Recommendations based on "You Wouldn't Want to Be Mary Queen of Scots"

From the celebrated author of the international bestseller The Secret Life of Bees comes an extraordinary novel about two exceptional women.Sarah Grimké is the middle daughter. The one her mother calls difficult and her father calls remarkable. On Sarah's eleventh birthday, Hetty 'Handful' Grimké is taken from the slave quarters she shares with her mother, wrapped in lavender ribbons, and presented to Sarah as a gift. Sarah knows what she does next will unleash a world of trouble. She also knows that she cannot accept. And so, indeed, the trouble begins ...A powerful, sweeping novel, inspired by real events, and set in the American Deep South in the nineteenth century, THE INVENTION OF WINGS evokes a world of shocking contrasts, of beauty and ugliness, of righteous people living daily with cruelty they fail to recognise; and celebrates the power of friendship and sisterhood against all the odds.

For readers of The Tattooist of Auschwitz and Kate Furnivall comes a gritty tale of courage, betrayal and love in the most unlikely of places. Also published as The German Midwife.

A Stirring Saga Of A Nurse Who Only Wants To Do Her Duty In World War Two – And Who Ends Up Having To Make An Agonising Choice. Set In Ireland And Birmingham, This Is The Latest From Emerging Star Of The Genre Anne Bennett.

A hauntingly powerful and emotionally charged novel about family secrets, love and loss, identity and belonging.Two children trapped in the same attic, almost a century apart, bound by a shared secret.Early 1900s London: Taken from his homeland, twelve-year-old Celestine spends most of the time locked away in the attic of a large house by the sea. The only time Celestine isn’t bound by confines of the small space is when he is acting as an unpaid servant to English explorer Sir Richard Babbington, As the years pass, he desperately clings on to memories of his family in Africa, even as he struggles to remember his mother’s face, and sometimes his real name . . .1974: Lowra, a young orphan girl born into wealth and privilege whose fortunes have now changed, finds herself trapped in the same attic. Searching for a ray of light in the darkness of the attic, Lowra finds under the floorboards an old-fashioned pen, a porcelain doll, a beaded necklace, and a message carved on the wall, written in an unidentifiable language. Providing comfort for her when all hope is lost, these clues will lead her to uncover the secrets of the attic.

Raised like sisters, Mariamne and Salome are indulged with riches, position, and learning-a rare thing for females in Jerusalem. But Mariamne has a further gift: an illness has left her with visions; she has the power of prophecy. It is her prophesying that drives the two girls to flee to Egypt, where they study philosophy, mathematics, and astronomy in the Great Library of Alexandria.After seven years they return to a Judaea where many now believe John the Baptizer is the messiah. Salome too begins to believe, but Mariamne, now called Magdalene, is drawn to his cousin, Yeshu’a, a man touched by the divine in the same way she was during her days of illness. Together they speak of sharing their direct experience of God; but Yeshu’a unexpectedly gains a reputation as a healer, and as the ill and the troubled flock to him, he and Magdalene are forced to make a terrible decision.This radical retelling of the greatest story ever told brings Mary Magdalene to life-not as a prostitute or demon-possessed-but as an educated woman who was truly the “apostle to the apostles.”

Is it a gesture of good will or a sinister trap that lures Rupert St. Vincent and his family to magnificent estate? How desperate is Joyce Lambert, a destitute young widow whose only recourse is to marry a man she despises? What unexpected circumstance stirs old loyalties in Theodora Darrell, and unfaithful wife about to run away with her lover? In this collection of short stories, the answers are as unexpected as they are satisfying. The Queen of Crime takes bizarre romantic entanglements, supernatural visitations, and classic murder to inventive new heights.

"Beautifully crafted and captivating.This triumphant tale is sure to be an instant classic."--Victoria Christopher Murray, New York Times bestselling co-author of The Personal Librarian "How do we not all know the name of Elizabeth Taylor Greenfield The story of this brilliant singer -- a Black woman born enslaved who performed both sides of the Atlantic in the years before and during the Civil War -- is finally given its just due." --Marie Benedict, New York Times bestselling author of The First Ladies Before the Civil War, Black opera singer Elizabeth Taylor Greenfield reigned supreme on Northern stages--even performing at Buckingham Palace. Novelist Tiffany L Warren brings this remarkable but forgotten diva's remarkable story to life for modern readers. Born into slavery on a Mississippi plantation, Elizabeth Taylor Greenfield has been raised in the safety of Philadelphia's Quaker community by a wealthy adoptive mother. Sheltered and educated, Eliza's happy childhood always included music lessons to nurture her unique gift: a glorious three octave singing voice that leaves listeners in awe. But on the eve of her twenty-fourth birthday, young Eliza's world is thrown into a tailspin when her mother dies. Eliza's inheritance is contested by her mother's white cousins, leaving her few options. She can marry her longtime beau, Lucien, though she has no desire to be a wife and mother. Or she can work as a tutor for rich families. Her mother's dying wish was for Eliza to pursue her talent and become a professional singer, but that grand vision now seems out of reach. When a chance performance on a steamboat to Buffalo, New York, leads to a surprising opportunity, fearless Eliza seizes her moment. Within a year she is touring America, singing to packed houses, and igniting controversy wherever she goes. In a country captivated by "the Swedish Nightingale" Jenny Lind, Eliza is billed by tour promoters as "the Black Swan." An unlikely diva, Eliza is tall, dark-skinned, and robust of figure compared to the petite European prima donna, but even the harshest critics can't deny Eliza's extraordinary gift. Menaced by racist crowds, threatened by slave-catchers who kidnap free Black people, Eliza lives a public life full of risk, but one which also holds the promise of great riches, and the freedoms those buy. From the churches of Philadelphia to Queen Victoria's salon in Buckingham Palace, Eliza Greenfield will blaze her own path--with a voice that no listener will ever forget.

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

Lucia Lucas, the eternally effervescent dowager, continues to consternate and beguile friends and antagonists alike in the English countryside where she becomes embroiled in high finance, buried treasure, politics, and love

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.