Historical Fiction
August 2026
Recent Releases
Lost in the Summer of '69 by Eliza Knight
Lost in the Summer of '69
by Eliza Knight

Eleanor Bell doesn't have anything to lose. According to her doctors, she might not remember how to sing or play guitar soon, so why not head west now? Why not join the music festivals sweeping the country and lose herself in the music again in a swan song of her own?Except Eleanor forgets, maybe on purpose, to tell anyone where she's going. When her daughter, Leanne, discovers her mother missing, she enlists the help of her own daughter, Nora, to help her find Eleanor. The last thing Nora wants to do before starting as one of Yale's first female undergrads is hit the road. But then Nora hears her grandmother on the radio - singing. Nora and Leanne hop in their Lincoln Continental for a cross-country road trip, always one step behind Eleanor, who has been dubbed the Dame of Rock n' Roll by none other than Johnny Carson.Full of nostalgia and awash with the warmth of summer, Lost in the Summer of '69 is an epic celebration of savoring the encore-no matter what the next act may bring.
The Top of the World by Ethan Joella
The Top of the World
by Ethan Joella

Chip Bishop is 18 years old and dying of leukemia in the summer of 1974. Not telling his family his plans, he leaves home, finding work at a Poconos resort before returning to his family in the autumn for his final weeks of life. In 1975, his sister Maggie gets a job at the same resort, trying to understand why Chip left and what he did while he was gone. Alternating between the two summers, this is a heartfelt look at grief, friendship, family, and hope.
The Intrigue by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
The Intrigue
by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

In 1940s Mexico, handsome Ulises charms lonely women to get their money. His newest mark, middle-aged Perla, is the owner of a small-town boardinghouse in picturesque Veracruz. But things don't go as Ulises planned: Perla has a niece who wants in on his scheme. The two team up, but there's still trouble since Perla isn't the needy spinster Ulises thought she was. For fans of: atmospheric, pulp-inspired historical noirs.
Meet Me in Paris by Kristin Harmel
Meet Me in Paris
by Kristin Harmel

Julia Glover has brought her twenty-three-year-old daughter, Piper, to Paris for the first time--but they know it will also be their last trip here together. Julia is dying, and as the mother and daughter desperately try to make memories together as the clock ticks down, the world opens up around them. Piper meets a cute French waiter, who might just understand her better than anyone she's ever met, and Julia meets a man at a dive bar and struggles with how to tell him the truth about her future. Rock star Jackson Quick's glory days are behind him. He had a handful of hit songs thirty years ago, but he hasn't toured in a decade. This week, he'll launch his reunion tour in Paris, the city where it all began. But he wants more out of life than being defined by fame. When he meets a woman who finally sees him for who he is at his core, the ground shifts beneath his feet. Henry McGee has been writing hit songs for decades--including Jackson Quick's biggest hit, City of Light. But his secret is that every love song he's ever written is for a woman named Celeste, whom he loved a lifetime ago, when they were both teenagers in Paris during World War II. He has spent eighty years believing she died--but when a letter arrives telling him the opposite, he's on the first flight to France. Can he break through the haze of her dementia, using the songs he's written all these years, to remind her of who they once were to each other--and to tell her he came back for her? Henry's granddaughter, Melody, has just discovered that her husband of twenty years, Gilles, a French cosmetics executive, is having an affair. When she confronts him, he tearfully apologizes and begs her to forgive him. But can she? And, perhaps even more importantly, does she want to? Or is there a different kind of life out there for her if she chooses to be alone? These intertwining stories--plus several others--unfold over a few breathtaking spring days, as an unforgettable group of Americans in Paris must find their way to their own versions of happily ever after in the City of Light.
Fallen for France by Elizabeth Letts
Fallen for France
by Elizabeth Letts

Beddou is six years old when he is sent off to apprentice far from his High Atlas village in Morocco. His mother gives him six amber beads to help him find his way home. That same month, a magnificent filly is born in Fes, in the splendor of the Sultan's palace. For a brief, golden time, the mare belongs to the boy. But Beddou's heart is broken when a soldier steals his horse and disappears into France just as the Great War roars to a start. Finding her seems impossible, but he vows to try. Estelle, a young woman in France, finds a distressed Arabian mare wandering alone in the meadow behind her house. She is determined to look after this radiant creature just as tenderly as she cares for her vulnerable younger brother. But soon her world is torn apart, and she loses both the horse and her brother. She will spend the rest of the war searching for both. Thomas is an Englishman hardened by his experience as a wartime veterinarian in France. He finds the mare and promises to protect her--and the woman who once loved her--but he doubts his own ability to keep anyone safe. As the pathways of the unforgettable mare and the boy's desperate search intertwine, the separate strands of these strangers' journeys converge, propelling them to make momentous choices that will change the course of their lives. Spanning Morocco and France in the shadow of World War I, Fallen for France follows unforgettable characters whose lives are bound by a magnificent horse and a string of amber beads.
It Girl by Allison Pataki
It Girl
by Allison Pataki

At the dawn of the twentieth century, New York's streets teem with change: electricity, automobiles, the brash young President Teddy Roosevelt--and the It Girls. As artists' muses and working models, these independent young women soar to stardom not because of their pedigrees or inherited wealth, but because of their talent, charisma, and irresistible beauty. Pop culture is born, and in a world alight with Mr. Edison's new bulbs, no one shines brighter than America's sweetheart, Evelyn Talbot. But the journey to stardom is not simple or straight. While working as a shopgirl, the young Evelyn is recruited as a studio model and soon catches the eye of the preeminent artists of the age. When Broadway comes calling, Evelyn solidifies her status as the first self-made American female celebrity: the iconic Gibson Girl, the most sought-after figure and face of her time. Enter a parade of powerful and power-hungry men, from world-famous architect Stanley Pierce, the visionary behind Manhattan's mansions and iconic landmarks, to Hal Thorne, the shockingly wealthy railroad heir and premier playboy of high society. Each man promises comfort, glamour, security--even love. But fame and fortune are cruel teachers, and Evelyn learns that the only person she can rely on is herself. When Evelyn finds herself at the center of a murder of passion declared the Crime of the Century, she is blamed for the acts of the men in her life. In the media frenzy that spirals around her, Evelyn realizes that to survive, she will have to write her own ending. But can this artists' muse turned showgirl pull off the greatest act of her life? 
In the Great Quiet by Laura Vogt
In the Great Quiet
by Laura Vogt

A cannon booms at high noon, and the race begins in the Oklahoma land rush of 1893.Amid the crowd is Minnie Hoopes. Tenacious and fiercely independent, she is determined to endure the brutal frontier and create a life of her own. Guarding her solitude, she distances herself from bordering homesteaders and finds peace under the starry nights of the vast frontier. But this is outlaw country, and Minnie soon has the blood of two gunfighters on her hands. After a renegade outlaw named Stot discovers her secrets, she forms an unlikely friendship with him. With each passing season, Minnie's past grows more haunting and threatens the future she has risked everything to build. Minnie raced into the Wild West alone, but her grandest journey in the frontier wilderness is one she never saw coming.Based on the true story of the author's great-great-grandparents, this sweeping and transportive survival story explores a woman's connection with the land, her reconciliation with the past, and her elemental search for home against all odds.Settle in, I've stories to tell.
The Moonlight Runner: A Gripping Historical Novel of Survival, Bravery, and Romance by Karen Robards
The Moonlight Runner
by Karen Robards

A young Irish woman risks everything for her country in this sweeping story of love, bravery and the relentless pursuit of freedom from New York Times bestselling author Karen Robards.Rynn Carmichael is suddenly pulled into the Irish rebellion when Donal O'Reilly, the boy she has loved for most of her life, takes up gunrunning in support of the rebellion.Raised in a small Irish village on the shores of Donegal Bay, Rynn is working as a nurse in a convalescent home when she overhears a British officer gloating over the trap that has been set for IRA members bringing a boat full of smuggled arms ashore. Knowing that Donal must be involved, she rushes out at midnight to warn the incoming boat, only to find herself caught up in a terrifying and tragic series of events that take her from the glittering ballrooms of London to the narrow back alleys of Dublin as she and those she loves fight for their lives and their country.
Contact your librarian for more great books!

Tel: 603.485.6092
Txt: 844-854-4475
hplbooks@hooksettlibrary.org
hooksettlibrary.org