This is an enigma of a book. On the one hand, it‘s an easy read. On the other, there‘s much I didn‘t get – and I‘m not just talking about the spiritualist terms I had to look up.

Full review is available at https://bit.ly/47vo1pN

Using a variety of sources, including newspaper articles, Thorpe‘s first wife‘s journal and even Thorpe‘s own words, David Maraniss has constructed a sympathetic look at Thorpe‘s life from birth until he was laid to rest in one of the few places in the USA he never visited.

https://mccombsonmain.com/2023/07/13/review-path-lit-by-lightning-maraniss/

#Biography #AmericanHistory

A 5 star read. Cindy Sproles has a beautiful way with words.

My full review: https://bit.ly/3D3ZZE4

#HistoricalFiction #ChristianFiction #Appalachia #RevellReads

Despite the darkness in it, The Dead Will Rise is a compelling story with many tense and breathtaking moments which made it difficult to put down. It‘s my opinion that Chris Nickson has created another winner, and I‘m already looking forward to book six.

https://bit.ly/3J22cCE

#HistoricalFiction #HistoricalSuspense #Regency

More of a journal than a guide, don't be expecting info such as visiting times and directions.

https://bit.ly/3J4kUdX

Welcome to the 1888 Newport, Rhode Island summer season, where the younger members of the esteemed Four Hundred will enthusiastically vie for the best (non-romantic) matches.

https://bit.ly/3KuQsLp

It can be daunting to dive into a series of novels when there have been thirteen previous titles and you‘re looking at book fourteen

https://bit.ly/3S2NxeG

#HistoricalFiction #York #HistoricalSuspense

A fast paced mystery set during the Revolutionary War.

https://bit.ly/3lja5eJ

Split time novel set in my favorite city, the city that bleeds black and gold, the city of steel :D

https://bit.ly/3jsfPCg

Top Notch romance
Spot on historical research
Set in #Scotland (a favorite location of mine)
5 star read

https://bit.ly/3CnywNQ

#HistoricalFiction

Easy to read look at how Mary Queen of Scots impacted the lives of those ordered to keep her.

https://bit.ly/3FZmpHH

Next time I want to read about Jennie Jerome I'll read a biography, instead of a piece of biographical fiction.

https://mccombsonmain.com/2022/12/22/fiction-review-american-adventuress-gortner...

A walking guide to the River Thames which breaks it down into short sections? Full of historical and cultural points of interest? One that I'll want to get for next time I'm in London?
Yes, yes, and yes.
Book review at: https://bit.ly/3HGcVDM

Third in the Love Along the Wires trilogy about a series of women working in telegraphy, but stands well by itself.

https://mccombsonmain.com/2022/12/01/fiction-review-holding-line-by-delamere/

Easy to read, but oh so many people with the same name, lol

https://mccombsonmain.com/2022/11/10/non-fiction-review-two-houses-kingdoms/

Chris Nickson loves his home city, and it shows in his writing.

https://mccombsonmain.com/2022/10/27/review-dark-steel-death-nickson/

#Leeds #HistoricalFiction #Suspense

I always enjoy White's books, and she always has such a diverse group of characters in them. Worthy of Legend, the third in the Secrets of the Isles trilogy, is no exception.

https://mccombsonmain.com/2022/10/13/review-worthy-legend-white/

#HistoricalFiction #ChristianFiction

“White has captured Florence in such detail that I now want to go visit.“

https://mccombsonmain.com/2022/10/06/fiction-review-hearts-fire-white/

#HistoricalFiction #Renaissance #HistoricalMystery #Florence

“in an engrossing novel written entirely in the first-person perspectives of our two lead characters“

https://mccombsonmain.com/2022/09/22/fiction-review-other-side-certain-awburle/

Even if you don‘t have an interest in fossils – which I don‘t – if you love historical mysteries, you‘ll love this book of family adopted and biological, and histories of both the living and the dead.

https://mccombsonmain.com/2022/09/29/fiction-review-fossil-hunter-cooper/

#Australia #historicalfiction #timeslip

I'm an amateur genealogist. I can spend hours slowly discovering the branches of the McCombs family tree in the USA. Researching my British heritage, however, has often been a bit trickier. Researching Local History revealed a wealth of sources I never knew existed.

https://mccombsonmain.com/2022/08/25/non-fiction-review-researching-local-histor...

Imagine yourself as a young woman in Tarsus and Jerusalem, in a male-dominated society, where your older brother is seemingly perfect. Feel what it might‘ve been like to have that older brother become a follower of a strange new sect and how his reputation affected yours.
https://mccombsonmain.com/2022/08/04/fiction-review-apostles-sister-hunt/

#ChristianFiction #HistoricalFiction

Oradour-sur-Glane was a picturesque village in Vichy France, a place where the villagers believed they were safe from the ravages of World War II.

All that would change the afternoon of June 10th 1944. After that, the village would never be the same again.

https://mccombsonmain.com/2022/07/28/review-peaceful-village-mahurin/

#HistoricalFiction #WorldWar2

Enjoyable for any fan of cricket and the game's history

https://mccombsonmain.com/2022/07/21/fiction-review-chapel-hill-cross-mann/

I didn‘t want to like Una. She is a thief, after all [...] And we find ourselves cheering for Una and hoping she becomes the woman we know she can be.

https://mccombsonmain.com/2022/07/14/review-nurses-secret-skenandore/

#historicalfiction

First book in a new historical mystery-suspense series shows potential for future titles

https://mccombsonmain.com/2022/07/07/fiction-review-miss-morton-1-lloyd/

Money, contracts... and Jane Austen?

4/5

https://mccombsonmain.com/2022/06/30/fiction-review-where-road-bends-fordham/

#HistoricalFiction #ChristianFiction

A delightful way to pass the time.

Hey, it's a Jen Turano novel and I'm a Jen Turano fan :)

https://mccombsonmain.com/2022/06/23/fiction-review-disguise-truth-turano/

#GildedAge #HistoricalFiction #ChristianFiction

Earlier this year, I was offered a copy of her new memoir, The Girl from Lamaha Street. Since I was temporarily living in England at the time, the publisher was able to send me a physical copy. At the time, I presumed I‘d be reading what it says on the tin, about someone very different from me.
I was wrong.

https://mccombsonmain.com/2022/06/16/non-fiction-review-lamaha-street-maas/

Roseanna M White takes readers from her usual English settings to Chicago during Prohibition. In Shadowed Loyalty, a young couple born into the Mafia must make some tough decisions.

https://mccombsonmain.com/2022/06/09/review-shadowed-loyalty-white/

#HistoricalFiction #ChristianFiction #Prohibition

Regency Romance with gothic and suspense overtones, set on the rugged Northumberland coast.

https://mccombsonmain.com/2022/06/02/review-morrow-miller/

A five star read about a woman who caused a whole heap of trouble for Joseph in the Old Testament book of Genesis.

https://mccombsonmain.com/2022/05/26/review-potiphars-wife-andrews/

Who can you trust when you aren't even certain you can trust yourself?

Despite the perceived slow start, however, I ended up loving this story. The characters grew on me, to the extent I‘d love to read more about them.

https://mccombsonmain.com/2022/05/19/review-shadows-in-the-minds-eye-by-janyre-t...

#HistoricalFiction

Want a good, clean, historical suspense tale with non-stop action?

I recommend the debut novel by Crystal Caudill, Counterfeit Love, set during one of my favourite eras of American history: the Gilded Age

https://mccombsonmain.com/2022/05/12/review-counterfeit-caudill/

#HistoricalSuspense #HistoricalRomance #GildedAge

#FiveStarRead set in St Augustine.

https://mccombsonmain.com/2022/03/10/review-loves-fortress-uhlarik/

Although The Blood Covenant is set during the Regency Era, this is not for the faint of heart. It‘s the dark side of a time when the ton danced, and girls wore pretty dresses and giggled innocently. There‘s more than one brutal scene ending with blood. Knife fights are common, and more than one person brings a gun to one of those fights.

https://mccombsonmain.com/2022/02/24/review-blood-covenant-nickson/

#RgencyFiction #HistoricalFiction

A bit repetitive but, overall, an easy light book to read

https://mccombsonmain.com/2022/02/17/review-love-at-last-fritz-shanniak-giveaway...

#historicalfiction #RegencyRomance #CleanFiction

Very different from Markert's previous work as it's more in the horror vein than the supernatural.

https://mccombsonmain.com/2022/02/10/review-strange-case-crawley-markert/

#horror #psychologicalhorror #LouisvilleKY

One family.

Three pivotal events in #Chicago's history.

The final book of the Windy City Saga covers the SS Eastland disaster in 1915.

Giving this 5 stars was a no-brainer.

https://mccombsonmain.com/2022/02/03/review-drawn-current-green/

I'm from Harrogate, and Agatha Christie is a kinda big deal there. So I wanted to love this novel. But it's from the first person perspective of the mistress, whose last name is changed. And that's a minor gripe, because she's also an unreliable narrator.

Harrogate itself: oh boy, I have to believe the author wasn't able to visit the town due to the pandemic.

Read more:
https://mccombsonmain.com/2022/01/28/review-christie-affair-de-gramont/

My late grandmother and her mother were snobs. They had a phrase which was passed down to my mother and I: NOCD. “Not our class, dear.” They perceived themselves as being better than those to whom they applied this term [...]. Reading Our Kind of People reminded me often of this phrase. Because, to some elements of New York society in this novel, the Wilcox family is NOCD
5 stars
https://mccombsonmain.com/2022/01/20/review-our-kind-people-wallace/

Fiona Davis's new novel takes readers behind the scenes at the noted Frick Collection in a split time tale imagining secrets, betrayal and murder.

5 stars!

https://mccombsonmain.com/2022/01/13/review-magnolia-palace-davis/

Mysteries abound at a dissolved nunnery turned hotel in Julie Klassen's newest novel from Bethany House... 5 stars

https://mccombsonmain.com/2022/01/06/review-shadows-of-swanford/

#Regency #HistoricalFiction

Roseanna M White‘s newest release takes readers back to an English paradise

https://mccombsonmain.com/2022/01/01/review-treasure-heiress-white/

#historicalfiction

Possibly the first book that looks at Presidents and their BFFs. Nine profiles ranging in time from the Revolutionary Era to the late 20th century. 5/5

https://mccombsonmain.com/2021/12/16/review-first-friends-ginsberg/

#AmericanHistory

Lost in Darkness is a true gothic romance set in Bristol during the Regency era

https://mccombsonmain.com/2021/12/09/review-lost-in-darkness-by-michelle-griep/

Where this book shines is in the detail. It‘s clear McNear did extensive research on not only the English, but also the Native American peoples in the Carolinas at the time of the Roanoke Colony.

https://mccombsonmain.com/2021/12/02/review-elinor-by-shannon-mcnear-w-giveaway-...

#ColonialFiction #HistoricalFiction

I was compelled to stay up waaay past my bedtime reading this! Well worth it. Oh, and it should come with a Kleenex warning also!

https://mccombsonmain.com/2021/11/26/review-pilots-daughter-jaeger/

Erica Vetsch returns with a new series about Regency Era English spies. Fans of Vetsch may recognize a couple of characters from a previous series.

https://mccombsonmain.com/2021/11/18/review-debutantes-code-vetsch-giveaway/

#RegencyFiction #HistoricalSuspense #HistoricalFiction

I love reading any novel set in Pittsburgh. But The Mobster's Daughter has a lot more going for it than just its location.

https://mccombsonmain.com/2021/11/04/review-mobsters-daughter-mcdaniel/

#Pittsburgh #HistoricalFiction #ChristianFiction #Suspense #Roaring20s