Historical Fiction
December 2024
Recent Releases
The Booklover's Library
by Madeline Martin

In World War II-era Nottingham, England, widowed Emma needs money and manages to find a job at Boots' Booklover's Library. Due to rules about widows and married women working, she pretends to be single and acts as if her beloved daughter is her sister. As the Blitz worsens, she sends her daughter to the country and finds hope in friends and the power of books and reading. Read-alikes: Jennifer Ryan's The Underground Library; Annie Lyons' The Air Raid Book Club.
The Thirteenth Husband
by Macallister, Greer

"Tearing through millions of dollars, four continents, and a hearty collection of husbands, real-life heiress Aimâee Crocker blazed an unbelievable trail of public notoriety, private pain, and the kind of strong independent woman the 1880s had never seen. Her life was stranger than fiction and brighter than the stars, and she whirled through her days as if she was being chased by something larger than herself. Greer Macallister brilliantly takes us into her world and spins a tale that you won't soon forget"
Queen Macbeth
by Val McDermid

This "love letter to Scotland" (Kirkus Reviews) reimagines Shakespeare's Macbeth through the eyes of Lady Macbeth. As she and her ladies-in-waiting are on the run from rivals, she recalls her marriages, her time as queen, and her son's rise to power. At less than 150 pages, this novel is perfect for fans of historical fiction retellings who like quick reads. 
The Restless Wave
by James Stavridis

Working-class Floridian Scott Bradley James loves the ocean and graduates from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1941. He survives Pearl Harbor and plays roles in other battles, including Midway, while navigating ambition, romance, and guilt. 
The Berlin Apartment
by Turnbull, Bryn

In this sweeping dual-perspective love story, Uli and Lise, newly engaged, are separated by the Berlin Wall and over the course of the next 28 years, as they bear witness to the realities of life on either side, they defy the imposed separation by embracing a love that cannot be broken. 
Polostan
by Neal Stephenson

Born in 1916, Dawn Rae Bjornberg is raised in Montana by anarchist cowboy relatives and in Russia, where her Leninist father lives. Making her own way as a teen, she sees Depression-era America, the 1933 Chicago World's Fair, the beginnings of the Soviet Union, and then gets mixed up with the KGB. 
The Paris Gown
by Christine Wells

Three young women meet in 1950 Paris: Claire, a Parisian who dreams of being a chef; Gina, a wealthy American who wants to write a novel; and Margot, a bubbly Australian whose family has sent her to Europe for refinement. Circumstances find them all in Paris again in 1956, and a Christian Dior gown draws them together.
The Seventh Veil of Salome
by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

In 1955 Hollywood, Mexican newcomer Vera Larios is cast as Salome, the title role in a big-budget movie -- but vengeful actress Nancy Hartley believes Vera stole the role in this atmospheric novel that also explores the first-century life of the titular character. 
The Queen's Lies
by Clements, Oliver

John Dee and his wife work together in an act of espionage that may turn out to be treason.
The Forgotten Names
by Escobar, Mario

Researching the 108 children who disappeared from Vénissieux 50 years earlier, escaping certain death in the German concentration camps, law student Valérie Potheret discovers Jewish mothers, to save their children, made the ultimate sacrifice, and vows to match the abandoned names with the people they belong to.
The Capital of Dreams
by O'Neill, Heather

Fourteen-year-old Sofia Bottom lives in a small country that Europe has forgotten. But inside its borders, the old myths of trees that come alive and fairies who live among their roots have given way to an explosion of the arts and the consolations of philosophy. No one, from the clarinetists to the cabaret singers, is as revered as Sofia’s brilliant mother, the writer Clara Bottom. How can Sofia, with a tin ear and an enduring love of the old myths, ever hope to win her mother’s love? When the country’s greatest enemy invades, and the Capital is under threat, at last Clara turns to her daughter. Sofia must smuggle her new manuscript to safety on the last train evacuating children from the city. But the train draws to a suspicious halt in the middle of a forest, and Sofia runs for her life, losing her mother’s most prized possession. Frightened and alone in a country at war, Sofia must find a way to reclaim what she has lost.
The Silence Factory
by Collins, Bridget

From the author of the #1 international best-seller The Binding comes a story of gothic suspense about a powerful family, the magical and dangerous silk their fortune is built upon and the exploitative history they are desperately trying to hide.
Scandalous Women
by Gill Paul

Taking place in New York and England between 1965 and 1975, this gossipy, fun novel is narrated by a trio of women trying to make it in a man's world: recent college grad and editorial assistant Nancy White and the groundbreaking real-life authors she works with, Jacqueline Susann and Jackie Collins (who, in this fictional tale, become best friends). 
Mina's matchbox
by Ogawa, Yåoko

In 1972, 12-year-old Tomoko is sent to stay with her affluent aunt's family in a coastal town in Japan where she, beguiled by her devoted aunt, her German great-aunt, her charming uncle and her cousin, Mina, who draws her into an intoxicating world of secrets and storytelling, soon discovers the truth behind their glittering façade.
The Shadow Key
by Stokes-Chapman, Susan

Dismissed from his post at a prestigious London hospital, Dr. Henry Talbot has little choice but to accept a mysterious offer of employment as a private physician from an inscrutable lord of a rural manor in Wales. Arriving at Plas Helyg, Lord Julian's isolated estate, Henry can't speak the language and finds himself treated with hostile suspicion by superstitious villagers, whose beliefs in myths and magic he's inclined to dismiss. But when he discovers that his predecessor died under peculiar, inexplicable circumstances, his determination to uncover the truth leads him down a path fraught with danger-made all the more perilous by his headstrong, reluctant ally Linette, Lord Julian's niece. 
Contact your librarian for more great books!
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