It's not even December, and media outlets have been proclaiming their Best Books recommendations for 2024. I feel a bit sorry for those novels slated to come out next month! (Although to be fair, these may be included in roundups by pre-publication review sources.) Here are the lists I've come across thus far. As always, NPR's Books We Love crosses subgenres, age categories, and time periods (even ranging up through the 1980s) to present their annual collage of favorite historical novels: 44 of them.  If you prefer to see a list rather than a cover gallery, that's available too. Writ ..read more

If you aren't paying attention to indie-published historical fiction, you don't have a full picture of what the genre has to offer to readers today. You're also missing out on some wonderful stories. The best of these novels, as with those from mainstream publishers, have excellent writing and editing as well as professional cover art. And with indies, authors are organizing all this on their own, plus handling their own publicity and marketing. How did I go about choosing these? Some are by authors who have had previous novels out with big presses, so I've been following their writing paths ..read more

Voting for the opening round in the 2024 Goodreads Choice Awards is open for the next week, through November 4th. On the ballot for historical fiction are 20 titles, which appear in a random assortment. I've read only two of these, The Great Divide and The Frozen River.  Much as I enjoyed these two, I'm going to take a wild guess that the ultimate winner for 2024 will be Kristin Hannah's The Women.  It has a 4.63 rating and, most importantly, 88,160 reviews already on Goodreads.  Nothing else comes close in terms of review numbers. But even though the novels on this gr ..read more

She has gazed out at viewers for nearly four centuries: eyes wide, lips parted, hair unkempt, expression determined and sensual. The marble portrait of Costanza Piccolomini, one-time mistress of Baroque master Gianlorenzo Bernini, appears so lifelike it could almost speak, but as Rachel Blackmore reminds us in her exceptional debut novel, the real woman deserves a voice that stands independently of the male regard. In 1630s Rome, Costanza runs a respectable household as the wife of artisan Matteo Bonucelli, a kind but less-than-amorous man. Matteo’s new commission for St. Peter’s Basilica br ..read more

The Provençal city of Avignon in 1347-48 is rife with tension and drama, with the Catholic popes in residence, Queen Joanna of Naples seeking exoneration from her first husband’s murder, the arrival of the plague, and a stressed-out, decimated populace looking for someone to blame. In her debut, DeLozier takes full advantage of her setting’s potential with her exciting story. It’s a quest novel in a sense, encompassing a young woman’s mission to fulfill her calling as a healer while holding her family together in a perilous time. Eleanore (Elea) and Margot Blanchet are the twin daughters of ..read more

Several well-known historical novelists have announced their next books in recent weeks, and I found it especially interesting to see they're returning to (or in one case, staying with) the historical era and/or theme of their most popular books. Just after the Frankfurt Book Fair began last week, Philippa Gregory's publishing team began getting the word out about her next historical, to be called Boleyn Traitor, focusing on Jane (Parker) Boleyn, the controversial sister-in-law of Anne who was rumored to have played a role in the downfall of two of Henry VIII's queens. Gregory has written abo ..read more

Steeped in the language and mores of an earlier time, Julia Park Tracey’s meditative and defiantly life-affirming novel Silence follows a young woman punished for speaking her mind during a period of immense personal trauma. A member of a Separatist Puritan community in seaside Hingham, Massachusetts in 1722, Silence Marsh, the gentle daughter of the village weaver, enjoys a playful, loving relationship with her husband David, a local constable. Then, in rapid, tragic succession, Silence endures the losses of three adored family members, a situation that sees her returning to live with her w ..read more

In her third novel, Brock (The Lost Book of Eleanor Dare, 2022) proves marvelously adept at intertwining mythic stories with contemporary reality and showing how people reconcile the two. In 1959, illustrator Cleo Woodbine has lived alone on a tiny isle near Georgia’s Cumberland Island ever since the terrible events of one long-ago summer. When she receives a mailed obituary for a woman she knew back then, it rocks her world and introduces her to others seeking connection, including Frances Flood, the late woman’s daughter, and young, widowed innkeeper Audrey Howell. Their viewpoints alterna ..read more

Anyone conducting research in Gilded Age news archives will note the proliferation of ads for patent medicines: concoctions promoted as cure-alls for myriad ailments. The industry was notoriously unregulated, with many such products either ineffective or dangerously addictive. Set in 1901 Manhattan, Murder in Rose Hill homes in on this interesting subject. Louisa Rodgers, secretary and would-be journalist at New Century magazine, has been found strangled in her workplace’s lobby, days after the young woman had interviewed former midwife Sarah Malloy at her charity clinic, requesting backgrou ..read more

Over the past few weeks, many literary prize announcements have come to my attention via industry news sources or social media.  And historical novels have been among the winners!  Some of these awards are ones I haven't posted about before, and each has a different, frequently specialized focus.  If the scope for these awards interests you, you may find it worthwhile to visit their websites to research past winners, too.  First, the highest-profile award among them: the Booker Prize, for the best overall English-language novel published in the UK and Ireland. Out of the s ..read more