Lovers of Historical Fiction:
Unforgettable heroes who changed the world.
Vanessa Riley’s historical fiction brings overlooked women of the past to the center of sweeping, immersive stories of power, freedom, survival, love, and resistance.
From the pirate ports and contested seas of the seventeenth-century Caribbean to revolutionary Haiti and the courts and drawing rooms of nineteenth-century Europe, these sagas illuminate Black women and women of color who navigated empires, challenged the boundaries placed before them, and shaped history.
Grounded in extensive historical research and inspired by extraordinary lives, these novels offer a glimpse of the people, lives, and histories too often left of the traditional record.
Vanessa invites you to spend a moment with these women who refused to fade into the background and rose to champion a better way. Don’t let history erase them.