I’ve seen many fans of Maggie Stiefvater express hesitancy after reading the synopsis of her newest book, The Listeners. Not only is it her first book for adults, but the words “historical fiction” are being used in marketing, which doesn’t really “sound” like a Maggie Stiefvater book.
To those fans, I am here to say: FEAR NOT.
Katherine Arden is a master of atmosphere, and she has spared no hellish, haunting detail in writing the realities of WWI in The Warm Hands of Ghosts. As a work of historical fiction, it is excellent. If readers are hesitant about the supernatural themes of the book, I would say those elements are subdued and only require a bit of imagination and basic suspension of disbelief, versus an investment in complicated world-building.
Sophie Irwin’s A Lady’s Guide to Fortune-Hunting is a fresh, light, charming read. There is nothing ground-breaking in the story itself; it follows the pattern laid out before it for a typical Regency-era romance. It’s the execution that makes the book so thoroughly enjoyable.
Leigh Bardugo’s The Familiar is a dreamy, complex, well-structured story of miracles and magic, ambition and love, set in 16th-century Madrid during the Spanish Inquisition. Equal parts fantasy, romance, and historical fiction, this book was a delight to the senses and one to truly savor.
Sacha Lamb’s debut novel, When the Angels Left the Old Country, is a poignant, funny, adventurous story filled with Jewish folklore, dark realities of the immigrant experience, and the blossoming of unexpected love.
BOOK:30 