A former housewife finds her calling in a French Resistance group in this propulsive historical from White (The Collector of Burned Books). In the wake of the Nazi invasion in 1940, newly widowed Zelie Bellerose joins Alliance, France’s largest network of rebel spies. Determined to combat the Nazis’ control over French culture, she recruits formerly renowned concert pianist Marcel Laurent and helps him secure a position as the conductor for a traveling youth orchestra, which also allows them to expand the spy network across France. Back at headquarters in Marseille, Zelie struggles to earn respect as a female leader while yearning for her two children, whom she’s sent away to the countryside. As tensions rise throughout France and a leadership shake-up within the Alliance saddles Zelie with more responsibilities, she and Marcel lean on their faith to evade capture and weigh what they’re willing to sacrifice for their country. White ushers her narrative to a suspenseful climax while building passionate chemistry between Marcel and Zelie. (“If fear is the only thing stopping you,” he tells her, “then be the star I love and burn that away.”) Readers will be swept up. (July)

Reviewed on 04/17/2026 | Details & Permalink

Clarkson’s cheery debut and Avila Falls series launch centers on a writer at a crossroads. Ten years ago Jane Caldwell abandoned small-town Avila Falls, Colo., to reinvent herself in New York City. Now, at 29, she’s a successful ghostwriter with a star-studded roster of celebrity clients, though she privately dreams of making it as a novelist. Feeling restless and with her mom’s 70th birthday party on the horizon, she decides it’s the perfect time for a visit home. Avila Falls brings with it a return to her favorite bookstore and reunions with an old writing mentor and a slew of familiar faces, including Noah, a former party boy Jane can’t help seeing in a different light. At the same time, a book project with a singer who’s struggling with the price of fame spurs Jane to reflect on what fulfillment, happiness, and purpose mean. As her return to New York looms and questions about the future grow increasingly pressing, she turns to God for guidance despite never having seen “prayers make a difference in her life.” While the plot offers few surprises, it’s easy to empathize with insecure Jane as she grapples with ambition and self-doubt to work out what her own happy ending should look like. This should win Clarkson fans. (June)

Reviewed on 04/10/2026 | Details & Permalink

The ho-hum latest in Peterson’s Minnesota Legacy series (after Faithful of Heart) finds Evie Turner returning home to Minneapolis in the summer of 1893 after finishing up nursing school in Pennsylvania. Though she’s long dreamed of working in her father’s medical practice, Evie has recently realized that nursing makes her physically ill, and she can’t bear the thought of breaking the news to her parents. At a charity event, she meets handsome Max Garrison, a financial manager with family problems of his own. The two hit it off, but Evie is hesitant to pursue a relationship because of Max’s weak faith. When Max is wounded in a fire that devastates the community, Evie must put her nursing skills to use—and get honest with herself and those around her about what she wants out of her life. Peterson depicts the social stratification of late-19th-century Minneapolis with precision, but the story’s stakes—mostly centered on Evie’s anxieties about disappointing her parents—aren’t high enough to keep readers hooked. It’s not Peterson’s best. (July)

Reviewed on 04/10/2026 | Details & Permalink

The suspenseful if uneven latest in Carlisle’s Secrets of Kincaid series (after Shadowed Witness) finds Kentucky-based accountant Hailey Neiman still reeling from the murder of her husband, Wesley, whose criminal activity left her a struggling single mother less than a year ago. She takes on extra work to boost her income and is surprised to discover anomalies in the files of Eukaria Investments, one of her firm’s most prestigious clients. Then she receives a slew of not so coincidental anonymous threats and enlists the help of Peter Lewis, a security guard in her building, to get to the bottom of things. The threats soon morph into physical attacks, and the pair races to puzzle out what exactly the culprit wants from Hailey while also grappling with their traumatic pasts and damaged faith. Though the pace of the central mystery plot can drag, readers will be drawn in by the intensity of the action scenes and Hailey’s enterprising, optimistic spirit as she works to remake her life in the wake of tragedy. It’s not perfect, but there’s enough here to keep Carlisle’s fans satisfied. (May)

Reviewed on 04/03/2026 | Details & Permalink

A young woman’s search for her long-lost mother animates this energetic early-20th-century historical from Musch (Season of My Enemy). At nine, with her father dead and her depressed mother unable to care for her, Lily Mae Dodge was sent from Indiana to an orphanage in Wyoming. Now an adult, she’s eager to reconnect with her mom and takes a train east, hoping that with God’s help she’ll find her hometown, though she can’t remember its name. En route she meets handsome Francis Basnett, who’s enchanted by Lily’s enterprising spirit, but worries about falling in love due to a debilitating eye condition that he fears would make a potential wife into his caretaker. Still, sparks fly and he convinces Lily to join him in working behind the scenes for the real-life Hagenbeck-Wallace Circus (Lily as a seamstress, Francis as a laborer doing ground work), in hopes they’ll find her hometown in their travels. Soon, however, a disastrous train crash upends their plans, setting the pair on a path they never expected. Musch skillfully interweaves the romance plot and Lily’s resonant search for home with plenty of action. It’s a powerful story of trusting God and finding hope in even the most difficult circumstances. (June)

Reviewed on 03/27/2026 | Details & Permalink

This underwhelming contemporary from Mack (Suing Cinderella) finds a dissatisfied woman traveling back in time to rethink her choices. On the brink of turning 40, Sutton Layne is less than happy with her life: her 17-year marriage is on the rocks, her interior design business risks folding if she doesn’t win over a high-profile client, and her teenage son is giving her the cold shoulder. When an old college flame DMs her, she can’t help but wonder about the road not taken, and gets the chance to wander down it when a freak pickleball accident lands her in a purgatory where she’s given another go at her twenties. The normally practical Sutton delights at first in chasing her acting dreams in L.A. and seeing what might have been with her dreamy ex. But when challenges arise with returning to her old life, Sutton must reckon with how God’s plan has guided her and what she’s willing to give up to start anew. While Mack’s fun plot ticks along apace, readers will struggle to identify with Sutton, whose problems frequently come across as contrived and whose character arc feels forced. This flimsy take on the second chance trope offers few surprises. (June)

Reviewed on 03/27/2026 | Details & Permalink

Two women find friendship and second chances on the shores of a now-barren North Carolina lake in this moving historical from Thomas (These Blue Mountains). In 1915 Claire Roth and her husband build an impressive home on the shores of Lake Toxaway, N.C., but soon afterward, the dam that formed the lake bursts and all the water rushes downriver. Fast-forward to 1930: the Great Depression has taken hold and Claire, now widowed, decides to build a library to employ out-of-work townspeople and revive the bustling town. To get the project off the ground, she hires Lena Hawkins, a lonely ex-socialite who’s new in town and whose husband lost it all in the stock market crash. As the pair get to work, several investors, attracted by the project, consider rebuilding the dam and restoring the lake. But Claire’s afraid to dream of the lake’s revival, and things get more complicated when she’s romantically pursued by a potential investor, while Lena’s marriage is strained by her husband’s money-making schemes. Both women look to God as they weigh how far they’ll go to hold onto their pasts while building a new future for the town and themselves. Thomas vividly portrays the restlessness of small-town life during the Depression, but the friendship between Claire and Lena—who connect over books despite their age difference—is the story’s beating heart. Readers will be swept up. (May)

Reviewed on 03/20/2026 | Details & Permalink

Ogle (As Sure as the Sea) unspools a textured narrative of a spirited female warrior in early-fifth-century Rome. Adelgard’s Visigoth father rejects her after news of her forbidden romantic tryst brings shame to her family, spurring her to leave town and join King Alaric’s rebel army. At the rebel camp she meets Telemachus, who teaches her about Jesus, but those lessons are cut short when Adelgard is taken prisoner by Romans and forced to fight as a gladiator. Known as the Amazon, Adelgard revels in the crowd’s adulation but refuses to trust anyone—except, eventually, Felix, a Christian doctor who hates violence but tends to the gladiators to provide for his family. Felix is drawn to Adelgard’s fiery spirit, and works to convince her of her worth in God’s eyes. He also helps Telemachus hatch a plan to rescue some of the Visigoth slaves—Adelgard included—making a future between them seem briefly possible. But when the emperor decides to hold a grand tournament where the gladiators will battle to the death, all their lives are put at risk. Ogle keeps suspense sky-high as Adelgard fights her way through a world filled with threats, while the tender romance between her and Felix nicely offsets the action-packed plot. Fans of Tessa Afshar will want to dive in. (May)

Reviewed on 03/06/2026 | Details & Permalink

Murray draws inspiration from the kindertransports of the 1930s for her quietly impactful debut historical. In April 1939, war clouds hang over Europe, but in the small town of Norcross, Ga., Cora Cain is focused on managing her depressed father’s struggling general store, formerly a grand hotel called the Brunswick. Enter Thomas Watkins, an out-of-towner whom Cora hires to help revitalize the store, which occupies part of the building’s first floor. Then family friends George and Evelyn Cohen approach Cora with a proposal to house Austrian refugee children in the hotel’s rooms. The faithful Cora agrees despite her father’s misgivings, and she and Thomas prepare for the children’s arrival. A spark ignites between the pair, but Thomas soon reveals a secret that puts Cora’s budding feelings—and the Cohens’ plan—at risk. A second plotline unfolds in Vienna, where 10-year-old Charlotte, who’s spent months sheltering from the Nazi regime in her aunt’s apartment, grapples with the prospect of leaving behind everyone she has ever loved—including her mother—in search of safety overseas. Murray captures the rising anxiety of impending war as her characters struggle to come to grips with what it means to hold onto hope in times of strife. Readers will find it hard to look away. (May)

Reviewed on 03/06/2026 | Details & Permalink

A young woman is torn between love and family in this engrossing early-20th-century historical from Gabhart (The Pursuit of Elena Bradford). Growing up in rural Kentucky, Kallie Mae Bertram had two dreams: to marry her neighbor Quinn Spencer and to learn to read and write. But the Bertram and Spencer families have been feuding for more than 45 years, since the Civil War pitted them against each other, and Kallie’s father has forbidden her from seeing Quinn. To make matters worse, she never got the chance to attend school because she was tasked with caring for her younger sister, Emmie, after her mother died in childbirth. When Kallie and Quinn, now adults, reunite by chance, Kallie can’t ignore the spark between them—but knows choosing Quinn would mean no longer being welcome in her father’s house. As Quinn and Kallie look to God for guidance, a local teacher opens a school for adults, giving the pair hope for a brighter future, while also opening the door to new choices and challenges. The portrayal of rural Appalachian life is vivid and textured, and readers will be quickly won over by Kallie’s enterprising, indomitable spirit. Gabhart’s fans will be well pleased. (May)

Reviewed on 02/27/2026 | Details & Permalink