Best Historical Fiction

  Daughter of the Titanic sheds light on Helen Melville Smith and the grief she dealt with after losing her father - Captain Edward John Smith who went down with the Titanic in April 1912. The story is set in England, and alternates between two timelines 1972 when Dr. Catherine Haynes from the History of Art department at Oxford is researching how women are represented after catastrophe. Thus, she approaches Helen Melville Russell Cooke for an interview. The story goes back to 1912, sinking of Titanic, when Helen relates her own story. Her feelings are very raw and heartfelt. She keeps waiting for an answer, the truth, as she keeps hearing rumors of her father surviving Titanic and living on a different continent. She misses her father while hearing some villain comments about him; headlines questioning if her father was a hero or reckless soul. It pains her even more not knowing if he truly sank with the ship or not. Ten years later, she gets married, but it’s more of a mutu...

  The setting for the Last Summer at Maine Chance is based on reality. In 1934, Elizabeth Arden opened the Maine Chance, the first destination spa in America.  She chose Maine as its natural beauty appealed to the city people who searched for peace and quiet. The lavish estate attracted wealthy guests. The real treatments and events of the time are woven into the novel. The Maine Turnpike project was a real project which opens the story with protagonist Cynthia Proctor in 1954. She is chosen to take part in assisting on a projected economic impact of the planned Maine Turnpike expansion on tourism. Her name doesn’t appear under the article as women are not seen fit to study economic major at the time. The school doesn’t renew her scholarship and the paid position she hoped to win by writing the article is given to a boy with better connections. She doesn’t get much support from her parents as her mother wants her to get married instead of studying major that is meant for m...