Preferably, ones that aren’t too romance heavy. I don’t mind a subplot, but I don’t want it to be the main focus.
I grew up reading the American Girl books and the Boston Jane series. Plus, numerous other historical books. However, finding them as an adult has been hard because they’re all historical romance and some sort of spy thing. I’m probably not looking in the right places but can someone just suggest me a good adult historical book that’ll scratch the itch.
by manic_moth95
18 Comments
The Last Aloha by Gaellen Quinn.
Do you care about a specific historical time period or place?
Code Name Helene by Ariel Lawhon
Pope Joan by Donna Woolfolk Cross
All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
Honolulu by Alan Brennert
Emphatically not female-centric, but Patrick O’Brian’s Master & Commander novels are amazing.
*The Nightingale* by Kristin Hannah
Lady Tan’s Circle of Women by Lisa See (Set in Imperial China)
The Art of a Lie by Laura Shepherd Robinson (18th Century London, romance subplot but it’s not central)
Violeta by Isabelle Allende (20th Century Chile)
Fingersmith by Sarah Waters (19th Century England, romance subplot)
The Shape of Darkness by Laura Purcell (18th Century England)
The Phoenix of Florence by Phillip Kazan (16th Century Italy)
Hamnet by Maggie O Farrell (Shakespeare’s England)
The Glass Woman by Caroline Lea (17th Century Iceland)
The Wolf Den by Elodie Harper (Ancient Pompeii / Rome)
“The Gates of the Alamo” by Stephen Harrigan
It’s about the coming of age of a young man and the love story between his mom & a botanist set during the Texas Revolution.
The three of them find themselves in the Alamo during the siege & subsequent battle. It’s historically accurate in terms of the Texas Revolution.
“Hadrian’s Wall” by William Dietrich is about a Roman woman sent to Roman Britain to marry a commander on the Wall. She’s kidnapped by the “barbaric” natives and taken beyond the Wall where she finds a new life.
I would say that both are at least “PG-13” or “R” due to violence & sex.
The Last Witchfinder by James K. Morrow. There’s romance in it, but it isn’t the point.
The Captain, by Jan de Hartog… set in WWII on the flotillas that went to supply Russia. Fiction, but very realistic seeming.
The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray. This one is a gem. It’s based on the incredible true story of Belle da Costa Greene, J.P. Morgan’s personal librarian who helped build the Morgan Library, but secretly passed as white to keep her job.
The 19th Wife by David Ebershoff is great. It combines historical fiction with a modern murder mystery, centered around the topic of polygamy.
What time period are you looking for? There are so many that aren’t romance or thrillers. Go to your local library and ask for recommendations. Or browse their displays or just the shelves. You can’t help but find scads of historical fiction.
The Frozen River
Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith
Lilac Girls. Don’t think it has romance though
Herman Wouk’s Winds of War and sequel War and Remembrance.
Irving Stone. Lust for Life about Van Gogh. Agony and the Ecstasy about Michelangelo.
The Cold Millions – Jess Walter
Any books by Ruta Sepetys