Best 18th/19th Century Books – Explore Top Reads in 18th/19th Century

The Salem Trials: Chronicles of Nightwolf - Book 1 (The Last Verdant)

The Salem TrialsInnocence burns. Truth hides in shadow. And the past bleeds into prophecy.1692: As hysteria tightens its grip on Salem Village, the accused whisper ancient names not found in any Puritan sermon. Beneath the cries of witchcraft lies something older—a buried covenant, a forbidden bloodline, and a god who forged balance in fire and shadow. As spectral afflictions sweep through the town, four elemental bloodlines awaken in secret, each bound by a divine Accord... and each harboring dangerous truths.At the center stands Sister Thorne, a veiled stranger whose presence frays the veil between realms. Her miracles breed dread. Her whispers unmake reason. And her purpose is not salva...

Cattywampus: A Savage Stalemate

The abolitionist Garretts and the Slaver McCunes are border state natives still haunted by the moral ghost of the Garrett patriarch, Valentine, and the evil machinations of the McCune patriarch, Jake. Together, or on their own, family members experience, Slaughter’s Mountain, an Indian uprising on the Plains, a German uprising in Texas, as well as the battles of Second Manassas, Antietam, and Fredericksburg.They enter common homes and glittering mansions. They interact with historical characters as well as fictional, and along their journey, they visit the capitals of Richmond and Washington, allowing you the reader to peer behind the curtain, to participate in historical decision-making.I...

The Crack Widens: Irreconcilable Differences

In 1861, Lincoln’s election caused eleven Southern states to break with the Union. The peculiar institution of slavery, its continuation and spread into the Western Territories became the sticking point.The Garrett family resides in Western Maryland, a border state that lies between the warring parties. There, opinions are as divided as the country, and emotions run hot. Because of their abolitionist leanings, the Garretts have their homestead burned. They have lost their patriarch, Valentine. His brother, James, falls at Bull Run. Their friend and Mennonite neighbor, Aaron, is lost at Ball’s Bluff. In the midst of it all, Toby, a little slave girl is rescued and taken in by the family a...

Choosing Sides: Blood is Spilled

The Garrett Family faces an alarming situation. War is declared and they’re in thethick of it. On the border between the Confederacy and the Union, Marylandfamilies live on both sides of their brand-new, disconcerting border. Friends andneighbors are forced to take sides.The reader witnesses unrest in California and conflict in Arizona. Back East, greensoldiers flock to their flags and tragedy strikes at the Union debacle, Ball’s Bluff.Soon after, we stand with Confederate militia to watch the Union beaten again inthe first Battle of Antietam.Burned out for ministering to runaways, the Garrets sell their land and move inwith relatives closer to the Mason-Dixon. Amid it all, a slave girl ...

Fire-Eaters

The Garretts, their friends, and family tell our American story-the story we didn't hear about in school.In Fire-Eaters , the second book in the Snakebit series, John Poniske skillfully shows how our Dis-United States came to be on a war footing. The humor, the humanity, and the horror blend in a tightly woven tale, as historical as it is fictional.Geoffrey Garrett acts as his family's conscience. Geoff's dead father, Valentine, acts as Geoff's compass in a world gone snakebit-crazy. The Garret and McCune families introduced in book one Prelude to War live in Maryland, a border state torn between abolitionists to the North and slavers to the South. The McCunes are slavers, the Garretts are n...

Snakebit: Prelude to War

The Western Maryland, Garret family, struggle to maintain their farm as their neighbors argue the slavery issue. They live in a border state where folks take both sides and emotions run hot. Their stoic matriarch, known only as "Mother" holds the family together in the absence of her dead husband. The deceased patriarch, Valentine, was a giant of a man both in stature and character. He acts as the family conscience and mentor throughout the novel. It is his admonition that people who get snakebit think and act crazy which is how he viewed the state of the country when he died. Gabe the eldest and an adventurer, has wandered off to Bleeding Kansas. This has left taciturn Geoffrey, the spittin...

Snakebit: Prelude to War

The Western Maryland, Garret family, struggle to maintain their farm as their neighbors argue the slavery issue. They live in a border state where folks take both sides and emotions run hot. Their stoic matriarch, known only as "Mother" holds the family together in the absence of her dead husband. The deceased patriarch, Valentine, was a giant of a man both in stature and character. He acts as the family conscience and mentor throughout the novel. It is his admonition that people who get snakebit think and act crazy which is how he viewed the state of the country when he died. Gabe the eldest and an adventurer, has wandered off to Bleeding Kansas. This has left taciturn Geoffrey, the spittin...

The Mysterious Marquis

When Lady Marianne Bentley arrives in town to find out that her close friend has disappeared without an apparent trace, she is stunned to find no one seems to be doing anything about it. She visits the girl's parents and finds them less than enthusiastic about an all out investigation. She decides that she will find her friend in spite of them.She is surprised to find out that the last person to see her was her neighbor the Marquis (Thomas), with whom she has never been cordial. In the hope of solving the mystery, she decides to become better acquainted with him.However, her plan falters when she becomes beguiled by his charm. Will she discover that he had a hand in her friend's abduction, o...

The Harbinger

The story takes place hundred and fifty years ago on a distant island in the Atlantic. Family feud with his father has convinced Sheldon to relocate on a distant island in the North Atlantic. Sheldon and his family are newcomers on the small French island off the coast of Morocco. From being a carpenter, Sheldon transforms himself into a respectable rancher and entrepreneur. Though an Englishman, he manages to befriend the predominantly French inhabitants of the island. The small island is run by an egoistic Frenchman named Jean Dominique. He keeps the residents of the island happy with the wealth acquired from a pirate chief. The Mayor brings in a French opera team for the Carnival which is...

Song for Someone

Song for Someone is book 1 of the Sherlock Holmes and Irene Ader Mysteries,. The story begins seven years after Sherlock Holmes and Irene Adler's first encounter in " A Scandal in Bohemia". It is told from the POV of Irene Adler, Sherlock Holmes, and their daughter, Charlotte Sapori, who, upon reading her mother's secret diaries, discovers what brought her parents together and how they stayed together for over thirty years despite battling the odds. This novel was a Finalist at The Chanticleer International Book Awards-The Chatelaine.

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Fiction

Non-Fiction

The Salem Trials: Chronicles of Nightwolf - Book 1 (The Last Verdant)

Cattywampus: A Savage Stalemate

The Crack Widens: Irreconcilable Differences

Choosing Sides: Blood is Spilled

Fire-Eaters

Snakebit: Prelude to War

Snakebit: Prelude to War

The Mysterious Marquis

The Harbinger

Song for Someone