This list is for the most well known Historical Fiction books on Goodreads.

For purposes of this list, only include books with over 100,000 ratings and shelved at least 1000 times as historical fiction.

Anything with less than 100,000 ratings or shelved less than 1000 times as historical fiction will be removed and without comment.

A book that was set in the time it was written like say Pride and Prejudice is not historical fiction. Please avoid putting these on the list and call them out in comments to discourage people. But librarians shouldn't remove such books from these lists as long as its been tagged incorrectly at least 1000 times.

See also:
Best Historical Fiction
Best Historical Fiction of the 21st Century
Best Historical Mystery
Recommended Historical Fiction
Teen Historical Fiction

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1

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4.31 avg rating — 1,958,818 ratings
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4.26 avg rating — 1,148,751 ratings
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4.47 avg rating — 3,004,859 ratings
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4.36 avg rating — 3,472,946 ratings
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4.65 avg rating — 2,060,035 ratings
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3.93 avg rating — 778,884 ratings
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4.26 avg rating — 6,837,613 ratings
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4.41 avg rating — 211,446 ratings
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4.45 avg rating — 1,724,890 ratings
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4.16 avg rating — 2,104,259 ratings
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4.31 avg rating — 1,254,437 ratings
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3.90 avg rating — 2,028,447 ratings
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4.04 avg rating — 156,250 ratings
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3.91 avg rating — 232,338 ratings
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4.37 avg rating — 3,588,564 ratings
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4.26 avg rating — 226,208 ratings
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4.14 avg rating — 394,110 ratings
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4.11 avg rating — 1,696,016 ratings
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4.39 avg rating — 2,861,324 ratings
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4.35 avg rating — 826,361 ratings
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3.90 avg rating — 2,816,738 ratings
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4.30 avg rating — 317,083 ratings
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4.32 avg rating — 274,742 ratings
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4.19 avg rating — 807,284 ratings
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25

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4.10 avg rating — 281,990 ratings
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26

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4.39 avg rating — 329,853 ratings
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27

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3.79 avg rating — 240,838 ratings
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4.31 avg rating — 715,707 ratings
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29

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4.09 avg rating — 512,314 ratings
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30

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4.11 avg rating — 791,265 ratings
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31

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4.32 avg rating — 346,014 ratings
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32

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4.16 avg rating — 2,310,337 ratings
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32

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3.87 avg rating — 254,386 ratings
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34

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4.37 avg rating — 275,166 ratings
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35

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4.03 avg rating — 989,999 ratings
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36

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4.34 avg rating — 383,956 ratings
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36

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4.14 avg rating — 357,417 ratings
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38

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3.62 avg rating — 152,459 ratings
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39

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4.44 avg rating — 191,098 ratings
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40

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4.13 avg rating — 212,614 ratings
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41

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4.35 avg rating — 253,574 ratings
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42

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4.11 avg rating — 517,676 ratings
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4.02 avg rating — 172,136 ratings
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4.36 avg rating — 268,344 ratings
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45

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4.10 avg rating — 1,477,224 ratings
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46

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4.44 avg rating — 165,176 ratings
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3.92 avg rating — 1,353,208 ratings
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48

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4.05 avg rating — 314,572 ratings
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4.34 avg rating — 182,366 ratings
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50

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3.88 avg rating — 1,009,383 ratings
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51

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3.93 avg rating — 166,912 ratings
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52

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3.99 avg rating — 884,372 ratings
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52

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4.10 avg rating — 345,955 ratings
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54

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3.74 avg rating — 411,007 ratings
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55

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4.32 avg rating — 661,490 ratings
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56

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4.01 avg rating — 174,827 ratings
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57

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3.80 avg rating — 225,513 ratings
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57

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3.97 avg rating — 708,562 ratings
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59

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4.31 avg rating — 269,284 ratings
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60

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4.25 avg rating — 364,114 ratings
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61

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4.04 avg rating — 662,356 ratings
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61

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4.07 avg rating — 141,387 ratings
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63

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4.17 avg rating — 1,289,280 ratings
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64

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4.16 avg rating — 237,880 ratings
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65

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4.30 avg rating — 272,809 ratings
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66

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4.38 avg rating — 176,701 ratings
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4.04 avg rating — 477,810 ratings
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68

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4.04 avg rating — 156,000 ratings
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4.03 avg rating — 160,027 ratings
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3.83 avg rating — 609,039 ratings
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4.33 avg rating — 425,240 ratings
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4.04 avg rating — 549,258 ratings
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4.08 avg rating — 271,007 ratings
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74

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3.79 avg rating — 230,632 ratings
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3.82 avg rating — 178,385 ratings
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76

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4.31 avg rating — 874,763 ratings
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77

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3.96 avg rating — 182,299 ratings
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77

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4.42 avg rating — 584,083 ratings
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79

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3.86 avg rating — 193,983 ratings
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80

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4.34 avg rating — 617,270 ratings
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81

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4.47 avg rating — 400,287 ratings
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82

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3.80 avg rating — 276,164 ratings
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83

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4.55 avg rating — 475,846 ratings
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84

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4.33 avg rating — 1,106,887 ratings
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85

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4.18 avg rating — 494,160 ratings
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86

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4.57 avg rating — 237,163 ratings
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3.80 avg rating — 870,727 ratings
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really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 127,843 ratings
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4.45 avg rating — 164,620 ratings
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4.06 avg rating — 443,028 ratings
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4.06 avg rating — 181,161 ratings
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92

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4.29 avg rating — 503,831 ratings
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93

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3.83 avg rating — 1,334,542 ratings
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94

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4.05 avg rating — 462,951 ratings
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95

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3.94 avg rating — 544,929 ratings
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96

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3.92 avg rating — 1,014,352 ratings
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97

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4.09 avg rating — 386,955 ratings
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98

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4.19 avg rating — 212,242 ratings
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99

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4.35 avg rating — 645,296 ratings
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100

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3.93 avg rating — 122,867 ratings
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176 books · 29 voters · list created December 21st, 2020 by Mitchell Friedman (votes) .
5 likes · 
Lists are re-scored approximately every 5 minutes.


Mitchell 11526 books
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Comments Showing 1-9 of 9 (9 new)

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message 1: by BookLovingLady (deceased Jan. 25, 2023...) (last edited Dec 22, 2020 01:01AM) (new)

BookLovingLady (deceased Jan. 25, 2023...) There are a number of books on this list which are not historical fiction... (Pride and Prejudice for instance, as it was written in the time it was set).


message 2: by Mitchell (new)

Mitchell Friedman Booklovinglady wrote: "There are a number of books on this list which are not historical fiction... (Pride and Prejudice for instance, as it was written in the time it was set)."

The fun thing about an arbitrary rule - like must be tagged a particular way - is it doesn't have to be right.

I thought about this exact instance when creating this list and I'll put something in the list description.


Charlotte Igelkott Mitchell wrote: "Booklovinglady wrote: "There are a number of books on this list which are not historical fiction... (Pride and Prejudice for instance, as it was written in the time it was set)."

The f..."


Other weird effects of the number of shelvings rule:
The Name of the Rose qualifies for the classics list, but not for the historical fiction list. (Still not sure I can trust my eyes on that one but I've checked and double checked and...nope)
The House of the Spirits qualifies for the historical fiction list, but not for the classics list.
Surely I can't be the only one who thinks the reverse would make more sense? (Not trying to suggest any changes, just genuinely astonished)


message 4: by Emrys (last edited Jan 18, 2021 10:24AM) (new)

Emrys Charlotte Igelkott wrote: "Mitchell wrote: "Booklovinglady wrote: "There are a number of books on this list which are not historical fiction... (Pride and Prejudice for instance, as it was written in the time it ..."

I suspect with the The Name of the Rose probably did previously qualify for this list but somehow the genre shelf totals have been been reinterpreted/misinterpreted by Goodreads - e.g. the 4000 or so shelvings it has for “Fiction” is similar to the number of shelvings Fall of Giants has for “historical fiction” (the two books both have about 300,000 ratings).


Charlotte Igelkott Emrys wrote: "Charlotte Igelkott wrote: "Mitchell wrote: "Booklovinglady wrote: "There are a number of books on this list which are not historical fiction... (Pride and Prejudice for instance, as it ..."

Oh. Sounds a bit odd to me, but then I'm not very tech savvy. Is this the sort of thing that would be likely to flip back and forth at random or will it be stable until someone notices and changes it back? (Assuming the current numbers are wrong, of course) How can one tell if tNotR is the only book this has happened to or if it's a widespread phenomenon? Would it be likely to have affected other shelves as well? And from a librarian point of view, should I stop deleting books for insufficient shelvings for now?
(Sorry if I'm being too inquisitive - would be better to contact support, perhaps?)


message 6: by Emrys (new)

Emrys Charlotte Igelkott wrote: "Emrys wrote: "Charlotte Igelkott wrote: "Mitchell wrote: "Booklovinglady wrote: "There are a number of books on this list which are not historical fiction... (Pride and Prejudice for in..."

I have a spreadsheet of books that records 4000+ shelvings for the genre “Historical Fiction” - I used this tool to get the genre data: https://github.com/PaulKlinger/Enhanc... , but I can’t be sure if the discrepancy is because of an error made by the tool, or because of Goodreads changing things.

Yes, I’ll try asking Support about it later. I don’t get the impression that it’s a widespread problem (just this book actually).


Charlotte Igelkott Emrys wrote: "Charlotte Igelkott wrote: "Emrys wrote: "Charlotte Igelkott wrote: "Mitchell wrote: "Booklovinglady wrote: "There are a number of books on this list which are not historical fiction... ([book:Pride..."

That sounds reassuring. Thank you for answering :)


message 8: by Emrys (new)

Emrys Charlotte Igelkott wrote: "Emrys wrote: "Charlotte Igelkott wrote: "Emrys wrote: "Charlotte Igelkott wrote: "Mitchell wrote: "Booklovinglady wrote: "There are a number of books on this list which are not historical fiction....."

I raised this issue with Support and they said they’d get the developers to look into it.

If it’s not sorted in a week or two I guess the book can be removed from the list.


message 9: by Emrys (new)

Emrys The Name of the Rose now has 4300 shelvings as "Historical Fiction" so it seems the issue has been fixed.


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