Recommendations based on "The Sister of the Angels"

A powerful story of love and deception set against the true events of one of the most secret and terrifying of Heinrich Himmler's wartime projects - the Lebensborn Nazi breeding programmeCyrla's neighbours have begun to whisper. Her cousin, Annika, is pregnant and has passed the rigorous exams for admission to the Lebensborn, a maternity home for Aryan girls carrying German babies. Annika's soldier has disappeared; the Nazis confiscate fatherless children. Cyrla, sent from Poland to hide with her Dutch relatives, has been warned that her neighbours know she is half Jewish. She won't be safe for long.A cruel twist of fate places Cyrla with the terrible choice between certain discovery in her cousin's home and taking Annika's place in the Lebensborn. If she takes refuge in teh enemy's lair, can Cyrla fool teh doctors, nurses, guards and other mothers-to-be? How will she escape before they discover she is not who she claims?

Sharp-witted and sharp-tongued, Arcangela Tarabotti (1604-52) yearned to be formally educated and enjoy an independent life in Venetian literary circles. But instead, at sixteen, her father forced her into a Benedictine convent. To protest her confinement, Tarabotti composed polemical works exposing the many injustices perpetrated against women of her day.Paternal Tyranny, the first of these works, is a fiery but carefully argued manifesto against the oppression of women by the Venetian patriarchy. Denouncing key misogynist texts of the era, Tarabotti shows how despicable it was for Venice, a republic that prided itself on its political liberties, to deprive its women of rights accorded even to foreigners. She accuses parents of treating convents as dumping grounds for disabled, illegitimate, or otherwise unwanted daughters. Finally, through compelling feminist readings of the Bible and other religious works, Tarabotti demonstrates that women are clearly men's equals in God's eyes.An avenging angel who dared to speak out for the rights of women nearly four centuries ago, Arcangela Tarabotti can now finally be heard.

In the tumultuous years before the First World War, sisters Iris, Marianne, Eva and Clemency, born and raised in industrial Sheffield, seek to follow their dreams.When twenty-year-old Marianne meets handsome, sophisticated Arthur Leighton at a local provincial ball, she knows that she has found the love of her life. Years pass, and Iris, her ambition of a grand marriage dashed, becomes a nurse in a London hospital, surprising herself, and her family, at her ability to deal with the injuries and needs of her patients. When Eva falls in love with the Bohemian, Gabriel Bellamy, her hopes of becoming an artist falter, for though he admires her work, he expects attention in return for his tutelage. Caring for her invalid mother, Clemency remains tied to the family home, stifling her dreams of a life elsewhere. And Marianne’s desire for happiness turns to nightmare when she finds herself trapped in an isolated outpost of the Empire with a cruel and dangerous man. Only her love for her son and her memory of her sisters, thousands of miles away in England, give her the strength to survive.As the clouds darken and war changes the lives all the sisters have known, Iris, Marianne, Eva and Clemency fight to free themselves of the bonds that confine them and discover love at last.

AN EPIC FEMINIST RETELLING OF THE WAR OF THE ROSES1431 is a dangerous time for a woman to be defiant.England has been fighting France for 100 years. At home, power-hungry men within a corrupt government manipulate a weak king - and name Cecily's husband, York's loyal duke, an enemy. As the king's grasp on sanity weakens, plots to destroy York take root... It will take all of Cecily's courage and cunning to save her family. But when the will to survive becomes ambition for a crown, will she risk treason to secure it? Inside closed bedchambers and upon bloody battlefields, Cecily portrays war as women fight it.__________ ACCLAIM FOR CECILY"A startling heroine" Sarah Moss, Summerwater"A vividly female perspective on the Wars of the Roses" Imogen Hermes Gower, The Mermaid and Mr Hancock"Wolf Hall for the 2020s" Manda Scott, Boudica"Absorbing" Times"Has the new Hilary Mantel arrived?" Sunday Telegraph"Masterful and majestic; England's unspoken history told by one brilliant woman through the life of another. This important novel blazes on every page from its brutal first scene to its glittering final act" Chris Cleave, author of Everyone Brave is Forgiven"Entirely absorbing and utterly compelling. Fifteenth century England leaps from the page, with all its political turmoil and bloodshed. I loved it" Caroline Lea, author of The Glass Women"Masterfully written and wholly immersive, with characters that live and breathe. Cecily is a tour de force. I loved every sentence" Joanne Burn, author of The Hemlock Cure"Annie Garthwaite writes about the past with the sort of intimacy, immediacy and empathy that can only come from graft and craft" Toby Clements, author of Kingmaker"BLOODY GREAT. So modern, so political, it could almost be set in Downing Street' KATE SAWYER, author of The Stranding"Shines a light into a dark corner of our history and reclaims the voice and story of a powerful and forgotten woman" Liz Hyder, author of The Gifts"An extraordinary achievement . . .I could touch and breathe Cecily's world as if I was walking in her shadow" Carol McGrath, author of The Silken Rose"Impeccably researched, written with style and shot through with energy, heart and power. A perfectly paced tale of intrigue, influence and victory wrenched from defeat. Cecily has been overlooked for centuries. Not anymore" AJ West, author of The Spirit Engineer

Seniors at Immaculate Heart High, Peggy Morrison and Constance Marie Wepplener set out to defy the conventions and strictures of "Nice Catholic Ladyhood," in a bittersweet story of the coming of age

A London actor was dying for a star billing...From the leading lady's liaison to the harassment of an aging juvenile lead-there's never a dull moment, darling, at the Vulcan Theatre. But vanity and hysterics, suspicion and superstition, brandy and jealousy, are upstaged by a death on opening night. Was it really suicide? Or a macabre encore to a long-ago murder in the same backstage room? Scotland Yard's cast of suspects for the final curtain.

Jennifer Worth came from a sheltered background when she became a midwife in the Docklands in the 1950s. The conditions in which many women gave birth just half a century ago were horrifying, not only because of their grimly impoverished surroundings, but also because of what they were expected to endure. But while Jennifer witnessed brutality and tragedy, she also met with amazing kindness and understanding, tempered by a great deal of Cockney humour. She also earned the confidences of some whose lives were truly stranger, more poignant and more terrifying than could ever be recounted in fiction. Attached to an order of nuns who had been working in the slums since the 1870s, Jennifer tells the story not only of the women she treated, but also of the community of nuns (including one who was accused of stealing jewels from Hatton Garden) and the camaraderie of the midwives with whom she trained. Funny, disturbing and incredibly moving, Jennifer's stories bring to life the colourful world of the East End in the 1950s.

Hailed as one of the United States' greatest writers of historical fiction, Eugenia Price presents the stirring events and everyday happenings of Georgia's St. Simons Island. This story of one remarkable woman, Anne Couper Fraser, and her passionate yet intricate marriage to John Fraser, will thrill millions of readers worldwide.When the Frasers finally return to beautiful St. Simons Island, the one place on earth Anne longs to be, John says that he must follow his father-in-law's example and farm with slave labor is he is to support his family. The Coupers sincerely believe that these people are better off under their benevolence than they would be free. But soon Anne must ask herself if the kindness with which they treat their slaves justifies this Southern institution, and if a sacrifice she has asked of John is too great for their once-perfect marriage to endure.

A compelling novel about four young women in wartime London, from the best-selling author of London Belles and My Sweet Valentine. In Article Row, in London’s Holborn – four young women, Tilly, Sally, Dulcie and Agnes – have already been witnesses to the heartache and pain that Hitler’s bombs have inflicted on ordinary Londoners.Tilly is desperate to wed her beau, Drew. Terrified that something will happen to prevent them from being together, her fears seem to be coming true when he is called back home to America.For her mother, Olive, this only adds to her worries for Tilly. But she has her own hands full when her friend and neighbour, Sergeant Dawson, gets some terrible news. When Olive lends a hand, she finds herself at the sharp end of some unwelcome gossip.For Dulcie, the war has brought an old flame, David, back into her life. But his terrible injuries have changed his life forever. Can something more develop out of their friendship? And for Agnes, she is about to find out something that will change her life, too.In this seemingly endless war, the girls will learn about love, loss and heartache. But they, like thousands of other Londoners, are determined to win the battle on the home front – no matter what it takes.

On the night of 10 February 1567 an explosion devastated the Edinburgh residence of Henry Stewart, Lord Darnley, second husband of Mary, Queen of Scots. The noise was heard as far away as Holyrood Palace, where Queen Mary was attending a wedding masque. T