Historical Military/Nautical/Adventure

The Seasonwife by Saige England

Like A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini, The Seasonwife is about women whose endurance is tested beyond their wildest imaginings. Friendship can triumph over brutality and women can overcome daunting obstacles with heroism.

Like The North Water by Ian McGuire, The Seasonwife is a men-pitted-against-nature seafaring adventure story, but the heroes are women who must take the helm if they are to survive.

England’s lyrical style has been compared to Cormac McCarthy and Tracey Chevalier.

Beyond the Bukubuk Tree by Loretta Goldberg

Two men preparing for war, both with secrets they are determined to keep. Jake Friedman, an idealistic young Jewish doctor from Melbourne, is haunted by the death of a colleague he thinks he caused. Alex Whipple, a Catholic known as Wip, is a soul-scarred veteran of the First World War. Wip is an enigma who fights bullies on behalf of their victims yet has a chequered past in the wild side of post-war Paris that he is determined to forget.

Dread Tribunal of Last Resort by Brian Kaufman

Decker Brown is a proud Virginian, Boston-educated, with plans to manufacture fireworks and raise a family. He loves Paula Crane, the daughter of a Virginia flour mill owner. When the country is divided by Civil War, their loyalty to each other is put to the ultimate test. Decker believes in the Republic’s promise of liberty. Paula can’t imagine taking up arms against her friends and neighbors. What happens when the runaway train of history shatters hopes for the future? Even as postwar Richmond rebuilds, Decker Brown faces his most important challenge— building a new life from the rubble of war.

The Battle For England by Austin Hernon

Contrary to its name a medieval, ‘Forest,’ was not always covered in trees, but an area designated as ‘Forest’ on a map. Sherwood in Nottinghamshire was one such area. In medieval times the law was administered by an official known as: The Keeper of the King’s Forest. After 1215 the French led rebellion of England’s barons reached Lincoln Castle, threatening its neighbouring castle at Laxton in Nottinghamshire. Both castles were in the hands of the Keepers of the King’s Forests in Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire. Their names were Nicholaa of Lincoln and Matilda of Laxton. 

Napoleon’s Mirage by Michelle Cameron

In this sequel to Beyond the Ghetto Gates, junior officers Daniel Isadore and Christophe Levere are astonished to be following Napoleon to Egypt. Daniel’s faith in and loyalty to the commander he once worshiped are tested as Napoleon’s ego and ambition continuously endangers his troops. Revolted by the general’s cruelty to the Egyptians, Daniel is devastated when a British blockade prevents him from proposing marriage to his beloved Mirelle. The final straw is when, after a crippling defeat in Acre, Napoleon retreats to Cairo and then Paris, ordering that his plague-ridden soldiers be poisoned with opium.

Impossible Journey by Paul Martin

Impossible Journey offers an imaginative new account of America’s greatest adventure story, the Lewis and Clark Expedition, with an added twist of mystery. Setting off into the wilderness lands of the Louisiana Purchase in 1804, the members of the Corps of Discovery travel 8,000 miles, from St. Louis to the Pacific Ocean and back. Along the way, they face treacherous river passages, grueling mountain crossings, threatening encounters with hostile tribes—and the constant menace of an unknown turncoat bent on sabotaging the expedition, a man willing to kill to prevent the Corps from achieving its rightful place in history.

East Indiaman by Griff Hosker

This is the story of an east London orphan at the end of the eighteenth century. Like the other ‘wharf rats’, his life of petty crime is not a choice; it’s a necessity. When the boy unknowingly steals from a murderous pirate captain, escape is his only option. Forced to flee London he becomes first, a sailor and then a soldier in the East India Company. He is thrown into a strange new world, India, where he learns to become the man he was always intended to be.

Arise Crusader by Val Jensen II

In the year 1096, the Kingdom of France was set ablaze by righteous fire. With the promise of forgiveness of sins, those great and small answer the pope’s call to retake Jerusalem. In a village along the Oise River, Anseau of Valois, a young plowman, has defied his church, enraged his lord, and disappointed his father. Only absolution by joining a crusade to Jerusalem can set him free. The pilgrimage, however, is rife with subterfuge, intrigue, and moral ambiguity. To survive, Anseau must fight friend and foe, ally with unlikely companions, and survive the formidable Sultan of Rûm.

Your Presence Is Mandatory by Sasha Vasilyuk

Your Presence Is Mandatory is a riveting debut novel, based on real events and spanning from Nazi Germany to Russia’s current war in Ukraine, that tells the story of a Ukrainian Jewish World War II veteran with a dangerous lifelong secret, the repercussions for his family, and the grace they find in the course of their survival. 

The Frisian by Richard van der Ven

The Frisian takes readers on a journey through Frisia and England, following the story of Reginhard, a ministerial’s son, tasked with finding a relic that belonged to the holy Willibrord, the first bishop to preach to the Frisians.

Through Reginhard’s eyes, readers witness the challenges and dangers of medieval life, including betrayal, domination over farmers, and the plight of bonded servants (thralls). The book combines documented eleventh-century characters with the fictional Reginhard, offering a fresh view on traditional historical fiction.