I picked up A Study in Red: The Secret Journal of Jack the Ripper, the cover hinting at the dark secrets contained between the covers. But, the cover didn’t warn of the depth of travel into the mind of a madman.

Brian L. Porter’s words grab the reader and won’t let go as he describes Robert Cavendish’s reading of the secret journal of the notorious Jack the Ripper. The man’s life changed as he discovered an ancestor’s place in Jack’s life, the workings of The Ripper’s mind, and the terror the mad man invoked.

This book is not one I could sit and read at one time. I would read a section, shiver, and lay the book aside. I had to return to its pages, though. I could not stay away. Part by part I delved into the horror that Porter portrayed in his novel. I can’t say I enjoyed the book, because the uneasy feelings it left in my mind were not enjoyable, but the book held my attention.

I'm a history fan without the head for dates. I don't care about the exact date and time something happened; I'm more interested in the human story behind it. When I picked up Smoke Around The Moon by T.K. Sheils, I was excited to jump headfirst into a time and story I knew little about.

The end of an empire, and the rise of another. This is when we meet Piyo, an Incan farmer that Spanish conquistadors call The Ear. Because of his gift for languages, Piyo is recruited by Hernando de Soto to act as translator for the Spanish. In Smoke Around The Moon, Piyo also acts as the eyes for the reader, giving us a glimpse into the life and times of the Incan empire. The twelfth Sapa-Inca, God-Emperor, has just died. According to a prophecy, he will be the last and the Incan empire will be brought down by white-skinned god-people soon after. Piyo is witness to the events that turn this prophecy into history.

I have to admit that one of my pet genres is historical romance. It’s my literary potato chip. My popcorn. My brain candy. There's a time in my life when my nearest and dearest family members would not have been remiss to have an intervention to get me away from my historical romance library and remove me to some kind of reader's anonymous facility to break the habit. I sucked down more than a book a day for years (and that's a modest estimate.) It's up in the air whether or not all that reading may have helped (or hurt) my writing, editing and reviewing skills, but any way you look at it, it is certain that it has affected my taste and expectations. I know the romance hero intimately. The hero is strong beyond strength, and has a sense of innate nobility and justice, no matter how the world turns, no matter how obvious he is, or how he hides his true nature from himself. The heroine may be naive, flawed, perfect or have low self-esteem, but no matter what she is, she holds the possibility of becoming a true and honorable partner in all things.

As a follow up to his very widely read book, The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini provides us with a book that I hope many, many women will read: A Thousand Splendid Suns.

I am probably one of the few people who did not enjoy The Kite Runner. I honestly could not even get past the first dozen pages. This is no reflection on Mr. Hosseini's writing; it was just not a book for me. Because of this, I make no comparisons between Mr. Hosseini's first and second books. I can only judge A Thousand Splendid Suns on its own merit – and it is indeed a meritorious book.

Ever wonder what life was like in the early pioneer days? Did living on the land make you closer to the land? Did the love between a people grow stronger because they depended on each other for survival? Mary Jean Kelso answers these and other questions in her riveting tale of life on the frontier in her newest novel, Kat’s Cradle.

Katie Marie Sturdivant, better known as Kat, regrets her visit to the fortuneteller. Life is hard in the lawless town of Bodie. With her brother gone and her mother dead, it’s just Kat and her father Dutch. All she wants is something to look forward to, a little light at the end of the tunnel. Instead of being told she will meet her true love soon, the seeress predicts travel and tragedy. For that depressing bit of forecasting, she spent all her money.

Given a choice between sterile isolated life in a prison or the rough and tumble filthy life of the thirteenth century, what you would pick? Isobel of the far future, a condemned murderess, has chosen the past. She can stay alive there, avoid erasure, and the whole time period as well, on one condition. All she has to do is track down a young docile boy with naive ideas of the Crusades and bring him home to Mommy. Seems his seed is needed to establish a future dynasty on the throne of France. Once done, her life will be her own.

The historical novel is experiencing a great resurgence. With the works of Phillipa Gregory, Elizabeth Kostova and Diana Gabaldon topping the best-sellers list, the genre is enjoying grand popularity. This new release by Sena Jeter Naslund, author of Ahab’s Wife, is another engrossing mix of the historical and the fictional.

During difficult times, people want and need someone to blame, someone upon whom they can ply their anger and frustration. In French history, the greatest accusation has always been the one made against Marie Antoinette. In some works, it would actually appear as if this Austrian woman alone was the impetus for the French Revolution of 1789 when, in fact, the seeds of unrest had been planted a hundred years earlier, under the reign of Louis XIV. It was from this Louis’ wife that the words “Let them eat cake” actually came. In Abundance, A Novel of Marie Antoinette, Naslund proposes an opposing contention: the defense of Marie Antoinette in her own words.

It’s often been said that there are no new stories, just new ways of telling them. If this is the case, perhaps it is but a mirror of life and the bizarre manner in which events repeat themselves. In Back to Wando Passo when incidents from the past reoccur, the question is whether it’s due to coincidence or some other corporeal force.

Ransom Hill, a down and out, middle-aged, lead singer of a has-been rock and roll band, is reunited with his family after months apart. His wife Claire and their two children fled from him and his aberrant behavior, seeking solace at Wando Passo, to an estate in South Carolina that Claire recently inherited. Back in each other’s company, their marriage and its viability are still in doubt.

Throughout history, commemorated characters are remembered for changing and defending their worlds, or conquering others; but, in truth, none accomplished these momentous feats alone. Behind each memorable leader there are warriors, soldiers upon whose blood the ultimate ruler’s power is forged. Memnon of Rhodes was just such a man.

An elderly, sickly woman calls Ariston of Lindos, a writer, to her bedside to share with him the intricate details of the life of Memnon of Rhodes, to entrust the tale to Ariston’s safe keeping before she dies and the story dies with her.

For centuries, some of the best stories have been handed down from generation to generation as the family sat beside a cheery fire on a cold day. The tradition has kept personal family history alive, allowing the young to relive the adventures of their forefathers and relatives that endured the hardships of life in early America. Watch for the Raven is one such tale, the adventure of personal growth through the hardship of great-great uncle, Joshua Avery, as shared by a grandmother.

Swing. It was a dance. It was music. It was a way of leaving behind the drudgery and sadness that enveloped America in 1939. Most adults saw it as perfectly sinful. Most youth saw it as pure escape. Swing is the one year diary of an eighteen-year-old girl who lives for the escape that swing gives her and her friends.

Follow Margo, her sister, and her friends as they travel through their senior year of high school, looking forward to where they will go next and looking back at where they've been. From her father's depression at not getting to travel to her mother caring for the occasional hobo passing through their town, Margo's life is full of ups and downs that she handles one at a time. She sees the need to break away from small town life, as well as her longtime boyfriend, in order to get on with her life after graduation. But no matter what happens, the music and the dancing is always there, ready to sweep her into another world where life is wonderful.

The woman who should have been queen. Boudicca. Her father was King of Iceni. She was preparing to marry the man of her choice. And then Rome came. No longer allowed to live life the way they always had, the Iceni people learned to accept Rome's rule. But not Boudicca. And not her lover, Tallas.

Tallas organized the initial revolt against Rome. Not well enough though. He was captured. And then he was brutally killed for his actions. Boudicca and her father were forced to watch his execution. And then the king was stripped of his sovereignty, and Boudicca was forced into a marriage with the man chosen by Rome to replace her father as King of Iceni. Unable to accept this final shame, Boudicca's father took his own life. Boudicca swore vengence. Remember. Tallas would be remembered. Her father would be remembered. Iceni would be remembered.

Brandon McCallum took his time riding through the beauty of the Great Plains on his way to the Wet Mountains of Colorado. He had much to put behind him as memories of the Civil War and the death of his wife, Lilly, still haunted him much of the time. Coming into the town of Pueblo, he set eyes on the beautiful Gaileen Burdon.

Much to his dismay, Brandon discovered that Gail was to be married off to the banker Tom Wadsworth and tried to forget all about her while building his homestead and finding a little gold. After a snowbound winter, he made a trip into town and learned that Mrs. Gail Wadsworth had been kidnapped by a band of outlaws and her courageous husband had been killed trying to rescue her.

The Roux in the Gumbo by Kim Robinson in a way reminds me of one of my favorite books, The Land by Mildred D. Taylor. In an initial comparison, both explore the historical roots of family and the impact that figures within the genealogy have on the family tree. Both works, to some extent, explore what it was like to be black in the historical American south (Roux goes beyond). There are qualities about The Roux in the Gumbo that give the story credence.