Historical Fiction: Unpacked

Carrie Turansky is the award-winning author of more than twenty inspirational novels and novellas and a winner of the ACFW Carol Award, the International Digital Award, and the Holt Medallion. She loved traveling to England to research her latest Edwardian novels including the one we're discussing today, The Legacy of Longdale Manor. 

Here's a description:

In 2012, art historian Gwen Monroe travels to England’s Lake District to appraise the paintings and antiques of an old family friend, hoping to prove herself to her prestigious grandfather. While at Longdale Manor, she becomes acquainted with David Bradley—the owner’s handsome grandson—who is desperate to save the crumbling estate by selling Longdale’s art and antiques. When Gwen stumbles upon an intricately carved shepherd’s staff similar to one in a photo of her parents and a one-hundred-year-old journal, she uncovers a connection to the father she never knew. 

In 1912, after her father’s death, Charlotte Harper uncovers a painful family secret she can only confess to her journal. She and her family travel to the Lake District to stay on a sheep farm, hoping eventually to find a home with Charlotte’s grandfather at Longdale Manor, but old wounds and heartrending secrets make it a difficult challenge. As Charlotte grows closer to shepherd Ian Storey and rebuilds her shattered faith, she must decide whether she will ever trust in love again. 

Two women, a century apart, are taken on a journey to healing, faith, and forgiveness in this heartfelt dual-time Edwardian romance from bestselling author Carrie Turansky. 

Purchase The Legacy of Longdale Manor on Amazon (affiliate).

Check out Carrie's website, follow her on Facebook and Instagram, and join her Facebook group Carrie's Reading Friends.

Also mentioned:

The social reformer Josephine Butler will make an appearance in Carrie's next novel. Find out more about her here.

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Join my community and help support the show on Patreon!

Join the Historical Fiction: Unpacked Podcast Group on Facebook!

Be sure to visit my Instagram, Facebook, and website.

Follow the show on Instagram!

Purchase Alison’s historical novel, One Traveler (affiliate).

Disclosure: As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. If you click an affiliate link and make a purchase, you help support my work without paying any more for the product. Thank you for your support!

Patricia Raybon was a journalist and journalism educator for most of her adult life. Now she writes historical mysteries! Her novel All That Is Secret won the Christy Award for Best First Novel in 2022. Patricia and I talked about the second in her mystery series, Double the Lies. We also discussed what it was like for her growing up under Jim Crow, the role the Black church played in her life, the prominence of the Ku Klux Klan in Colorado, and her call to write at the intersection of faith and race.

Here is the description of Double the Lies:

On a cold spring night in 1924, Annalee Spain offers her new fancy lace handkerchief—a gift from her pastor boyfriend Jack Blake—to a young woman crying in a Denver public library. But later that night, when police find the handkerchief next to the body of the young woman’s murdered husband, Annalee becomes the number one suspect, and her panic doubles when she learns that Jack has gone missing.

With just days to solve the murder before the city’s Klan-run police frame her for the crime, Annalee finds herself hunting for clues in the snowy Colorado mountain town of Estes Park. She questions the victim’s wife and her uncle, a wealthy Denver banker—at their mountain lodge—desperate for leads.

Instead, she finds a household full of suspects and even more burning questions. Who keeps threatening her, why can’t she find Jack, and will a dangerous flirtation be her undoing? Her answers and prayers plumb the depths of the human heart, including her own, exploring long-buried secrets, family lies, and the nature of deceit—all of which could cost the young detective her fledgling love . . . and perhaps even her life.

Purchase Double the Lies on Amazon (affiliate).

Check out Patricia's website and follow her on Facebook, Instagram, and X.

Join Patricia's Reader's Circle here.

Also mentioned:

Purchase the Father Brown Mysteries on Amazon (books) or purchase the television series (affiliate).

Find the Bessie Coleman doll on Amazon (affiliate).

The devotional Patricia mentioned: Our Daily Bread.

Subscribe to my mailing list to receive free book recommendations and samples of my writing!

Join my community and help support the show on Patreon!

Join the Historical Fiction: Unpacked Podcast Group on Facebook!

Be sure to visit my Instagram, Facebook, and website.

Follow the show on Instagram!

Purchase Alison’s historical novel, One Traveler (affiliate).

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. If you click them and make a purchase, you help support my work without paying any more for the product. Thank you for your support!

Cindy K. Sproles is an author and speaker, a "mountain gal" who writes about her home country of rural Appalachia. She came on the show to talk about her latest novel, This Is Where It Ends, which was inspired both by her love of the Appalachian Mountains and by her love for the elderly.

Here is a description of the novel from Revell:

At only fourteen years old, Minerva Jane Jenkins moves to the mountains with her new husband. Among their few possessions is a small box that he claims holds gold. On his deathbed, he makes her promise to keep his secret, telling no one of the box or its supposed treasure.

Thirty years later, Minerva has kept that secret, even as she nears the end of her own life. Rumors still find a way to spread, however, and Minerva finds herself the subject of interest for Del Rankin, a reporter with a desire for the truth. By his side is a friend who wants to know where the gold is hidden. Neither of them can even begin to guess the challenges they will face by trying to get what they want from Minerva.

Despite her dedication to keeping her late husband’s secret, Minerva finds herself thinking about sharing what she knows with Del. Can she truly bring herself to break such a long-held promise? Even if she does, the truth of what’s really in the box may be hidden even from her.

Purchase This Is Where It Ends on Amazon (affiliate).

Check out Cindy's website and follow her on Facebook and Instagram!

Subscribe to my mailing list to receive free book recommendations and samples of my writing!

Join my community and help support the show on Patreon!

Join the Historical Fiction: Unpacked Podcast Group on Facebook!

Be sure to visit my Instagram, Facebook, and website.

Follow the show on Instagram!

Purchase Alison’s historical novel, One Traveler (affiliate).

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. If you click them and make a purchase, you help support my work without paying any more for the product. Thank you for your support!

Today I'm sharing a conversation I had with bestselling, Christy Award winning author Roseanna M. White. We talked about her latest novel and the first in her Imposters series, A Beautiful Disguise. We also discussed the spy mania that took over England in the early 1900s and the creation of the United Kingdom's Military Intelligence, Section 5. Roseanna was my very first interview three years ago when I started the show. It was so fun to host her again!

Here's the description of A Beautiful Disguise:

Left with an estate on the brink of bankruptcy after their father’s death, Lady Marigold Fairfax and her brother open a private investigation firm marketed to the elite . . . to spy on the elite. Dubbed The Imposters, Ltd., their anonymous group soon becomes the go-to for the crème of society when they want answers delivered surreptitiously. But the many secrets Marigold learns about her peers pale in comparison to her shock when she and her brother are hired to investigate her best friend’s father as a potential traitor.

Sir Merritt Livingstone has spent a decade serving the monarch in the most elite guard, but when pneumonia lands him behind a desk in the War Office Intelligence Division just as they’re creating a new secret intelligence branch, he’s intent on showing his worth. He suspects a man of leaking information to Germany as tensions mount between the two countries but needs someone to help him prove it, so he turns to The Imposters, Ltd. No one knows who they are, but their results are beyond compare.

Lady Marigold is determined to discover the truth for her friend’s sake, and she’s more determined still to keep her heart from getting involved with this enigmatic new client . . . who can’t possibly be as noble as he seems.

Purchase A Beautiful Disguise on Amazon (affiliate).

Check out Roseanna's website and follow her on Facebook and Instagram!

Subscribe to my mailing list to receive free book recommendations and samples of my writing!

Join my community and help support the show on Patreon!

Join the Historical Fiction: Unpacked Podcast Group on Facebook!

Be sure to visit my Instagram, Facebook, and website.

Follow the show on Instagram!

Purchase Alison’s historical novel, One Traveler (affiliate).

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. If you click them and make a purchase, you help support my work without paying any more for the product. Thank you for your support!

I learned so much from this conversation with New York Times Bestselling Author Alina Adams about her latest novel, My Mother's Secret. We discussed the Jewish autonomous region of Birobidzhan established by Stalin in 1931 and Alina's own childhood and immigration story as well as her long and winding road to writing books in her favorite genre.

Here's the description of My Mother's Secret from Amazon:

With his dying breath, Lena's father asks his family a cryptic question: "You couldn't tell, could you?" After his passing, Lena stumbles upon the answer that changes her life forever.

As her revolutionary neighbor mysteriously disappears during Josef Stalin's Great Terror purges, 18-year-old Regina suspects that she's the Kremlin's next target. Under cover of the night, she flees from her parents' communal apartment in 1930s Moscow to the 20th century's first Jewish Autonomous Region, Birobidzhan, on the border between Russia and China. Once there, Regina has to grapple with her preconceived notions of socialism and Judaism while asking herself the eternal question: What do we owe each other? How can we best help one another? While she contends with these queries and struggles to help Birobidzhan establish itself, love and war are on the horizon.

Purchase My Mother's Secret on Amazon (affiliate).

Check out Alina's website and follow her on Facebook and Instagram!

Subscribe to my mailing list to receive free book recommendations and samples of my writing!

Join my community and help support the show on Patreon!

Join the Historical Fiction: Unpacked Podcast Group on Facebook!

Be sure to visit my Instagram, Facebook, and website.

Follow the show on Instagram!

Purchase Alison’s historical novel, One Traveler (affiliate).

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. If you click them and make a purchase, you help support my work without paying any more for the product. Thank you for your support!

There's been so much buzz about Gabrielle Meyer's new Timeless Series that I jumped at the chance to have her on the show! We had a great conversation about the first two installments of this series, When the Day Comes and In This Moment. We talked about God's sovereignty over our place in history, the fulfillment of Gabrielle's dream of writing for Bethany House, how she manages to write six books a year, and what's coming in books three and four—yes, there's going to be a book four!

Here's the description of In This Moment from Bethany House:

Maggie inherited a gift from her parents that allows her to live three separate lives in 1861, 1941, and 2001. Each night she goes to sleep in one time period and wakes up in another. Until, that is, she turns twenty-one, when she will have to forfeit two of those lives—and everyone she knows in them—forever.

• In 1861, Maggie is the daughter of an influential senator at the outbreak of the Civil War, navigating a capital full of Southern spies and wounded soldiers.

• In 1941, she is a navy nurse, grappling with her knowledge of the future when she’s asked to join a hospital ship being sent to Pearl Harbor.

• And in 2001, she’s a brilliant young medical student, fulfilling her dream of becoming a surgeon, yet unable to use her modern skills in her other paths.

While Maggie has sworn off romance until she makes her final choice, an intriguing man tugs at her heart in each era. The mysterious British gentleman. The prickly, demanding doctor. The charming young congressman. She’s drawn to each man in different ways, only complicating the impossible decision she must make, which looms ever closer.

With so much on the line, how can Maggie choose just one life to keep and the rest to lose?

Purchase When the Day Comes on Amazon (affiliate).

Purchase In This Moment on Amazon (affiliate).

Check out Gabrielle's website and follow her on Facebook and Instagram!

Also mentioned:

Gabrielle's Love Inspired Historical A Mother in the Making (affiliate).

Megan Besing's Carol-nominated Love Inspired Historical The Rancher's Want Ad Mix-up (affiliate).

And here is Megan Besing's website.

Subscribe to my mailing list to receive free book recommendations and samples of my writing!

Join my community and help support the show on Patreon!

Join the Historical Fiction: Unpacked Podcast Group on Facebook!

Be sure to visit my Instagram, Facebook, and website.

Follow the show on Instagram!

Purchase Alison’s historical novel, One Traveler (affiliate).

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. If you click them and make a purchase, you help support my work without paying any more for the product. Thank you for your support!

Today's episode features Canadian author and historian Andrew Varga. His time hopping series is off to a smashing start with the first two installments, The Last Saxon King and The Celtic Deception. We talked about the importance of historical accuracy in books for young people and how pivotal the year 1066 (the setting for The Last Saxon King) was in English and world history. Andrew also shares some fascinating stories from his life as well as reading to us in Old English!

Here's a description of The Last Saxon King:

Sixteen-year-old Dan Renfrew comes from a long line of time jumpers—secret heroes who travel to the past and resolve glitches in the time stream that threaten to alter history. There is just one problem; Dan has never been told any of this. So when Dan accidentally transports himself to England in the year 1066, he becomes trapped in the past. His only hope of returning home is to set history back on its proper course in the Anglo-Saxon age.

But Dan finds that fixing history is not that easy—chaos has descended upon England. A Viking horde is ravaging the north while an army of Normans is threatening to invade from the south. And in between them both, desperately struggling to maintain his throne, is the newly-crowned English king, Harold Godwinson. Dan must do everything in his power to return history to its proper path, but he soon discovers an even bigger challenge—a war has broken out in the time jumping community, and a band of malicious time jumpers is threatening the very future of the world.

Purchase The Last Saxon King on Amazon (affiliate).

Purchase The Celtic Deception on Amazon (affiliate).

Check out Andrew's website and follow him on Instagram and Twitter!

Subscribe to my mailing list to receive free book recs and samples of my writing!

Join my community and help support the show on Patreon!

Join the Historical Fiction: Unpacked Podcast Group on Facebook!

Be sure to visit my Instagram, Facebook, and website.

Follow the show on Instagram!

Purchase Alison’s historical novel, One Traveler (affiliate).

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. If you click them and make a purchase, you help support my work without paying any more for the product. Thank you for your support!

I'm back at long last with Season Six! Valerie Fraser Luesse joins me on the show today as we talk about her latest novel, Letters from My Sister.

Here's the description from the publisher:

Sisters Emmy and Callie Bullock are living a privileged life. As the only daughters of a wealthy Alabama cotton farmer, they are surrounded by a close-knit family and share a fierce bond with two Black women—Tirzah Randolph, who delivered both of them into the world, and her daughter, Hepsy Jordan, who runs the Bullock household. But when Hepsy’s beautiful granddaughter, Lily, arrives in town, she draws the wrong kind of attention. This sets in motion a chain of events that shakes not only the Bullocks’ well-ordered household but the whole community. After Lily has a baby, Callie witnesses something that she can’t explain. But her memory is just a haze—an image of her beloved sister, Emmy, standing by a darkened riverbank with Lily’s baby girl. As Callie tries to come to terms with what she deems an unthinkable act, it will take letters from her sister to reveal hidden truths leading back to a chilling September night that changed them both forever.

Appealing to readers of various genres, Letters from My Sister will take book lovers on a life-altering journey they won’t soon forget.

Purchase Letters from my Sister on Amazon (affiliate).

Check out Valerie's website and follow her on Facebook!

Subscribe to my mailing list to receive free book recs and samples of my writing!

Join my community and help support the show on Patreon!

Join the Historical Fiction: Unpacked Podcast Group on Facebook!

Be sure to visit my Instagram, Facebook, and website.

Follow the show on Instagram!

Purchase Alison’s historical novel, One Traveler (affiliate).

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. If you click them and make a purchase, you help support my work without paying any more for the product. Thank you for your support!

After much anticipation, we are finally releasing our episode with Tosca Lee and Marcus Brotherton! I talked to Tosca and Marcus about their latest book, The Long March Home, which features three friends from Alabama fighting in the Philippines during World War II. This conversation makes a spectacular finale to season five.

Here's a description of the novel from Revell:

Born and raised in Mobile, Alabama, Jimmy “Propper” Propfield is determined to leave his home behind and see the world with his best friends Billy Crockett and Hank Wright. The Army is his way out. Plus, it will help him forget his high school sweetheart, Claire. At first, life in the Philippines seems like paradise—until the morning of December 8, 1941.

Within hours of bombing Pearl Harbor, Japanese Imperial forces turn their attention to the Philippines. For the next four and a half months, the three friends are plunged into a battle for control of the Pacific theater that ends with the largest surrender of American troops in history. Jimmy, Billy, and Hank are rounded up and marched sixty miles up the Bataan Peninsula en route to Camp O’Donnell in what will become known as the Bataan Death March. With no hope of rescue, the three friends vow to make it back home together. But the ordeal is only the beginning of their nearly four-year fight to survive heat, disease, hunger, and life as POWs.

The Long March Home is a riveting coming-of-age tale of friendship, courage, sacrifice, and love as three friends struggle to survive unthinkable odds.

Purchase The Long March Home on Amazon (affiliate).

Check out Tosca's website and follow her on Facebook and Instagram!

Check out Marcus's website and follow him on Facebook and Instagram!

Subscribe to my mailing list to receive free book recs and samples of my writing!

Attend the Montrose Christian Writers Conference where I’ll be teaching this summer!

Join my community and help support the show on Patreon!

Join the Historical Fiction: Unpacked Podcast Group on Facebook!

Be sure to visit my Instagram, Facebook, and website.

Follow the show on Instagram!

Purchase Alison’s historical novel, One Traveler (affiliate).

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. If you click them and make a purchase, you help support my work without paying any more for the product. Thank you for your support!

Today I'm sharing one of my most popular episodes of all time! This one released last summer. Often called the “Queen of Historical Fiction,” Tracie Peterson is an ECPA, CBA and USA Today bestselling author of more than 100 books, most of them historical. In this episode, we talk about her series, Love on the Santa Fe, and specifically the second installment, Beyond the Desert Sands, which released last July. We discuss her love for the railroad, her mission in writing books, and how her books have touched the lives of readers.

I'll be back next week with the last episode of Season Five!

Purchase all the books from the Love on the Santa Fe series on Amazon (affiliate).

Purchase The Heart's Choice, the new book by Tracie Peterson and Kimberley Woodhouse on Amazon (affiliate).

Listen to my episode with Kimberley Woodhouse earlier this season.

Check out Tracie’s website and Facebook Page!

Subscribe to my mailing list to receive free book recs and samples of my writing!

Attend the Montrose Christian Writers Conference where I’ll be teaching this summer!

Join my community and help support the show on Patreon!

Join the Historical Fiction: Unpacked Podcast Group on Facebook!

Be sure to visit my Instagram, Facebook, and website.

Follow the show on Instagram!

Purchase Alison’s historical novel, One Traveler (affiliate).

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. If you click them and make a purchase, you help support my work without paying any more for the product. Thank you for your support!