Category Archives: Historical Fiction

The Bronzed Beasts by Roshani Chokshi

In love they breathed. In destiny they believed. In the end, will divinity be their demise? After Séverin’s seeming betrayal, the crew is fractured. Armed with only a handful of hints, Enrique, Laila, Hypnos and Zofia must find their way through the snarled, haunted waterways of Venice, Italy to locate Séverin. Meanwhile, Séverin must balance the deranged whims of the Patriarch of the Fallen House and discover the location of a temple beneath a plague island where the Divine Lyre can be played and all that he desires will come to pass. With only ten days until Laila expires, the crew will face plague pits and deadly masquerades, un… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Ableism
  • Antisemitism recounted
  • Racism
  • Colonialism discussed
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Blood depiction
  • Emesis
  • Terminal illness
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Murder
  • Explosion
  • Animal sacrifice mentioned

A Most Agreeable Murder by Julia Seales

Feisty, passionate Beatrice Steele has never fit the definition of a true lady, according to the strict code of conduct that reigns in Swampshire, her small English township–she is terrible at needlework, has absolutely no musical ability, and her artwork is so bad it frightens people. Nevertheless, she lives a perfectly agreeable life with her marriage-scheming mother, prankster father, and two younger sisters– beautiful Louisa and forgettable Mary. But she harbours a dark secret: She is obsessed with the true crime cases she reads about in the newspaper. If anyone in her etiquette-obsessed community found out, she’d be deemed a morbid creep and banished from respectable society… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Pregnancy mentioned (secondary character)
  • Murder & attempted murder

To Shape a Dragon’s Breath by Moniquill Blackgoose

The remote island of Masquapaug has not seen a dragon in many generations—until fifteen-year-old Anequs finds a dragon’s egg and bonds with its hatchling. Her people are delighted, for all remember the tales of the days when dragons lived among them and danced away the storms of autumn, enabling the people to thrive. To them, Anequs is revered as Nampeshiweisit—a person in a unique relationship with a dragon. Unfortunately for Anequs, the Anglish conquerors of her land have different opinions. They have a very specific idea of how a dragon should be raised, and who should be doing the raisi… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Racism
  • Misogyny & sexism
  • Slavery
  • Hate crime
  • Death of parents recounted
  • Police brutality
  • Genocide & colonialism discussed

Daughters of Shandong by Eve J. Chung

In 1948, civil war ravages the Chinese countryside, but in rural Shandong, the wealthy, landowning Angs are more concerned with their lack of an heir. Hai is the eldest of four girls and spends her days looking after her sisters. Headstrong Di, who is just a year younger, learns to hide in plain sight, and their mother—abused by the family for failing to birth a boy—finds her own small acts of rebellion in the kitchen. As the Communist army closes in on their town, the rest of the prosperous household flees, leaving behind the girls and their mother because they view them as useless mouths to feed. Without an Ang male to punish, the…. Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Graphic misogyny (theme)
  • Spousal & parental abandonment
  • Physical & verbal domestic by parent-in-law
  • Torture

The Women by Kristin Hannah

The missing. The forgotten. The brave… The women. When twenty-year-old nursing student Frances “Frankie” McGrath hears these unexpected words, it is a revelation. Raised on idyllic Coronado Island and sheltered by her conservative parents, she has always prided herself on doing the right thing, being a good girl. But in 1965 the world is changing, and she suddenly imagines a different choice for her life. When her brother ships out to serve in Vietnam, she impulsively joins the Army Nurse Corps and follows his path. As green and inexperienced as the… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Sexism
  • Infidelity
  • Attempted suicide
  • Miscarriage
  • Psychiatric hospitalisation
  • Graphic blood, gore & injury depiction
  • Medical procedures
  • Death of a brother
  • Gun violence
  • Explosions & bombings
  • Military violence & Vietnam War (theme) including mentions of chemical gassing

The Diamond Keeper by Jeannie Mobley

Eighteen-year-old Claudie Durand’s future is planned. She’ll take over the family inn, watch her much prettier younger sister, Mathilde, married off to the butcher’s son, and live out her days alone, without the hope of finding a love of her own. Her mother ran off to the cloister when she was young, and her gruff, abusive father has deemed her unmarriageable, a nuisance, and only good for hard labour. But outside their small village in Brittany, a revolution is brewing. When the Army of the Republic seizes their town, and Claudie finds herself at the center of the… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Domestic violence recounted
  • Depiction of dead bodies
  • Gun violence
  • Murder by stabbing & bayonet
  • Physical assault
  • Riots

9/11 by Alan Gratz

9/11 by Alan Gratz

September 11, 2001. New York City. Nine-year-old Brandon goes to work with his dad on the 107th floor of the World Trade Center. Out of nowhere, an aeroplane slams into the tower, creating a fiery nightmare of terror and confusion that threatens everyone in the building. Can Brandon survive–and escape? September 11, 2019. Afghanistan. Eleven-year-old Reshmina has grown up in the shadow of war, but she dreams of peace and progress. When a battle erupts in her village, Reshmina stumbles upon a wounded American soldier named Taz. Should she help him–and put herself and her family in mortal danger?

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • War themes
  • The events of 9/11 (theme) including building collapse and plane crash

Captain America: The Ghost Army by Alan Gratz

Captain America: The Ghost Army by Alan Gratz and illustrated by Brent Schoonover

In this thrilling historical adventure, 18-year-old Steve Rogers (AKA Captain America) and his young sidekick, Bucky Barnes are fighting in WWII when they encounter a threat like none they’ve ever seen — a Ghost Army. The dead of this war and wars past are coming back to life, impervious to bullets, flames, or anything else the Allies can throw at them. The armies rise from the ground in the night and seem to disappear without a trace. How can Cap and Buck fight something that’s already dead? And just what does the mysterious Baron Mordo, sitting in his castle atop nearby Wundagore Mountain have to do with this?

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Nazism
  • Death from a head injury (sc)
  • Military deployment during War World Two (theme)

Allies by Alan Gratz

Allies by Alan Gratz

Welcome to D-Day. Dee, a young U.S. soldier, is on a boat racing toward the French coast. And Dee — along with his brothers-in-arms — is terrified. He feels the weight of World War II on his shoulders. But Dee is not alone. Behind enemy lines in France, a girl named Samira works as a spy, trying to sabotage the German army. Meanwhile, paratrooper James leaps from his plane to join a daring midnight raid. And in the thick of battle, Henry, a medic, searches for lives to save.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Racism & racial slurs
  • Antisemitism
  • Medical procedures
  • Gun violence
  • Explosions
  • Military deployment during War World Two (theme)
  • Train accident
  • Bullying

Projekt 1065 by Alan Gratz

Projekt 1065 by Alan Gratz

Infiltrate. Befriend. Sabotage. World War II is raging. Michael O’Shaunessey, originally from Ireland, now lives in Nazi Germany with his parents. Like the other boys in his school, Michael is a member of the Hitler Youth. But Michael has a secret. He and his parents are spies. Michael despises everything the Nazis stand for. But he joins in the Hitler Youth’s horrific games and book burnings, playing the part so he can gain insider knowledge. When Michael learns about Projekt 1065, a secret Nazi war mission, things get even more complicated. He must prove his loyalty… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Racism
  • Antisemitism & Nazism
  • Blood & gore depiction
  • Death of a friend
  • Gun violence
  • Explosion
  • War World Two (theme)