Category: Historical Fiction

Book Review: The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah

A thoughtful review of The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah, a powerful historical fiction novel about survival, family, and resilience during the Great Depression and Dust Bowl.
Book Review: The Prophets by Robert Jones Jr.

A powerful and heartbreaking review of The Prophets by Robert Jones Jr., exploring love, cruelty, beauty, and survival in a lyrical historical novel.
Book Review: Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Daisy Jones & The Six is a captivating 1970s rock-and-roll novel by Taylor Jenkins Reid, blending love, music, and fame into an addictive, documentary-style story. Perfect for fans of Fleetwood Mac, it’s a raw and emotional look at the rise and fall of a fictional band you’ll wish was real.
Book Review: A Language of Dragons by S.F. Williamson

Codebreaking, class divides, and dragon politics collide in this YA fantasy about loyalty, rebellion, and the cost of doing what you’re told.
Book Review: Unsheltered

This post contains spoilers. This post also contains affiliate links. If you buy through Bookshop.org, I may earn a small commission—at no extra cost to you. Thanks for supporting the blog and indie bookstores! Unsheltered by Barbara Kingsolver is a 464-page historical/literary fiction novel. The story follows two different time periods of families who live in the same run-down house. Here is the book blurb: Willa Knox has always prided herself on being the embodiment of responsibility for her family. Which is why it’s so unnerving that she’s arrived at middle age with nothing to show for her hard work…
Book Review: When Women Were Dragons

This post contains spoilers. This post also contains affiliate links. If you buy through Bookshop.org, I may earn a small commission—at no extra cost to you. Thanks for supporting the blog and indie bookstores! When Women Were Dragons by Kelly Barnhill is a 367-page historical fiction/fantasy with magical realism sprinkled in. The book focuses on Alex Green, a young girl who lives in a similar world to us except for the Mass Dragoning event in 1955. Hundreds of thousands of ordinary wives and mothers sprouted wings, scales and talons and left a fiery trail of destruction before taking to the…
Book Review: November Road

This post contains spoilers. This post also contains affiliate links. If you buy through Bookshop.org, I may earn a small commission—at no extra cost to you. Thanks for supporting the blog and indie bookstores! November Road by Lou Berney is a 320-page historical fiction thriller. Set against the assassination of JFK, the novel centers around a cat-and-mouse chase across 1960s America. Frank Guidry is a loyal lieutenant to New Orleans mob boss Carlos Marcello who has learned everyone is expendable. Now it’s his turn. He knows too much about the crime of the century—the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.…
Book Review: This Tender Land

This post contains spoilers. This post also contains affiliate links. If you buy through Bookshop.org, I may earn a small commission—at no extra cost to you. Thanks for supporting the blog and indie bookstores! This Tender Land by William Kent Krueger is a 450-page historical fiction novel set in the summer of 1932. From the book blurb: In the summer of 1932, on the banks of Minnesota’s Gilead River, the Lincoln Indian Training School is a pitiless place where Native American children, forcibly separated from their parents, are sent to be educated. It is also home to Odie O’Banion, a…
Book Review: We Were the Lucky Ones

This post contains spoilers. This post also contains affiliate links. If you buy through Bookshop.org, I may earn a small commission—at no extra cost to you. Thanks for supporting the blog and indie bookstores! We Were the Lucky Ones by Georgia Hunter is a 403-page historical fiction novel following the Kurc family during the Holocaust. It is based on a true story of one Jewish family being separated over the course of World War 2. It starts in the spring of 1939, where three generations of the Kurc family live in Radom, Poland, trying to live normal lives even amid…
Book Review: The Lost Apothecary

This post contains spoilers. This post also contains affiliate links. If you buy through Bookshop.org, I may earn a small commission—at no extra cost to you. Thanks for supporting the blog and indie bookstores! The Lost Apothecary by Sarah Penner is a 301-page historical fiction/mystery novel. The story is about a female apothecary who secretly dispenses poisons to liberate women from men who have wronged them. She has two rules: 1. The poison must never be used to harm another woman and 2. The names of the murderer and her victim must be recorded in the apothecary’s register. The story…