedding day, Trisha's new fairy-tale romance soon darkens as her husband, Walter, keeps her at arm's length. Between his secrecy, and her...

Request
War of hearts by Tania Farrelly

War of hearts

Tania Farrelly

In 1917, America's declaration of war against Germany gives Grace Winter, a keen-eyed New York Times investigative reporter, a much sought after opportunity to make her mark on the Western Front. But by 1918 the gruesome reality of trench warfare has set in,...

Request
Escape to Tuscany by Kat Devereaux

Escape to Tuscany

Kat Devereaux

An escapist romance with a historical twist - moving between contemporary Florence and wartime Tuscany, among the Italian Resistance fighters. Only fourteen, Stella Infuriati is the youngest member of her town's resistance network during World War II. Risking...

Request
The wonder of it all by Barbara Taylor Bradford

The wonder of it all

Barbara Taylor Bradford

The Somme, 1916. James Falconer, once a barrow boy on a London market, stands in the trenches, awaiting the command to go over the top. Away from his business empire in London, he is simply a soldier, war the great leveller. But, unlike his men, and unknown to...

Request
Auckland Council Libraries:New titles Check out the latest new titles in fiction, nonfiction, DVDs, CDs, eBooks, audiobooks, Māori, and community language books.