For those of us with a thing about history, there’s a real time-travel element to good historical fiction. Traditional educational models stress a nonfiction/scholarly approach to the past, which is great, and in recent years there’s been a quite incredible explosion of quality online documentaries and history podcasts.  
 
But for that thrilling time-travel sensation, nothing can beat an absorbing historical fiction novel. In our never-ending quest to find useful sorting strategies, we’ve collected below several dozen new historical fiction novels—published since 2021—with the fictional settings arranged by time period. We’ve also adjusted the focus to cover relatively recent history, from the 1800s to 1970s or so.
 
Throw in the various genre styles available, and there’s a wide variety of reading fun to be had: Supernatural suspense in the aftermath of the 19th century Mexican War of Independence. A triumph of courage in 1970s post-segregation Alabama. Or maybe some early-1900s literary conjecture bouncing off of a completely different classic American novel.
 
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!