What the Ocean Brings by Tonya Ulynn Brown

Publication Date: June 4th, 2026

Publisher: Black Rose Writing

Pages: 393

Genre: Historical Romance

Quebec, Canada, 1847. 

While trying to escape the Potato Famine, shipwrecked Irish immigrant Breanna Clarey awakens injured and alone on an unfamiliar beach. To make matters worse, she has been separated from her family, and her friend, Crow, is lying dead at her feet. But when Dawson Roberts, a reclusive fisherman with a guarded past and big dreams for his future, finds Breanna, he puts his plans on hold to offer her shelter and help find her family.

But life for an Irish immigrant isn't easy. Facing a deadly quarantine station, dangerous immigration officials, and grief over her missing family, Breanna struggles to exert her independence and navigate her new world. While Breanna confronts an unknown future, Dawson is plagued by a painful past. They each must determine their own course, even if it means ignoring the pull they have on each other.

When the future takes an unexpected turn, only the ocean that has brought them so much devastation can help them find their way back to where they belong.

Excerpt

Louis was still spewing obscenities when the bell rang again. Charlie threw a punch but missed, and Breanna reckoned it had something to do with him not being able to see very well. When he swung a second time and missed, Louis took advantage of the opportunity and punched him in his ribs. Charlie bent over trying to catch his breath, and Louis hit him again in the same spot.  

Charlie fell to the ground with a thud. Breanna thought for sure that was all the man would be able to take, but he scrambled to get up again. However, before his feet could gain purchase, Louis kicked him in the ribs. 

“That’s dirty!” Dawson shouted, pointing his finger and grabbing the rope. He would have climbed back in the ring if Ames hadn’t caught him and pushed him back. By this time, half the audience was shouting so loudly in protest that she couldn’t hear the count. 

Breanna knew they had reached 30 when Louis stumbled over to his corner and grabbed his shirt. Charlie was still lying on the floor, and Clarice was at his side trying to help him up. Everyone was shouting, and there was great confusion. She looked to Dawson for an explanation, but he had climbed into the ring and was shouting at the referee.  

“Double or nothing!” he parlayed as he pulled his suspenders off his shoulders and began unbuttoning his shirt. “Let me fight him,” Dawson haggled. 

More shouting followed, and Breanna watched in horror as Dawson removed his shirt and stepped up to the line. 

“What is happening?” she cried to no one in particular, but a woman standing next to her with a long cigarette hanging out of her mouth said, “Honey, it looks like your man is about to fight King Louis.” 

When others started realizing there would be another fight, they began passing money back and forth, and everyone placed their bets. Clarice helped Charlie to the side of the ring, but he could barely stand.

“Oh, Charlie, I am really sorry. Will ye be needing a doctor?” 

Charlie didn’t answer for a moment. When he had finally caught his breath, he said, “I can’t leave now. Dawson is going to fight.” 

“But why? I don’t understand what is happening.”  

“I’d venture to say, he bet money on my fight. It must have been a pretty penny for him to go after Louis like that.” 

Breanna gasped in disbelief. “His boat money.” 

Charlie looked at her through his one good eye and shrugged. She felt tears stinging her eyes as she turned back to the ring.  

Suddenly, Dawson was there in front of her. He grabbed her by her upper arms and pulled her toward him. Placing a quick kiss on her lips, he shouted, “Wish me luck.” 

Breanna reeled from the contact. Rocking back on her heels, she steadied herself with the ropes that squared off the fighting ring. She watched as Dawson stepped up to the line again, stretching and flexing his arms to loosen up. That is when she finally noticed him.  

She had never seen Dawson without his shirt on. In all the weeks that she had lived in his house and worked alongside him on his boat, he had always been fully clothed. His chest and arms were just as big as Charlie’s, but instead of the thick patch of ginger-colored hair on his chest, Dawson’s hair was dark, matching that on his head. He sported two tattoos, one on each side of his chest, but they were obscured by his suspenders, and she couldn’t make out what they were. She stared in fascination. 

When the bell rang, it was obvious that Dawson had a clear advantage. Louis was tired, and Breanna was surprised that he had even agreed to this second fight. Yet, he still put up a good fight, and by the time it was over, Dawson had a split brow, two broken ribs, and his money back. Louis went home with a broken nose and humiliation.  

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Tonya Ulynn Brown

Tonya Ulynn Brown is an award-winning historical romance author who writes emotionally rich tales of ancient castles, treacherous plots, and forbidden love. With a deep passion for the turbulent histories of England and Scotland, she brings the past vividly to life through stories where danger and desire walk hand in hand.

Tonya holds a master’s degree and teaches Reading and Writing at the elementary level. Fueled by iced coffees, beautiful books, and an enduring obsession with Mary, Queen of Scots, she fills her days writing, teaching, and researching the lives of long-dead monarchs and other historical figures.

Most of all, she loves spending time with her husband, two sons, and one very spoiled French bulldog.

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Escape of the Grand Duchess by Susan Appleyard

 

Publication Date: 27th July 2025

Publisher: Ingenium Books Publishing Inc.

Page Length: 412

Genre: Biographical Historical Fiction 

Escape of the Grand Duchess by Susan Appleyard is a gripping historical novel that shatters the notion that royalty is synonymous with privilege and ease. At its heart is Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna, the youngest sister of Tsar Nicholas II—a Romanov who defied a doomed destiny and survived.

Unlike her ill-fated brother and his family, Olga’s story is one of resilience, sacrifice, and daring escape. Trapped in a loveless marriage to a reckless gambler—who harbours secrets of his own—she finds hope in the arms of a dashing army lieutenant. But before she can claim her own happiness, she must first endure the brutal realities of World War I, where she serves as a nurse on the frontlines.

As the Russian Empire teeters on the brink of collapse, the infamous Siberian mystic Rasputin tightens his grip on the imperial court, setting the stage for revolution. With the Bolsheviks seizing power and the Romanovs marked for death, Olga faces an impossible choice: risk everything to stay or flee into the unknown with her true love and their children.

Rich in historical detail and driven by an unforgettable heroine, Escape of the Grand Duchess is a sweeping riches-to-rags tale of survival, love, and the strength it takes to forge a new life in the face of unimaginable upheaval.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

There’s a moment in Escape of the Grand Duchess where you suddenly stop thinking of the Romanovs as “history” and start thinking of them simply as a family watching the world fall apart around them. That’s what this book does so brilliantly. It strips away the mythology and gives you people — flawed, frightened, loving, stubborn people — trapped inside events far bigger than themselves.

I thought Susan Appleyard’s portrayal of Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna was superb. Olga isn’t written as some untouchable tragic princess. She’s practical, sharp-tongued at times, deeply emotional at others, and far more aware than many around her of how dangerous the political situation is becoming. Her voice carries the whole novel effortlessly.

The early part of the book is fascinating for its depiction of court life and the suffocating expectations placed upon royal women, particularly Olga’s disastrous marriage to Prince Peter of Oldenburg. The loneliness of that arrangement hangs over much of the novel, which makes her later relationship with Nikolai Kulikovsky feel all the more sincere and hard-won. Their scenes together brought genuine warmth to an increasingly dark story.

What I found especially compelling was the portrayal of the growing divide within the imperial family itself. Olga’s devotion to Nicholas II is unwavering, but there’s a painful undercurrent throughout because she can see his weaknesses so clearly. He’s portrayed as kind and well-meaning, but hopelessly unequipped for the catastrophe unfolding around him. Meanwhile, Alexandra Feodorovna becomes more isolated with every chapter. The novel captures that sense of a woman retreating further inward, trusting fewer and fewer people until only Rasputin remains.

And Rasputin himself is one of the most unsettling parts of the book. Not because he’s written as some theatrical villain, but because the atmosphere surrounding him feels so believable — the whispers, the desperation, the blind faith, the resentment building in every room he enters. You can almost feel the empire rotting from within.

The final third of the novel is genuinely moving. The uncertainty surrounding the fate of the imperial family, the rumours filtering through, the dawning horror as the truth becomes unavoidable — those chapters stayed with me long after I’d finished reading. Olga’s grief over her brothers feels painfully intimate, especially because she has so little time to process one loss before another arrives.

What makes this novel special is that it never becomes overwhelmed by the history. The politics matter, the revolution matters, but at its heart this is a story about survival, loyalty, exile, and holding onto love when everything familiar has been destroyed.

Richly atmospheric, deeply humane and impossible to put down. This deserves to be widely read by anyone who loves historical fiction at its very best.

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Susan Appleyard

Susan was born in England, which is where she learned to love English history, and now lives in Canada in the summer. In winter she and her husband flee the cold for their second home in Mexico. Susan divides her time between writing and her hobby, oil painting, although writing will always be her first love. She was fortunate in having had two books published traditionally. Since joining the ebook crowd, she has published nine books, some of which have won various awards.

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Some Starry Night by Irene Latham

SOMe Starry Night

By Irene Latham

Publication Date: April 14th, 2026

Publisher: Historium Press

Pages: 264

Genre: Historical Fiction

Under the pale glow of a Parisian spring in 1886, two restless souls move toward the same horizon-unaware that their meeting will ignite a love as luminous and fleeting as the stars themselves.

Vincent van Gogh arrives in Paris with little more than paint-stained hands and an aching determination to create something worthy of the world. Living in the cramped apartment of his brother Theo, he struggles against poverty, doubt, and the relentless pull of his own restless mind.

Across the ocean in Amherst, Emily Dickinson receives news that changes everything. Faced with the nearness of death, the reclusive poet does the unthinkable: she leaves the quiet safety of the Homestead and sails for Paris, determined to taste life before it slips beyond her reach.

When Emily agrees to sit for Vincent's portrait, their worlds collide in a blaze of color, poetry, and dangerous intimacy. Through letters, poems, and whispered confessions, the two artists discover in one another a fierce, unguarded understanding-one that will shape their art, their faith, and the fragile hours they have left.

But love between stars is never simple. As time grows short and darkness gathers, Vincent and Emily must decide whether beauty is meant to last...or simply to burn bright enough to change the night forever.

Some Starry Night is a sweeping, lyrical imagining of the hidden story behind Vincent van Gogh's most iconic painting – an unforgettable tale of love, creativity, and the courage to live fiercely, even in the shadow of the end.

Excerpt

[at the pond at Jardin des Plantes]

Emily’s fingers flew as she unlaced her small boots and set them aside. She scooted toward the edge of the boulder, holding her skirts back as she dropped her feet down. Slowly, deliberately, she dipped her toes into the clear water. So cold! A shiver started in her toes and moved up her calves. She ignored the knee-jerk reaction to withdraw and instead pressed her feet in deeper. As the water filled her stockings, air bubbles cascaded to the surface, making little popping sounds. 

“Marvelous,” she said. It was as if the water had fingers and was caressing her feet and ankles.

“Told you,” Vincent said. He sat just inches from her. So close. She sank her feet in even deeper, dangling them as far as possible. Her whole body hummed. She wanted all of it—the chill and the heat, the shade and the sun, the water and the electricity of sharing this moment with Vincent.

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Irene Latham

Irene Latham writes poems and stories from the Purple Horse Poetry Studio & Music Room in Blount County, Alabama. She is the author or co-author of many books for young people, including African Town, winner of the Scott O'Dell Award for Outstanding Historical Fiction.

This is her first novel for adults.

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