All clear

By Connie Willis

In Blackout, award-winning author Connie Willis returned to the time-traveling future of 2060 - the setting for several of her most celebrated works - and sent three Oxford historians to World War II England: Michael Davies, intent on observing heroism during the Miracle of Dunkirk; Merope Ward, studying children evacuated from London; and Polly Churchill, posing as a shopgirl in the middle of the Blitz. But when the three become unexpectedly trapped in 1940, they struggle not only to find their way home but to survive as Hitler's bombers attempt to pummel London into submission. Now the situation has grown even more dire. Small discrepancies in the historical record seem to indicate that one or all of them have somehow affected the past, changing the outcome of the war. The belief that the past can be observed but never altered has always been a core belief of time-travel theory - but suddenly it seems that the theory is horribly, tragically wrong. Meanwhile, in 2060 Oxford, the historians' supervisor, Mr. Dunworthy, and seventeen-year-old Colin Templer, who nurses a powerful crush on Polly, are engaged in a frantic and seemingly impossible struggle of their own - to find three missing needles in the haystack of history. Told with compassion, humor, and an artistry both uplifting and devastating, All Clear is more than just the triumphant culmination of the adventure that began with Blackout. It's Connie Willis's most humane, heartfelt novel yet - a clear-eyed celebration of faith, love, and the quiet, ordinary acts of heroism and sacrifice too often overlooked by history.  TitlePeek

Crusade

By John Wilson

This riveting tale begins in 1209, as zealous Catholic knights prepare to storm the walls of the heretic Cathar city of Beziers. "Kill them all," they are told. "God will know his own." The Crusaders took the advice to heart and slaughtered 10,000 people. Two childhood friends find themselves trapped in the horror. One, Peter, is an assistant to the mysterious priest who leads the Crusade; the other, John, with the help of a heretic woman, barely escapes the doomed city with his life. As the brutal war against the Cathars expands, Peter and John are caught up on opposite sides of a search for a secret that might change the world.  TitlePeek

Grail

By John Wilson

In Crusade (The Heretic's Secret, Book I), John Wilson introduced readers to a world literally on fire. As childhood friends John and Peter struggled to make sense of the upheaval around them, zealous Catholic knights rampaged across France, burning Cathar heretics and the cities they called home. Torn apart by their increasingly different beliefs, the two young men found themselves on opposite sides of a search for a secret that has the power to change the world. In Grail (Book II) the search continues. Cities are falling to the brutal northern Crusaders and the smoke of the Cathar funeral pyres drifts across the land as Peter, John, and John's friend Adso set off on journeys into the unknown. Adso takes to the hills with a band of soldiers, intent on revenge against Oddo and the Falcons. John and Isabella travel to Al-andalus in search of peace and the ancient wisdom preserved by the Moors. Peter travels to Rome, following a clue that Arnaud Aumery believes might lead to the mysterious Cathar treasure.  None of the three quests turns out as expected. Adso's band is ambushed and he is forced to wander the country alone until he meets a young monk who offers him a remarkable, yet dangerous, way to get back at his enemies. John and Isabella's peaceful life of learning is cruelly disrupted as the Crusade spills south and they are caught in a battle that will determine the future of Al-andalus. Peter finds clues, but they only lead him farther away and deeper into a mystery that is becoming ever more complex.  In the end, however, all three men unknowingly find a piece of a puzzle, a puzzle that will only become clear if the pieces are ever brought together.  TitlePeek

Dreadnought

By Cherie Priest

Nurse Mercy Lynch is elbows deep in bloody laundry at a war hospital in Richmond, Virginia, when Clara Barton comes bearing bad news: Mercy’s husband has died in a POW camp. On top of that, a telegram from the west coast declares that her estranged father is gravely injured, and he wishes to see her. Mercy sets out toward the Mississippi River. Once there, she’ll catch a train over the Rockies and—if the telegram can be believed—be greeted in Washington Territory by the sheriff, who will take her to see her father in Seattle.  Reaching the Mississippi is a harrowing adventure by dirigible and rail through war-torn border states. When Mercy finally arrives in St. Louis, the only Tacoma-bound train is pulled by a terrifying Union-operated steam engine called the Dreadnought.  Reluctantly, Mercy buys a ticket and climbs aboard.  What ought to be a quiet trip turns deadly when the train is beset by bushwhackers, then vigorously attacked by a band of Rebel soldiers. The train is moving away from battle lines into the vast, unincorporated west, so Mercy can’t imagine why they’re so interested. Perhaps the mysterious cargo secreted in the second and last train cars has something to do with it?  Mercy is just a frustrated nurse who wants to see her father before he dies.  But she’ll have to survive both Union intrigue and Confederate opposition if she wants to make it off the Dreadnought alive.  TitlePeek

Matched

By Ally Condle

Cassia has always trusted the Society to make the right choices for her: what to read, what to watch, what to believe. So when Xander's face appears on-screen at her Matching ceremony, Cassia knows with complete certainty that he is her ideal mate . . . until she sees Ky Markham's face flash for an instant before the screen fades to black. The Society tells her it's a glitch, a rare malfunction, and that she should focus on the happy life she's destined to lead with Xander. But Cassia can't stop thinking about Ky, and as they slowly fall in love, Cassia begins to doubt the Society's infallibility and is faced with an impossible choice: between Xander and Ky, between the only life she's known and a path that no one else has dared to follow.  TitlePeek