I love reading for pleasure and used to long for the days pre-children when I had more time to settle in with a big glass of wine and a good book. And, I especially love historical fiction. Like . . . it’s the only thing I read . . . will ever read . .. until the end of time . . . So, seeing as we all may have a bit more time on our hands as we are sitting at home during this time of “social-distance”, I thought I would share my list of 10 must-read historical fiction novels with you.
If you don’t have more time on your hands because you are attempting to homeschool your kids, working from home and/or are on the front lines of fighting this crazy virus, put a pin in this post for later days–perhaps for a summer vacation or winter get-a-way. One which you will have no doubt earned and most certainly deserve.
As you look through the list of 10 must-read historical fiction novels below, you will probably see a few similarities in my taste:
- I tend to read books from my favorite eras in history–specifically, the Victorian era through the Roaring 20’s. There a few on this list that fall outside of that timeframe, but not many.
- Lord knows they all have fabulous references to the fashion and style of the time.
- They all feature strong female leads who overcome hardships and tribulations in times where women were thought to be anything but strong and independent.
- Not all have happy endings or end the way you think they might.
- Three of the novels are from Paula McLain–I think she is a fantastic novelist and I am dying for her to write more.
- All were page-turners for me, and I hope you will enjoy as much as I did.
I prefer to read a book “in-the-flesh” and own most of these in hard-copy–often using them as decor around my home. I usually purchase books while traveling and write on the inside cover when/where I purchased it. It is a sweet way for me to remember the trip and the storyline of the book. I have included those notations for you in the list below.
That being said, many of these books are quite affordable (and some free) via the Amazon Kindle app, if you prefer to download.
The descriptions following the photos of the books are taken directly from Amazon/the back of the novel. I mean, the descriptions were enough to get me to purchase the book so why re-write my own when you can copy/paste–am I right?? Also, I am rushed to get this out to you and have been drinking too much wine during quarantine and I am afraid my words may start to get slllluuuurrreeddd . . . you get the picture.
I mean, let’s be honest, I shot the photos for this post at 10:30 AM and couldn’t bear to leave the prop wine just sitting there getting warm. It’s a rough life I lead–drinking all the wine, wearing all the clothes, reading all the books, writing all the things . . .
Alright, enough about my slightly-concerning drinking, shopping and reading habit. Here is my list of 10 must-read historical fiction novels–in no particular order–alphabetical or otherwise (they are equally great and this should drive the type-A folks nuts).
I have provided affiliate links to items in this post. I may earn a small commission if you follow the links I provide, at no additional cost to you. Just a way for me to make a few extra bucks to maintain my wine-drinking habit (oh, and this blog). Thank you in advance for your support. My name is Danielle and I like wine.
Click the images to purchase!
Magnolia City | Duncan W. Alderson
Puerto Rico Trip | 2014
Houston in the 1920s is a city of established cotton kings and newly rich oil barons, where the elite live in beaux art mansions behind the gates of Courtlandt Place. Kirby Augustus Allen, grandson of the Allen brothers who founded Houston as a real estate deal, is grooming his daughter Hetty to marry Lamar Rusk, scion of the Splendora oil fortune. Instead, at the No-Tsu-Oh Carnival of 1928, beautiful, rebellious Hetty encounters a mysterious man from Montana dressed in the gear of a wildcatter–an outsider named Garret MacBride.
Circling the Sun | Paula McLain
Lake Powell Family Houseboat Vacation | 2015
This powerful novel transports readers to the breathtaking world of Out of Africa—1920s Kenya—and reveals the extraordinary adventures of Beryl Markham, a woman before her time. Brought to Kenya from England by pioneering parents dreaming of a new life on an African farm, Beryl is raised unconventionally, developing a fierce will and a love of all things wild. But after everything she knows and trusts dissolves, headstrong young Beryl is flung into a string of disastrous relationships, then becomes caught up in a passionate love triangle with the irresistible safari hunter Denys Finch Hatton and the writer Baroness Karen Blixen. Brave and audacious and contradictory, Beryl will risk everything to have Denys’s love, but it’s ultimately her own heart she must conquer to embrace her true calling and her destiny: to fly.
The Paris Wife | Paula McLain
Honeymoon in Jamaica | 2013
Chicago, 1920: Hadley Richardson is a quiet twenty-eight-year-old who has all but given up on love and happiness—until she meets Ernest Hemingway. Following a whirlwind courtship and wedding, the pair set sail for Paris, where they become the golden couple in a lively and volatile group—the fabled “Lost Generation”—that includes Gertrude Stein, Ezra Pound, and F. Scott Fitzgerald.
Though deeply in love, the Hemingways are ill-prepared for the hard-drinking, fast-living, and free-loving life of Jazz Age Paris. As Ernest struggles to find the voice that will earn him a place in history and pours himself into the novel that will become The Sun Also Rises, Hadley strives to hold on to her sense of self as her roles as wife, friend, and muse become more challenging. Eventually, they find themselves facing the ultimate crisis of their marriage—a deception that will lead to the unraveling of everything they’ve fought so hard for.
A heartbreaking portrayal of love and torn loyalty, The Paris Wife is all the more poignant because we know that, in the end, Hemingway wrote that he would rather have died than fallen in love with anyone but Hadley.
Love and Ruin | Paula McLain
Spring Break in Phoenix | 2019
In 1937, twenty-eight-year-old Martha Gellhorn travels alone to Madrid to report on the atrocities of the Spanish Civil War and becomes drawn to the stories of ordinary people caught in the devastating conflict. It’s her chance to prove herself a worthy journalist in a field dominated by men. There she also finds herself unexpectedly—and unwillingly—falling in love with Ernest Hemingway, a man on his way to becoming a legend.
On the eve of World War II, and set against the turbulent backdrops of Madrid and Cuba, Martha and Ernest’s relationship and careers ignite. But when Ernest publishes the biggest literary success of his career, For Whom the Bell Tolls, they are no longer equals, and Martha must forge a path as her own woman and writer
East of the Sun | Julia Gregson
Trip Home from Las Vegas | 2009
As the Kaisar-I-Hind weighs anchor for Bombay in the autumn of 1928, its passengers ponder their fate in a distant land. They are part of the “Fishing Fleet”—the name given to the legions of English women who sail to India each year in search of husbands, heedless of the life that awaits them. The inexperienced chaperone Viva Holloway has been entrusted to watch over three unsettling charges. There’s Rose, as beautiful as she is naïve, who plans to marry a cavalry officer she has met a mere handful of times. Her bridesmaid, Victoria, is hell-bent on losing her virginity en route before finding a husband of her own. And shadowing them all is the malevolent presence of a disturbed schoolboy named Guy Glover.
From the parties of the wealthy Bombay socialites to the poverty of Tamarind Street, from the sooty streets of London to the genteel conversation of the Bombay Yacht Club, East of the Sun takes us back to a world we hardly understand but yearn to know. This is a book that has it all: glorious detail, fascinating characters, and masterful storytelling.
I Was Anastasia | Ariel Lawhon
Russia, July 17, 1918: Under direct orders from Vladimir Lenin, Bolshevik secret police force Anastasia Romanov, along with the entire imperial family, into a damp basement in Siberia where they face a merciless firing squad. None survive. At least that is what the executioners have always claimed.
Germany, February 17, 1920: A young woman bearing an uncanny resemblance to Anastasia Romanov is pulled shivering and senseless from a canal in Berlin. Refusing to explain her presence in the freezing water, she is taken to the hospital where an examination reveals that her body is riddled with countless, horrific scars. When she finally does speak, this frightened, mysterious woman claims to be the Russian Grand Duchess Anastasia.
Her detractors, convinced that the young woman is only after the immense Romanov fortune, insist on calling her by a different name: Anna Anderson.
As rumors begin to circulate through European society that the youngest Romanov daughter has survived the massacre, old enemies and new threats are awakened. With a brilliantly crafted dual narrative structure, Lawhon wades into the most psychologically complex and emotionally compelling territory yet: the nature of identity itself.
The question of who Anna Anderson is and what actually happened to Anastasia Romanov creates a saga that spans fifty years and touches three continents. This thrilling story is every bit as moving and momentous as it is harrowing and twisted.
The American Heiress | Daisy Goodwin
Lake Powell Family Houseboat Trip | 2015
Be careful what you wish for. Traveling abroad with her mother at the turn of the twentieth century to seek a titled husband, beautiful, vivacious Cora Cash, whose family mansion in Newport dwarfs the Vanderbilts, suddenly finds herself, Duchess of Wareham, married to Ivo, the most eligible bachelor in England. Nothing is quite as it seems, however: Ivo is withdrawn and secretive, and the English social scene is full of traps and betrayals. Money, Cora soon learns, cannot buy everything, as she must decide what is truly worth the price in her life and her marriage.
Witty, moving, and brilliantly entertaining, Cora’s story marks the debut of a glorious storyteller who brings a fresh new spirit to the world of Edith Wharton and Henry James.
Next Year in Havana | Chanel Cleeton
Havana, 1958. The daughter of a sugar baron, nineteen-year-old Elisa Perez is part of Cuba’s high society, where she is largely sheltered from the country’s growing political unrest—until she embarks on a clandestine affair with a passionate revolutionary…
Miami, 2017. Freelance writer Marisol Ferrera grew up hearing romantic stories of Cuba from her late grandmother Elisa, who was forced to flee with her family during the revolution. Elisa’s last wish was for Marisol to scatter her ashes in the country of her birth.
Arriving in Havana, Marisol comes face-to-face with the contrast of Cuba’s tropical, timeless beauty and its perilous political climate. When more family history comes to light and Marisol finds herself attracted to a man with secrets of his own, she’ll need the lessons of her grandmother’s past to help her understand the true meaning of courage.
Wench | Dolen Perkins-Valdez
Situated in Ohio, a free territory before the Civil War, Tawawa House is an idyllic retreat for Southern white men who vacation there every summer with their enslaved black mistresses. It’s their open secret. Lizzie, Reenie, and Sweet are regulars at the resort, building strong friendships over the years. But when Mawu, as fearless as she is assured, comes along and starts talking of running away, things change. To run is to leave everything behind, and for some, it also means escaping from the emotional and psychological bonds that bind them to their masters. When a fire on the resort sets off a string of tragedies, the women of Tawawa House soon learn that triumph and dehumanization are inseparable and that love exists even in the most inhuman, brutal of circumstances—all while they bear witness to the end of an era.
Iron Lace | Emilie Richards
Honeymoon in Jamaica | 2013
When Aurore Gerritsen watched her lover kill her father, it was just one act of violence in a long chain of dramatic events.
Years later, behind the iron lace gates of wealthy New Orleans, beneath the veneer of her society name, linger secrets that Aurore Gerritsen has hidden for a lifetime, and truths that threaten to change forever the lives of her unsuspecting family. Now, as Aurore faces her own mortality, she needs to reveal those secrets that have haunted her for so many years.
Aurore seeks out Phillip Benedict and asks him to tell her story. He’s intrigued, but wonders why the matriarch of a prominent white family would choose to confess her sins to an outspoken black journalist.
Finally, Phillip agrees, but though he thinks he’s ready for anything she might say, the truth is that nothing can prepare him for the impact of Aurore’s shocking revelations.
And that’s a wrap on the list . . . for now. I may re-read all of these during self-quarantine or perhaps, better yet, download some more to share with you in the near future. Stay tuned!
Cheers,
