Check out Everything We Thought We Knew by Carolyn Niethammer

Everything We Thought We Knew

By Carolyn Niethammer

Publication Date: May 2025

Publisher: Booklocker

Pages: 254

Genre: Historical Fiction

In 1970, Christie left behind the comforts of L.A. and joined a New Age commune in rural Arizona. With the Vietnam War raging and the counterculture movement in full swing, she hoped to find a community to create a better society. But building a new culture is no easy task, especially when free love, psychedelics, and a war protest gone horribly wrong are thrown into the mix. Important secrets follow them beyond the commune.

Put on your tie-dyed shirt and come to Bella Vida as the friends try to change the rules of modern society, then face the repercussions of when middle age sets in.

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Carolyn Niethammer

In the 1970s Carolyn Niethammer visited communes throughout the West and settled in an Arizona artists’ community for many years. Those years were important to who she became as she learned to gather wild foods and wrote several cookbooks centered on edible plants.

In “Everything We Thought We Knew” she hopes to shed light on an important part of American history where young people were advocating for peace in Vietnam War protests and fled to communes, seeking a lifestyle apart from the commercialism and isolation that had overtaken society.

Author Links:

Website • Facebook •  Instagram • Bluesky 

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Check out Ciao, Amore, Ciao (Alex Lago, Book #1) by Sandro Martini

Ciao, Amore, Ciao
(Alex Lago, Book #1)
By Sandro Martini

Publication Date: March 26th, 2025

Series: Alex Lago Series, Book #1

Publisher: Black Rose Writing

Pages: 426

Genre: Historical Fiction

An enthralling dual-timeline WWII family mystery, based on the heartbreaking true story of the massacre in a small town in Italy in July of 1945, from award-winning, bestselling novelist Sandro Martini.

In the winter of 1942, an Italian army of young men vanishes in the icefields of the Eastern Front. In the summer of 1945, a massacre in Schio, northeastern Italy, where families grieve the dead, makes international headlines.

In present-day Veneto, an ordinary man is about to stumble onto a horrifying secret.

Alex Lago is a jaded journalist whose career is fading as fast as his marriage. When he discovers an aged World War II photo in his dying father’s home, and innocently posts it to a Facebook group, he gets an urgent message: Take it down. NOW.

Alex finds himself digging into a past that needs to stay hidden. What he's about to uncover is a secret that can topple a political dynasty buried under seventy years of rubble. Suddenly entangled in a deadly legacy, he encounters the one person who can offer him redemption, for an unimaginable price.

Told from three alternating points of view, Martini’s World War II tale of intrigue, war, and heartbreak pulls the Iron Curtain back to reveal a country nursing its wounds after horrific defeat, an army of boys forever frozen at the gates of Stalingrad, British spies scheming to reshape Italy’s future, and the stinging unsolved murder of a partisan hero.

Ciao, Amore, Ciao is a gripping story of the most heroic, untold battle of the Second World War, and a brilliantly woven novel that brings the deceits of the past and the reckoning of the present together.

Praise for Ciao, Amore, Ciao

“A gripping saga that roots excruciating betrayals in a nation’s tragic history.”
~ Kirkus Reviews

“Balances action, suspense, and emotional depth to deliver a truly immersive, thought-provoking read with an unflinching look at the sins of the past and the lengths to which the powerful will go to keep them buried.”
~ Sublime Book Review

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This title is available to read on #KindleUnlimited.

Sandro Martini

Sandro Martini has worked as a word monkey on three continents. 

He's the author of Tracks: Racing the Sun, an award-winning historical novel. He grew up in Africa to immigrant parents, studied law in Italy, chased literary dreams in London, hustled American dollars in New York City, and is now hiding out in Switzerland, where he moonlights as a Comms guy and tries hard not to speak German. 

You can find him either uber-driving his daughter, chasing faster cars on the autobahn, or swimming in Lake Zurich with a cockapoo named Tintin.

His latest historical suspense novel, Ciao, Amore, Ciao, is now available.

Author Links:

Website • Twitter / X • Facebook • Instagram

Amazon Author Page • BookBub • Goodreads

Check out The Winding Dirt Road by Jiu Da

The Winding Dirt Road

By Jiu Da

Publication Date: May 27th, 2025

Publisher: Historium Press

Pages: 391

Genre: Chinese Historical Fiction / Political Fiction

Written as an antithesis to all first-hand and second-hand propaganda written by both Chinese and foreign writers for China in the good part of the 20th century in a fictional form, this collection, through different times and lands, gives insights into how human docile nature and characteristics are manipulated and brought about cultural and social corrosion over the century. The outcome thus sees "a monumental loss breathtakingly massive than any period that preceded it." Subsequently, it foreshadows a system that "would bring out not the best but the worst in people, against people, any people." (Event Horizon)

 

The first story is written as an introduction in addition to the prologue. From there, the collection proceeds with interrelated subjects or topics, building up causes and factors. At every turn, it gathers momentum and convenes halfway through the book to form the major components of critical perspectives at a juncture.

 

Hoarded in the depth of memories of the past decades, this has been a work long overdue.

Excerpt

"Not far away, hundreds crossed a frozen lake, whose trousers got drenched and quickly frozen up while their guns jammed. Scores moved like unpliable chunks of wood and fell halfway through. Impelled by 'Nothing we Chinese communists cannot do,' more followed in a tactical gambit, more human trunks fell." 

~ I Am Going Home

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Jiu Da

For years, Jiu Da has been intrigued by the question of whether the environment makes us who we are or whether we are the ones that shape our environment.

For the good parts of early years, he stubbornly believed that motivation, talent, and effort could change the outcomes. It did not.

It was not until the virus hit while finding himself perching at home that he came to accept that the environment is indeed the hand that shapes human behavior.

It was during this time that he began his first work, drawing from his love in literature, history and a lifetime of seemingly useless yet fascinating knowledge hoarded in the depth of his mind.

Author Links:

Author Page on Publisher's Website • Bluesky • Twitter / X • Instagram

Amazon Author Page • Goodreads

Check out Marguerite: Hell Hath No Fury! by Judith Arnopp

Marguerite:
Hell Hath No Fury!

By Judith Arnopp

Publication Date: June 21st, 2025

Publisher: Judith Arnopp

Pages: 342

Genre: Historical Fiction / Biographical Fiction

Marguerite: Queen of England

From the moment Henry VI's new queen, Marguerite of Anjou, sets foot on English soil she is despised by the English as a foreigner, and blamed for the failures of the hundred years war in France.

 Her enemies impede her role as the king’s consort and when Henry sinks into apparent madness, her bid to become regent is rejected. Marguerite must fight, not only for her own position but to maintain Henry’s possession of the crown. 

The ambitious Duke, Richard of York, seizes control of the country, thrusting Marguerite aside and inflating the mutual hatred between the houses of York and Lancaster. But the queen refuses to relinquish power and fights determinedly for the rights of her son, Edward of Lancaster.

The long and bitter civil conflict, that has come to be known as the War of the Roses, commences.

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Judith Arnopp

Judith Arnopp at Pembroke Castle

A lifelong history enthusiast and avid reader, Judith holds a BA in English / Creative Writing and a Masters in Medieval Studies. She lives on the coast of West Wales where she writes both fiction and non-fiction. She is best known for her novels set in the Medieval and Tudor period, focussing on the perspective of historical women but recently she has written a trilogy from the perspective of Henry VIII himself.

 

Judith is also a founder member of a re-enactment group called The Fyne Companye of Cambria which is when and why she began to experiment with sewing historical garments. She now makes clothes and accessories both for the group and others. She is not a professionally trained sewer but through trial, error and determination has learned how to make authentic looking, if not strictly historically accurate clothing. A non-fiction book about Tudor clothing, How to Dress like a Tudor, was published in 2023 by Pen and Sword.

 

She runs a small seaside holiday let in Aberporth and when she has time for fun, likes to garden and restore antique doll’s houses. You can find her on most social media platforms.

 

Her novels include:

A Song of Sixpence: the story of Elizabeth of York

The Beaufort Chronicle: the life of Lady Margaret Beaufort (three book series)

The Henrician Chronicle: comprising of:

A Matter of Conscience: Henry VIII, the Aragon Years (Book One of The Henrician Chronicle)

A Matter of Faith: Henry VIII, the Days of the Phoenix (Book Two of The Henrician Chronicle)

A Matter of Time: Henry VIII, the Dying of the Light (Book Three of The Henrician Chronicle)

The Kiss of the Concubine: a story of Anne Boleyn

The Winchester Goose: at the court of Henry VIII

Intractable Heart: the story of Katheryn Parr

Sisters of Arden: on the Pilgrimage of Grace

The Heretic Wind: the life of Mary Tudor, Queen of England

Peaceweaver

The Forest Dwellers

The Song of Heledd

The Book of Thornhold

A Daughter of Warwick: the story of Anne Neville, Queen of Richard III

            Marguerite: Hell Hath no Fury!

Connect with Judith Arnopp:

Website • Blog • Twitter • Facebook • Instagram • Bluesky • Threads

Amazon Author Page • BookBub • Pinterest • Goodreads

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