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  1. Genres
  2. ›Historical Fiction

Best Historical Fiction Books

Explore the best historical fiction books — comprehensive summaries, key takeaways, and insights from the standout titles in this genre.

2,135 summaries

Showing 2,113–2,135 of 2,135

  1. Nowhere to Call Home

    Cynthia C. DeFelice

    ★ 4.1 (263) average on GoodreadsYoung Adult

    During the Great Depression, a grieving girl sheds her identity to ride the rails as 'Frankie Blue,' only to discover the harsh realities of hobo life when her companion falls ill.

  2. Zeely

    Virginia Hamilton

    ★ 3.7 (242) average on GoodreadsChildren's

    During a summer on her uncle's farm, a young girl finds an unforgettable friend in a regal, statuesque hog farmer who mirrors the image of an African queen.

  3. The Maze

    Panos Karnezis

    ★ 3.4 (236) average on Goodreads

    Lost in the Anatolian labyrinth of 1922, a morphine-addicted Greek brigadier leads his myth-haunted brigade, pursued by Turkish forces and their own past vengeance, into a seemingly untouched town that will become their final, tragic maze.

  4. The Promise

    Chaim Potok

    ★ 4.1 (217) average on GoodreadsRomance

    In 1950s Brooklyn, a rabbinical student, Reuven Malter, questions his path and faith's traditions while helping his friend Danny Saunders free a brilliant, troubled boy from his genius and community expectations.

  5. Silk Road

    Jeanne Larsen

    ★ 3.9 (202) average on GoodreadsFantasy

    In Tang Dynasty China, a woman guided by spirits and her own will goes from courtesan to swordswoman, navigating a world where history meets myth.

  6. Brothers

    Yu Hua

    ★ 4.3 (187) average on Goodreads

    Two stepbrothers, one a sex-crazed opportunist and the other a sensitive intellectual, navigate China's chaotic transformation from the Cultural Revolution to rampant capitalism, testing their bond amidst outlandish characters and surreal societal shifts.

  7. The Book Of Secrets

    Fiona Kidman

    ★ 3.7 (176) average on Goodreads

    After Scottish clearances, a strict preacher leads his followers across oceans to a promised land, but three generations of women challenge his rigid rules, finding their own paths through exile and hardship.

  8. Magic City

    Jewell Parker Rhodes

    ★ 4.0 (176) average on Goodreads

    In 1921 Tulsa, a young Black man accused of rape by a white woman must escape a lynch mob while the woman, scarred by her own trauma, finds the courage to reveal the truth before the city erupts in racial violence.

  9. Becoming Jane

    Kevin Hood

    ★ 4.1 (173) average on GoodreadsRomance

    A young Jane Austen finds her voice and inspiration for her novels through a passionate, yet forbidden, romance with law student Tom Lefroy.

  10. The Rising of the Moon

    William Martin

    ★ 3.8 (167) average on Goodreads

    In 1916 Boston, a rising politician's life collapses when his rebel cousin sparks a dangerous love triangle and a deadly mission to Ireland, leading to a violent clash of personal desires and historical rebellion on Easter Sunday.

  11. Underground

    Kat Richardson

    ★ 3.8 (142) average on Goodreads

    A near-death experience grants a P.I. the ability to see ghosts, plunging her into a Seattle underworld investigation of mutilated homeless people and ancient monsters.

  12. Destined

    P.C. Cast

    ★ 3.9 (142) average on GoodreadsFantasy

    Zoey must find allies within the vampyre high council to fight an ancient evil, while Stevie Rae and Rephaim's forbidden love could save or doom them all.

  13. The Open Door

    Elizabeth Maguire

    ★ 3.4 (139) average on Goodreads

    In 19th-century Europe, an independent American author's passionate friendship with Henry James becomes a complex dance of admiration, secrets, and literary ambition, ultimately revealing the cost of an uncompromised life.

  14. Charlotte

    Norah Lofts

    ★ 3.8 (139) average on GoodreadsRomance

    Haunted by a child's mysterious death and her own family's suffocating secrets, Charlotte flees to a remote school, only to find her past—and a chilling new tragedy—unraveling around her, making her question her own innocence.

  15. The Road Back

    Erich Maria Remarque

    ★ 3.9 (122) average on GoodreadsRomance

    After the hell of the Western Front, a generation of German soldiers returns home to a shattered society, only to find their fight for peace has just begun in a world that no longer makes sense.

  16. Akhenaten

    Dorothy Porter

    ★ 3.8 (117) average on Goodreads

    In sun-drenched, verse-novel Egypt, Akhenaten, a pharaoh of incestuous desires and androgynous beauty, defies tradition to enthrone himself as the living embodiment of a singular, heretical sun god, only to face the calculated erasure of his megalomaniacal reign.

  17. The Clock of Life

    Nancy Klann-Moren

    ★ 4.2 (96) average on Goodreads

    In racially charged 1980s Mississippi, a young boy's friendship with a Black peer and stories of his fallen father force him to confront inequality and find his own courage.

  18. The Wailing

    M.R. Graham

    ★ 4.3 (50) average on GoodreadsFantasy

    During the London Blitz, an immortal assassin blackmailed by the Crown finds that even the undead can die, and some threats are older and more terrifying than Nazi bombs.

  19. Beyond the Horizon

    Jesseca Wheaton

    Young Adult

    In a world on the edge of war, a young woman's forbidden love and a devastating family secret force her to choose between the life she knows and the freedom she seeks beyond Salzburg's imposing mountains.

  20. One

    Richard Bach

    Richard Bach and his wife discover a universe where their lives diverge into infinite possibilities, forcing them to confront the happiness of their own reality.

  21. The Fox

    M.N.J. Butler

  22. The Book of Jubilees

    Eric M. Black

    Fantasy

    Juan Ponce de Leon finds a mythical fountain from Eden. He and his enemy, Diego Columbus, are drawn into an ancient war against fallen angels, Nephilim, and the Elioud. They fight to reclaim the Ark of the Covenant and save creation using King Solomon's wisdom and the Book of Jubilees.

  23. Strife

    Cate Tiernan

    A young witch's dedication to magic creates family conflict and coven persecution, forcing her to find inner strength amid chaos.

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