42 New and Upcoming Historical Fiction Novels

Care to travel to past times for some serious drama? Check out this season's biggest historical fiction novels and be transported to tales of lighthouse keepers, asylum seekers, Chicago's jazz clubs, Puritans in bad marriages, and much more!
Here are just some of the buzzy historical fiction novels that will be publishing early this year (all of these books are hitting U.S. stores between January and May). Scroll over the book covers to learn more about each novel, and be sure to add the books that pique your interest to your Want to Read shelf!
Which recent and upcoming historical fiction books are you looking forward to reading? Let's talk books in the comments!
Check out more recent articles:
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Kristin Hannah Writes an American Epic
Check out more recent articles:
66 of the Year's Most Anticipated Fiction by Black Authors
Readers' Most Anticipated Books of February
Kristin Hannah Writes an American Epic
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2. Wild Women and the Blues - I play blues and jazz on piano
3. The Paris Library - perhaps - mostly it's the cover that hooks me!
4. Becoming Leidah
I already read it once, but when you ask what books we're excited to read, truth is I want to read this again.

While reading, I wondered: What am I ‘becoming’ as I read? Will I ever-after be more alive than I’ve ever been? In the end, some of that excitement was lost - replaced with something deeper.
How many dimensions of literary delight exist? I think I experienced all here: surprise after surprise - micro to macro - subtle yet electrifying.
Both innocence and experience are in full bloom. Not just a fantasy, it’s very grounded in reality. Magical realism with an emphasis on both magical and real.
It did not fulfill my wishes. It brought me somewhere more nuanced, more mature - an integration that made magic more real. It invited self-reflection, and brought some of my life into greater perspective.
I saw Becoming Leidah on a list of historical fiction. Fair enough. It certainly presents a deeply-researched time and place, and adds layers beyond factual or even speculative histories, so although it is not about famous people or events, it is historical and it is fiction. I’d also call it a mythical folktale, and family drama. And (perhaps like all family dramas, beneath the surface) it's a mystery. It's not only a mystery to discover what happened / what's really happening in this story - it's a mystery into humanity's greatest mysteries.
The book jumps between time periods and narrators, and although I have read books where that bothered me, here I loved weaving the story together. Still, I can imagine some readers finding it a challenge. Unreliable narrators and intentionally undeclared travel between worlds can make it seem like the story is inconsistent, when it’s actually just more layered than you might assume.
Reading the jacket description, I wondered if it would present a stereotype of religion or men. Turned out I was the one doing the stereotyping. (I came to identify with both husband and wife.)
The ending is highly poetic, and ambiguous - which might not work for people who want a clear ending / definitive closure. It’s not a cliffhanger - it is complete in itself - and yet, I would love to read a follow-up book - I want to explore where these characters go after growing to this point. Perhaps that exploration is up to me.
I used to wonder to what extent / in what ways it would be true to say "With imagination, anyone can be rich." Well, I've never been richer.
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Becoming Leidah




Laurie wrote: "MICHELE wrote: "Looking forward to many of these EXCEPT for the ones set during WW2. Enough already 😂" Funny! That was my impression too."

Yes, just read A Gentleman in Moscow.



Some of us do; and about women, kids, and so on, all in the same book. See Message 23.


Agreed, Helen! See Message 23 above.
Simon Scarrow
Ben Kane
Conn Iggulden