Huge thank you to Melinda at A Web of Stories for recommending The Mare in her historical fiction recommendations video!

Hear what she has to say about the difficult true story of Hermine Braunsteiner here:

youtu.be/j-QjSxH1tn8?...

In honour of #ReadHistoricalFiction2025 here are my top 25 historical fiction reads of the year so far:

1. Isola -- Allegra Goodman
2. Smoke on the Wind -- Kelli Estes *
3. The Master Jeweler -- Weina Dai Randel *

*Read as ARCs. Both to be released June 24

#booksky 💙📚
1/6...

19. The River We Remember -- William Kent Krueger
20. Miss Eliza's English Kitchen -- Annabel Abbs
21. The Mighty Red -- Louise Erdrich
22. We Loved to Run -- Stephanie Reents *

*Read as an ARC. Scheduled to be published Aug. 26.
5/6
#booksky
#ReadHistoricalFiction2025

9. The Fountains of Silence -- Ruta Sepetys
10. The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek -- Kim Michelle Richardson
11. The Most -- Jessica Anthony
12. The Lion Women of Tehran -- Marjan Kamali
13. The Bee Sting -- Paul Murray

3/6
#booksky 💙📚
#ReadHistoricalFiction2025

23. The Second Mrs. Astor -- Shana Abe
24. All the Colours of the Dark -- Chris Whitaker
25. Out of the Dust -- Karen Hesse

I truly enjoyed all of these books. Feel free to give me any recommendations based on my list.

6/6
#booksky 💙📚
#ReadHistoricalFiction2025

4. The Pull of the Stars -- Emma Donoghue
5. There Are Rivers in the Sky -- Elif Shafak
6. Dandelion -- Jamie Chai Yun Liew
7. The Girls of Good Fortune -- Kristina McMorris *
8. Happy Land -- Dolen Perkins-Valdez

*Read as an ARC. Already published.

2/6
#booksky 💙📚
#ReadHistoricalFiction2025

14. The Stolen Queen -- Fiona Davis *
15. Held -- Anne Michaels
16. Maya & Natasha -- Elyse Durham
17. What I Know About You -- Eric Chacour
18. The Safekeep -- Yael van der Wouden

*Read as an ARC. Already published

4/6
#booksky 💙📚
#ReadHIstoricalFiction2025