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Historical Fiction - August 2025 |
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| Typewriter Beach : A Novel by Meg Waite ClaytonSet in Carmel-by-the-Sea and 1950s Hollywood, 'Typewriter Beach' is a story of the unlikely friendship between an Oscar-nominated screenwriter and a young actress hoping to be Alfred Hitchcock's new star. |
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Crossfire
by Wilbur A Smith
In 1943, British spy Saffron Courtney sails to New York on a mission to rally support for the war effort while secretly hunting a Nazi spy ring within the British Embassy in the latest addition to the series following Cloudburst
Series: Courtney (25)
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| The Stolen Life of Colette Marceau by Kristin HarmelIn Nazi-occupied France, Colette Marceau's mother is executed while her four-year-old sister disappears and is later found dead. Trained by her mother, Colette becomes a jewel thief, targeting the bad to give to the good, and in 2018 Boston, she's still working when a special bracelet linked to her sister appears in a museum. Elderly Colette seeks answers, hoping to finally learn what happened decades ago in this sweeping dual-timeline tale.
Read-alike: Pam Jenoff's Last Twilight in Paris. |
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The Secret Book Society
by Madeline Martin
Set in Victorian London, 'The Secret Book Society' traces the lives of four women and the clandestine book club that frees them from the constraints of their husbands and homes.
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| Days of Light by Megan HunterOn Easter Sunday, 1938, 19-year-old Ivy is questioning her path in life when her older brother goes missing while swimming at their English estate, reshaping her world. Taking place on this and five other significant days in Ivy's life, this thoughtful novel follows her as she grows close to her brother's fiancée, marries, has children, and makes changes in her later years.
Read-alikes: Yael van der Wouden's The Safekeep; Virginia Woolf's novels. |
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Bad Juliet
by Giles Blunt
Recently jilted by his fiancée, Paul Gascoyne takes a job as a tutor to the patients at the Trudeau Sanatorium in upstate New York. There, in the icebound beauty of the Adirondack Mountains, he finds himself drawn to Sarah Ballard, a beautiful but enigmatic young woman, traumatized by her past aboard the ill-fated Lusitania. To rouse her out of her gloom, Paul encourages her to write a memoir.As Paul reads her words, it gradually becomes clear that Sarah's memories are a tangle of truth and fiction that he can't begin to unravel. And yet he cannot overcome his attraction to her. When a terrible relapse leaves her worried that she has little time left, Sarah begs Paul to be the one person in the world who will truly know her.
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| Tyrant by Conn IgguldenIn 50 CE Rome, Agrippina has skillfully maneuvered her way to power by becoming Emperor Claudius' fourth wife and now works to ensure her position and that of her son, Nero, by manipulating Claudius into adopting him. This cinematic, action-packed 2nd in a trilogy follows last year's Nero; the final book, Inferno, is due April 2026.
Read-alike: Margaret George's Nero novels; Steven Saylor's historical fiction. |
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Typewriter Beach : A Novel
by Meg Waite Clayton
Set in Carmel-by-the-Sea and 1950s Hollywood, 'Typewriter Beach' is a story of the unlikely friendship between an Oscar-nominated screenwriter and a young actress hoping to be Alfred Hitchcock's new star.
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| Wayward Girls by Susan WiggsThis moving novel of survival, friendship, and redemption follows six teenage girls at an abusive Catholic reform school in 1968 Buffalo, New York, who have been sent there due to pregnancy, lesbianism, or to protect them from family members. Based on a real place, this character-driven novel also revisits the girls in later years.
For fans of: Claire Keegan's Small Things Like These; Colson Whitehead's The Nickel Boys; V.S. Alexander's The Magdalen Girls. |
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Under the Stars : A Novel
by Beatriz Williams
"When a daughter and her famous mother return to Winthrop Island to confront their complicated past, they discover a secret trove of paintings that connect them to a mysterious woman who vanished on a luxury steamship two centuries earlier. From the New York Times bestselling author of Husbands & Lovers comes an epic tale of family legacy, love, and truths that echo down generations"
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L.A. Women
by Ella Berman
In 1960s L.A., writer and Hollywood outsider Lane becomes envious when socialite and fellow writer Gala gains fame; ten years later she betrays Gala by writing a successful book based on her life—her only problem is Gala's now been missing for months.
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Mrs. Endicott's Splendid Adventure
by Rhys Bowen
Blindsided by betrayal in pre-WWII England, a woman charts a daring new course in this captivating tale of resilience, friendship, and new love.
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Dear Miss Lake : A Novel
by A. J. Pearce
During wartime, advice columnist Emmy Lake and the Woman's Friend staff relocate to the countryside, where Emmy balances rural life, a looming wedding and the possibility of war correspondence in the fourth novel of the series following Mrs. Porter Calling.
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The Guest Children
by Patrick Tarr
In this debut novel, Randall Sturgess is hired to track down two children who were sent to live with their aunt and uncle in Northern Ontario during WWII. Plagued by nightmares and the feeling that he is being watched, he starts to poke into the secrets of the aunt and uncle and a group of permanent guests who all refuse to help, searching the woods and lake for signs of the children.
Sturgess grew up in Vancouver, BC, and Edmonton, AB, and now lives in Toronto, ON.
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Dusk
by Robbie Arnott
In the distant highlands, a puma named Dusk is killing shepherds. Down in the lowlands, twins Iris and Floyd are out of work, money, and friends. When they hear that a bounty has been placed on Dusk, they decide to join the hunt. As they journey up into the highlands, they discover there's far more to the land and people of than they imagined. And as they close in on their prey, they're forced to reckon with conflicts both ancient and deeply personal.
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Our last Vineyard summer
by Brooke Lea Foster
'Our Last Vineyard Summer' is a captivating new novel set in 1965 and 1978 about a graduate student who returns with her sisters to their family’s summer home on Martha’s Vineyard and begins to unravel old family secrets.
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The Venetian Heretic
by Christian Cameron
Venice is alive with magic as audiences are being transported, for the first time, by the power of the Opera. But beneath it all: espionage, organized crime, and murder. Swordsman Richard Hughes is plunged into the thick of the murkiest, most dangerous European politics, at a moment when someone is trying to destroy the opera, and Venice itself.
Christian Cameron lives in Toronto, ON.
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Damned
by Genevieve Cogman
In this final entry of the 'Scarlet Revolution' trilogy, vampires conspire to take control over the whole country whilst challenging Eleanor and the League of the Scarlet Pimpernel at every turn. But Eleanor uncovers a devastating, centuries-old secret that is so steeped in blood, it will change not only England, but the entire vampire world forever.
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The Fort
by Christy K. Lee
For fans of Genevieve Graham, The Fort transports readers to the rugged Canadian fur trade era, where a resilient single mother defies conventions to forge a new life on the frontier.
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Six weeks by the sea : a novel
by Paula Byrne
'Six Weeks by the Sea' is a historical novel about Jane Austen that explores a question that has fascinated Janeites for years - Austen wrote some of the greatest love stories in existence, but did she ever fall in love?
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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