Historical Fiction

Recent historical fiction releases.
Updated July 23, 2025
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The Briar Club
Kate Quinn
Paper Book
"Quinn evocatively balances the outward cheerfulness of the 1950s with historical observations exploring racism, misogyny, homophobia and political persecution in this sharply drawn, gripping novel." - People Magazine The New York Times bestselling author of The Diamond...
The Queens of Crime
Marie Benedict
Paper Book
INSTANT USA TODAY BESTSELLER AND INDIE BESTSELLER! From the New York Times bestselling author of The Mystery of Mrs. Christie--a thrilling story of the five greatest women writers of the Golden Age of Mystery and their bid to solve a real-life murder.<...
These Days
Lucy Caldwell
Paper Book
"Adroit, precise storytelling, atmospheric and satisfying; These Days is a novel of real substance." --Hilary Mantel, Booker Prize-winning author of Wolf Hall WINNER OF THE WALTER SCOTT PRIZE FOR HISTORICAL FICTION 2023 One of Lit...
The Stolen Queen
Fiona Davis
Paper Book
*A New York Times Bestseller* From New York Times bestselling author Fiona Davis, an utterly addictive new novel that will transport you from New York City's most glamorous party to the labyrinth streets of Cairo and back. Egypt, 1936: When anthropology...
The Listeners
Maggie Stiefvater
Paper Book
National Bestseller · An Oprah Daily Best Summer Read of 2025 · A Christian Science Monitor Best Book of June "A wonderfully observed--actually, flat-out wonderful--historical novel." --The Wall Street Journal "Richly imagined . . ....
The Pretender
Jo Harkin
Paper Book
Set in the tumultuous period of the Tudors' ascent, The Pretender brings to life the little-known story of Lambert Simnel. From humble beginnings as a peasant boy, Lambert's life takes an astonishing turn when, at just ten years old, he becomes a claimant to the English throne as one of...
Where the Rivers Merge: A Novel
Mary Alice Monroe
Paper Book
USA TODAY BESTSELLER "Wade into the Lowcountry of South Carolina with Mary Alice Monroe's sweeping Southern epic."--People "This is book club fiction at its finest!" --Lisa Wingate, #1 New York Times bestselling author From the New York Times bestselling author, the...
Tough Luck
Sandra Dallas
Paper Book
In this homage to True Grit, a young woman makes a perilous journey west in 1863 in search of her gold-mining father. After their mother dies, Haidie Richards and her younger brother, Boots, are put to work in an orphanage. Their father left four years earlier to find a...
My Name Is Emilia del Valle
Isabel Allende
Paper Book
NATIONAL BESTSELLER * In this "stunning" (People), "riveting" (Entertainment Weekly) historical novel, a young writer journeys to South America to uncover the truth about her father--and herself. "All of Allende's books, My Name Is Emilia del Valle...
Polostan
Neal Stephenson
Paper Book
From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Termination Shock and Cryptonomicon, the first installment in a monumental new series--an expansive historical epic of intrigue and international espionage, presaging the dawn of the Atomic Age. The first installment in Neal...
Death at a Highland Wedding
Kelley Armstrong
Paper Book
Death at a Highland Wedding is the fourth installment in New York Times bestselling author Kelley Armstrong's gripping Rip Through Time Novels. After slipping 150 years into the past, modern-day homicide detective Mallory Atkinson has embraced her new life in...
The Paris Express
Emma Donoghue
Paper Book
NATIONAL BESTSELLER From the bestselling and "soul-stirring" (Oprah Daily) author of Room, a sweeping historical "nail-biter" (People) of a novel about an infamous 1895 disaster at the Paris Montparnasse train station. Based on an 1895...
The Wildes: A Novel in Five Acts
Louis Bayard
Paper Book
In this singularly powerful novel, bestselling author Louis Bayard brings Oscar Wilde's wife Constance and two sons out from the shadows of history and creates a vivid and poignant story of secrets, loss, and love.   In September of 1892, Oscar Wilde and his...
Austen at Sea
Natalie Jenner
Paper Book
Two pairs of siblings, devotees of Jane Austen, find their lives transformed by a visit to England and Sir Francis Austen, her last surviving brother and keeper of a long-suppressed, secret legacy. In Boston, 1865, Charlotte and Henrietta Stevenson, daughters of a Massachusetts...
The Story She Left Behind
Patti Callahan Henry
Paper Book
INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER "Brilliant, riveting, so beautifully written, impossible to put down." --Louise Penny, #1 New York Times bestselling author Inspired by a true literary mystery, New York Times bestselling author of the...
How to Dodge a Cannonball
Dennard Dayle
Paper Book
A New York Times Editor's Choice PIck How to Dodge a Cannonball is a razor-sharp satire that dives into the heart of the Civil War, hilariously questioning the essence of the fight, not just for territory, but for the soul of America. ...
Christmas with the Queen
Hazel Gaynor
Paper Book
'Tis the season! The Crown meets When Harry Met Sally in the latest heartwarming historical novel from Hazel Gaynor and Heather Webb, bestselling authors of Last Christmas in Paris, Meet Me in Monaco, and Three Words for Goodbye. December 1952. While the young Queen...
Harlem Rhapsody
Victoria Christopher Murray
Paper Book
In 1919, as civil unrest grips the county, in a flourishing part of New York City called Harlem, something special is stirring. Here, the New Negro is rising and Black pride is evident everywhere... in music, theatre, fashion and the arts. And there on stage in the center of this renaissance is...
The Boxcar Librarian
Brianna Labuskes
Inspired by true events, a thrilling Depression-era novel from the author of The Librarian of Burned Books about a woman's quest to uncover a mystery surrounding a local librarian and the Boxcar Library--a converted mining train that brought books to isolated rural towns in Montana. ...
The Booklover's Library
Madeline Martin
Paper Book
"A must-read for booklovers." --Chanel Cleeton, New York Times bestselling author of Next Year in Havana A heartwarming story about a mother and daughter in wartime England and the power of books that bring them together, by the bestselling author of The...
Nicked: A Novel
M. T. Anderson
Paper Book
AN NPR NOTABLE BOOK OF THE YEAR * From the award-winning and bestselling author of Feed comes a raucous, slyly funny, and delightfully queer work of historical fantasy, based on a bizarre but true quest to steal the mystical corpse of a long-dead saint "[An] ...
Good Dirt
Charmaine Wilkerson
Paper Book
NATIONAL BESTSELLER * The daughter of an affluent Black family pieces together the connection between a childhood tragedy and a beloved heirloom in this moving novel from the bestselling author of Black Cake, a Read with Jenna Book Club Pick "Engrossing . . . Wilkerson...
The Eights
Joanna Miller
Paper Book
They knew they were changing history. They didn't know they would change each other. Following the unlikely friendship of four women in the first female class at Oxford, their unshakeable bond in the face of male contempt, and their coming of age in a world...
The Lotus Shoes
Jane Yang
Paper Book
NATIONAL BESTSELLER "Brilliantly written, masterful storytelling, and hard to put down. This story will stay with me for a very, very long time." --Heather Morris, #1 bestselling author of The Tattooist of Auschwitz An empowering, uplifting tale...
The Sirens
Emilia Hart
Paper Book
INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * A GOOD MORNING AMERICA BOOK CLUB PICK * #1 LibraryReads Pick * Indie Next Pick A spellbinding novel about sisters separated by centuries, but bound together by the sea, from the author of the...
The Stolen Life of Colette Marceau: A Novel
Kristin Harmel
Paper Book
INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER Kristin Harmel, the New York Times bestselling author who "is the best there is at sweeping historical drama" (Kelly Harms, author of The Seven Day Switch), returns with an electrifying new novel about two jewel thieves, a...
The Jackal's Mistress
Chris Bohjalian
Paper Book
INSTANT NATIONAL BESTSELLER * #1 BOSTON GLOBE BESTSELLER * USA TODAY BESTSELLER * In this Civil War love story, inspired by a real-life friendship across enemy lines, the wife of a missing Confederate soldier discovers a wounded Yankee officer and must decide what she's willing to risk...
Lady Macbeth
Ava Reid
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * From #1 New York Times bestselling author Ava Reid comes a "masterful reimagining" (Publishers Weekly) of Lady Macbeth, Shakespeare's most famous villainess, giving her a voice, a past, and a power that transforms the story men have written for her...
The Antidote
Karen Russell
Paper Book
NATIONAL BESTSELLER * THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW EDITORS' CHOICE * From Pulitzer finalist, MacArthur Fellowship recipient, and bestselling author of Swamplandia! and Vampires in the Lemon Grove Karen Russell: a gripping dust bowl epic about five...
A Map to Paradise: A Novel
Susan Meissner
Paper Book
With her name on the Hollywood blacklist and her life on hold, out-of-work starlet Melanie Cole has little choice in company. There is her next-door neighbor, successful screenwriter Elwood, but his agoraphobia allows only for short conversations through the windows. He's the closest thing she has...
The Queen of Fives
Alex Hay
Paper Book
A mysterious heiress sets her sights on an illustrious family and nothing is quite what it seems in London high society in this clever novel from the bestselling author of The Housekeepers "Audacious, cunning, quick-witted--this is a jewel of a book from the seriously...
Last Twilight in Paris
Pam Jenoff
Paper Book
THE INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER! "A fast-paced and vibrant wartime tale of holding on to love against the odds and learning to fight for the truth." ­­-Kristin Harmel, New York Times bestselling author of The Paris Daughter ...
Let's Call Her Barbie
Renée Rosen
Paper Book
When Ruth Handler walks into the boardroom of the toy company she co-founded and pitches her idea for a doll unlike any other, she knows what she's setting in motion. It might just take the world a moment to catch up. In 1956, the only dolls on the market for little girls let them pretend to be...
The King's Messenger
Susanna Kearsley
Paper Book
"A tempest of treachery and romance." --Entertainment Weekly "I've loved every one of Susanna's books! She has bedrock research and a butterfly's delicate touch with characters--sure recipe for historical fiction that sucks you in and won't let go!"--Diana Gabaldon, #1 New York Times...
One Final Turn
Ashley Weaver
Paper Book
The fifth and final installment in the Electra McDonnell series brings safecracker Ellie on a mission across World War II-era Europe to Lisbon, Portugal to rescue a key group of escaped POWs. Ellie McDonnell is about to embark on her most perilous mission yet: go to Lisbon,...
The Unexpected Diva: Captivating Biographical Fiction Featuring a Forgotten African American Star, Perfect for Winter 2025, Discover Eliza's Voice and Legacy
Tiffany L. Warren
Paper Book
"Beautifully crafted and captivating.This triumphant tale is sure to be an instant classic."--Victoria Christopher Murray, New York Times bestselling co-author of The Personal Librarian "How do we not all know the name of Elizabeth Taylor Greenfield? The story of this brilliant singer -- a...
Hold Strong: A Novel
Robert Dugoni
Paper Book
From Robert Dugoni, Jeff Langholz, and Chris Crabtree comes an epic and inspiring novel--based on true events--about love, heroism, and resilience during the darkest chapters of World War II. Sam Carlson is a projectionist in small-town Minnesota, where fantasies unspool in glorious...
Eleanore of Avignon
Elizabeth DeLozier
Paper Book
A Library Reads Pick! An Aardvark Book Club Pick! Rich with unforgettable characters, gorgeously drawn, and full of captivating historical drama, Eleanore of Avignon is the story of a healer who risks her life, her freedom, and everything she holds dear to protect...
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