Historical Fiction
September 2025
Recent Releases
The Harvey Girls
by Juliette Fay

In 1926, two new Harvey Girls (waitresses who must be single and between the ages of 18 and 30) are hired on the same day. But both have lied: Charlotte is married to an abusive college professor and Billie is only 15 but needs money to send home. The two secretive roommates are at odds but grow close while completing their extensive training in Kansas and working at the Grand Canyon's El Tovar hotel. For fans of: atmospheric, well-researched novels that center female friendship.
The Art of a Lie
by Laura Shepherd-Robinson

After her husband's violent murder, Hannah Cole still runs her confectionary shop in 1749 London, but money is tighter than ever. She gets a bit of help from a stranger who knew her husband, but Chief Magistrate Henry Fielding thinks she may have been involved in her husband's death, leading her to look for the killer.
When Sleeping Women Wake
by Emma Pei Yin

Set during the Japanese invasion and occupation of Hong Kong in 1941, this moving debut follows three women: a Chinese wife who was unable to birth the son her wealthy husband desired; her maid, who's been like a sister to her for decades; and her beloved daughter. Navigating a new world, each will resist in her own way. Read-alikes: Andrew X. Pham's Twilight Territory; Eve J. Chung's Daughters of Shandong.
The Original
by Nell Stevens

In 1899, 25-year-old Grace Inderwick, who has face blindness, travels with her aunt to Rome to meet someone claiming to be her cousin Charles, thought to have been lost at sea years ago. While Grace ponders growing up with her cold relatives and her remarkable ability to copy paintings, she and others wonder if the man is an imposter hoping to inherit a sizeable English estate. For fans of: captivating, evocative stories about art forgery; Sarah Waters; Emma Donoghue.
The English Masterpiece
by Katherine Reay

At London's Tate Modern Gallery, Lily Summers happily works as powerful curator Diana Gilden's assistant. But after viewing a painting Diana has authenticated at a 1973 Picasso exhibit, Lily blurts out that it's a fake, shocking the crowd and threatening her own career. Digging into the past, Lily tries to uncover the truth. Well-researched and evocative, this compelling novel has intrigue, memorable characters, and a bit of romance. For fans of: Kate Quinn; Fiona Davis.
The Shakespeare Secret
by D.J. Nix

Shakespeare is a woman—three women, in fact, who hire a footloose actor as the face of their writing. When they become suspects in a plot to kill Queen Elizabeth, their secret identity is suddenly at risk—along with the queen’s life—in this imaginative historical novel for fans of Hamnet and The Tower.
Sharpe's Storm
by Bernard Cornwell

The year is 1813. France is a battlefield, and winter shows no mercy. Amidst brutal conditions, Major Richard Sharpe finds himself saddled with an unexpected burden: Rear-Admiral Sir Joel Chase, dispatched by the Admiralty with sealed orders, unshakable confidence, and a frankly terrifying enthusiasm for combat. Sharpe’s mission from Wellington is clear, yet anything but simple: keep Sir Joel alive. Sir Joel could hold the key to defeating Napoleon once and for all. But to pull off his audacious plan, he needs someone who knows how to fight dirty, think fast, and survive the impossible. He needs Sharpe …
The Matchbox Girl
by Alice Jolly

Adelheid Brunner does not speak. She writes and draws instead and her ambition is to own one thousand matchboxes. Her grandmother cannot make sense of this, but Adelheid will stop at nothing to achieve her dream. She makes herself invisible, hiding in cupboards with her pet rat, Franz Joseph, listening in on conversations she can't fully comprehend.
Then she meets Dr Asperger, a man who lets children play all day and who recognises the importance of matchboxes. He invites Adelheid to come and live at the Vienna paediatric clinic, where she and other children like herself will live under observation. But the date is 1938 and the place is Vienna – a city of political instability, a place of increasing fear and violence. When the Nazis march into the city, a new world is created and difficult choices must be made.
 
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