Open Books Challenge 2025: A Book Set in the Victorian Era (1837-1901)

Updated December 31, 2024
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Victoria The Queen: An Intimate Biography of the Woman Who Ruled an Empire
Baird, Julia.
Paper Book
The true story for fans of the PBS Masterpiece series Victoria, this page-turning biography reveals the real woman behind the myth: a bold, glamorous, unbreakable queen--a Victoria for our times. Drawing on previously unpublished papers, this stunning portrait is a story of love and...
The Wildes : a novel in five acts
Bayard, Louis
Paper Book
From the bestselling author of The Pale Blue Eye, Louis Bayard, comes Atonement meets The Paris Wife, a brilliantly original, profoundly empathetic story about Oscar Wilde's wife Constance and their two sons in the aftermath of the famous playwright's imprisonment for...
My dear Henry : a Jekyll & Hyde remix
Bayron, Kalynn
Paper Book
A young man searches for the reason behind his best friend's disappearance and the arrival of a magnetic stranger in this haunting retelling of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde, perfect for fans of Tiffany D. Jackson and Mexican Gothic. "Addressing invisibility, power, and...
Of manners and murder
Hastings, Anastasia
Paper Book
Of Manners and Murder is the first in the delightful new Dear Miss Hermione mystery series from Anastasia Hastings. "Evokes the shocking revelations of Wilkie Collins, the social acuity of Jane Austen and the comic melodrama of Oscar Wilde."--Wall Street...
The case of the murderous Dr. Cream : the hunt for a Victorian era serial killer
Jobb, Dean
Paper Book
In the span of fifteen years, Dr. Thomas Neill Cream murdered as many as ten people in the United States, Britain, and Canada. Poison was his weapon of choice. Structured around the doctor's London murder trial in 1892, The Case of the Murderous Dr. Cream exposes the blind trust given to medical...
The dinosaurs of Waterhouse Hawkins : an illuminating history of Mr. Waterhouse Hawkins, artist and lecturer
Kerley, Barbara.
Paper Book
This extraordinary true story introduces readers to the unforgettable Waterhouse Hawkins: Victorian artist and visionary who built the world's first life-size models of dinosaurs!Can you fathom a time when almost no one in the world knew what a dinosaur looked like? That was true in the mid...
Ana Mari?a and the fox
De la Rosa, Liana
Paper Book
"Pleasingly subversive."--New York Times Book Review "A perfect mix of slow-burn romance, geopolitical maneuvering and sisterly antics."--The Washington Post One of Library Journal's Best Romances of 2023! A BookList Editor's Pick of 2023!
Stalking Jack the Ripper
Maniscalco, Kerri
Paper Book
This deliciously haunting #1 New York Times bestseller and deliciously creepy horror novel has a storyline inspired by the Ripper murders and an unexpected, blood-chilling conclusion. Seventeen-year-old Audrey Rose Wadsworth was born a lord's...
The nightingale affair : a novel
Mason, Timothy
Paper Book
Who is stalking Florence Nightingale and her nurses? Is it the legendary Beast of the Crimean, or someone closer to home? In 1855, Britain and France are fighting to keep the Russians from snatching the Crimean Peninsula from the Ottoman Empire, and Nightingale, a wealthy young society woman, has...
The siren of Sussex
Matthews, Mimi
Paper Book
A PopSugar, Oprah Daily, and BookBub Most Anticipated Romance of 2022! Victorian high society's most daring equestrienne finds love and an unexpected ally in her fight for independence in the strong arms of London's most sought after and devastatingly handsome half-Indian tailor....
Marvelous Mattie : how Margaret E. Knight became an inventor
McCully, Emily Arnold.
Paper Book
With her sketchbook labeled My Inventions and her father's toolbox, Mattie could make almost anything - toys, sleds, and a foot warmer. When she was just twelve years old, Mattie designed a metal guard to prevent shuttles from shooting off textile looms and injuring workers. As an adult,...
Our hideous progeny : a novel
McGill, C. E.
Paper Book
"A gripping Gothic tale of grief and ambition, passion and intrigue." -- Jess Kidd, author of The Night Ship "An immersive blend of historical and science fiction brims with surprises and dark delights. . . . An incisive exploration of women's rights within the field of science....
Divine Lola : a true story of scandal and celebrity
Morató, Cristina
Paper Book
La apasionante biografía de Lola Montes como la falsa española que quiso ser reina. Muchos han oído hablar de Lola Montes, pero pocos saben en realidad quién fue: una bailarina aventurera y gran viajera que encandiló a toda una época, una mujer adelantada a su tiempo que vivió...
The London Séance Society
Penner, Sarah
Paper Book
Don't miss THE AMALFI CURSE! Sarah's next spellbinding book to unearth a centuries-old curse, powerful witchcraft, and perilous love on the high seas.  "An atmospheric and evocative whodunnit steeped in suspense, mystery, and illusion." --Nita Prose, #1...
Maude Horton's glorious revenge
Pook, Lizzie
Paper Book
A young woman searches for the truth about her sister, who boarded a ship headed to the frozen Arctic and never returned in this "engrossing historical mystery" (The Washington Post) from the author of The Secret Lives of Murderers' Wives and Moonlight and...
The midnight hour
Read, Benjamin (Children's story writer)
Paper Book
For fans of portal fantasies like Jessica Townsend's Nevermoor, Colin Meloy's Wildwood, and The Spiderwick Chronicles by Tony DiTerlizzi and Holly Black, and unlike so many other fantasies that introduce readers to a world of enchantment and wonder, The Midnight Hour is one...
The library thief : a novel
Shenjé, Kuchenga
Paper Book
A strikingly original and absorbing mystery about a white-passing bookbinder in Victorian England and the secrets lurking on the estate where we she works, for fans of Fingersmith and The Confessions of Frannie Langton The library is under lock and...
The fraud
Smith, Zadie
Paper Book
The New York Times bestseller * One of the New York Times 10 Best Books of the Year * One of NPR's Best Books of the Year * Named a Best Book of the Year by Publishers Weekly and BookPage * One of Oprah Daily's Best Novels of 2023 "[A] brilliant...
The case of the missing marquess : an Enola Holmes mystery
Springer, Nancy.
Paper Book
When Enola Holmes, the much younger sister of detective Sherlock Holmes, discovers her mother has disappeared--on her 14th birthday nonetheless--she knows she alone can find her. Disguising herself as a grieving widow, Enola sets out to the heart of London to uncover her mother's...
The spirit bares its teeth
White, Andrew Joseph
Paper Book
INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER! A Stonewall Honor Book in Young Adult Literature! A blood-soaked and nauseating triumph that cuts like a scalpel and reads like your darkest nightmare. New York Times bestselling author Andrew Joseph White...
Where the dead wait
Wilkes, Ally
Paper Book
"Haunting...Ominous." --The New York Times Book Review A "wonderfully chilling" (Christopher Golden, New York Times bestselling author) polar gothic about a Victorian explorer in search of his lost shipmate-and redemption-from the Bram Stoker Award-nominated author of...
Murder in postscript
Winters, Mary
Paper Book

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