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Historical Fiction

The Best Historical Fiction Books of 2023

Are you a fan of historical fiction? If so, you’ll love our roundup of the best books hitting shelves in 2023!

Last Updated on December 22, 2023 by BiblioLifestyle

The Best 2023 Historical Fiction Books

Are you a fan of historical fiction books?  If so, you’ll be in for a treat this year!  2023 is shaping up to be a fantastic year for fans of the genre.  With new stories from some of our favorite authors and fresh faces debuting their first works, there’s something for everyone to enjoy.  From tales set during the war to journeys through time spanning centuries, these are the top 2023 historical fiction books readers won’t want to miss.

More of The Best 2023 Historical Fiction Books

The Best Historical Fiction Books of 2023

  1. The Night Travelers by Armando Lucas Correa
  2. The New Life by Tom Crewe
  3. River Sing Me Home by Eleanor Shearer
  4. The Little Wartime Library by Kate Thompson
  5. Hang the Moon by Jeannette Walls
  6. Two Wars and a Wedding by Lauren Willig
  7. Homecoming by Kate Morton
  8. The Lost Wife by Susanna Moore
  9. The Disenchantment by Celia Bell
  10. The House Is on Fire by Rachel Beanland
  11. Only the Beautiful by Susan Meissner
  12. The Secret Book of Flora Lea by Patti Callahan Henry
  13. Good Night, Irene by Luis Alberto Urrea
  14. Lady Tan’s Circle of Women by Lisa See
  15. The Paris Daughter by Kristin Harmel
  16. The Cherokee Rose by Tiya Miles
  17. Loot by Tania James
  18. The Spectacular by Fiona Davis
  19. The Brightest Star by Gail Tsukiyama
  20. The Romantic by William Boyd
  21. Beyond the Door of No Return by David Diop, Translated by Sam Taylor
  22. Queen Hereafter by Isabelle Schuler
  23. The House of Doors by Tan Twan Eng
  24. Let Us Descend by Jesmyn Ward
  25. Above the Salt by Katherine Vaz
  26. The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon
The Night Travelers by Armando Lucas Correa

The Night Travelers by Armando Lucas Correa

Four generations of courageous women navigating love, loss, war, and hope from WWII Germany, the Cuban Revolution, and the Berlin wall’s fall.

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The Night Travelers is one of the books in The 2023 Winter Reading Guide.

The New Life by Tom Crewe

The New Life by Tom Crewe

Two marriages, two forbidden love affairs, and two Englishmen searching for social and sexual freedom in 1890s England.

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The New Life is one of the books in The 2023 Winter Reading Guide.

River Sing Me Home by Eleanor Shearer

River Sing Me Home by Eleanor Shearer

A page-turning and redemptive story of a mother’s gripping journey across the Caribbean to find her stolen children in the aftermath of slavery.

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The Little Wartime Library by Kate Thompson

The Little Wartime Library by Kate Thompson

An uplifting and inspiring novel based on the true story of a librarian who created an underground shelter during World War II.

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The Little Wartime Library is one of the books in The 2023 Winter Reading Guide.

Hang the Moon by Jeannette Walls

Hang the Moon by Jeannette Walls

A riveting new novel about an indomitable young woman in Virginia during Prohibition.

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Hang the Moon is one of the books in The 2023 Spring Reading Guide.

Two Wars and a Wedding by Lauren Willig

Two Wars and a Wedding by Lauren Willig

From New York Times bestselling author Lauren Willig: a dramatic coming-of-age story with a dual timeline and a single heroine—a bold and adventuring young woman who finds herself caught up in two very different wars on both sides of the Atlantic.

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Two Wars and a Wedding is one of the books in The 2023 Spring Reading Guide.

Homecoming by Kate Morton

Homecoming by Kate Morton

The highly anticipated new novel from the New York Times bestselling author of The Clockmaker’s Daughter, a sweeping saga with a thrilling mystery at its heart tracing a shocking crime whose effects echo across continents and generations.

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The Lost Wife by Susanna Moore

The Lost Wife by Susanna Moore

From one of our most versatile, compelling, and sensual writers comes a searing, immersive novel about a seminal and shameful moment in America’s conquest of the West. Drawing partly from a true story, Susanna Moore brings to life a devastating Native American revolt and the woman caught in the middle of the conflict.

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The Lost Wife is one of the books in The 2023 Spring Reading Guide.

The House Is on Fire by Rachel Beanland

The House Is on Fire by Rachel Beanland

The author of Florence Adler Swims Forever returns with a masterful work of historical fiction about an incendiary tragedy that shocked a young nation and tore apart a community in a single night—told from the perspectives of four people whose actions during the inferno changed the course of history.

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Listen to Rachel talk about The House Is on Fire on the podcast.

Only the Beautiful by Susan Meissner

Only the Beautiful by Susan Meissner

A heartrending story about a young mother’s fight to keep her daughter and the winds of fortune that tear them apart, by the USA Today bestselling author of The Nature of Fragile Things and The Last Year of the War.

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The Disenchantment by Celia Bell

The Disenchantment by Celia Bell

Set in 17th-century Paris, the novel follows a passionate love affair between two noblewomen who wish to free themselves from their repressive society, whatever the cost.

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The Disenchantment is one of the books in The 2023 Summer Reading Guide.

The Secret Book of Flora Lea by Patti Callahan Henry

The Secret Book of Flora Lea by Patti Callahan Henry

When a woman stumbles across a mysterious children’s book, long-held secrets about her missing sister and their childhood spent in the English countryside during World War II are revealed.

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Good Night, Irene by Luis Alberto Urrea

Good Night, Irene by Luis Alberto Urrea

What if a friendship forged on the front lines of war defines a life forever? In the tradition of The Nightingale and Transcription, a searing epic based on the magnificent and true story of heroic Red Cross women.

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Good Night, Irene is one of the books selected for The 2023 Summer Reading Guide.

Lady Tan's Circle of Women by Lisa See

Lady Tan’s Circle of Women by Lisa See

The latest historical novel from New York Times bestselling author Lisa See, inspired by the true story of a woman physician from 15th-century China—perfect for fans of See’s classic Snowflower and the Secret Fan and The Island of Sea Women.

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Lady Tan’s Circle of Women is one of the books selected for The 2023 Summer Reading Guide.

The Paris Daughter by Kristin Harmel

The Paris Daughter by Kristin Harmel

From the bestselling author of the “heart-stopping tale of survival and heroism” (People) The Book of Lost Names comes a gripping historical novel about two mothers who must make unthinkable choices in the face of the Nazi occupation.

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The Paris Daughter is one of the books selected for The 2023 Summer Reading Guide.

The Cherokee Rose by Tiya Miles

The Cherokee Rose by Tiya Miles

Three women uncover the secrets of a Georgia plantation that embodies the intertwined histories of Indigenous and enslaved Black communities—the fascinating debut novel, inspired by a true story, of the National Book Award-winning and New York Times bestselling author of All That She Carried, now featuring a new introduction.

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The Cherokee Rose is one of the books selected for The 2023 Summer Reading Guide.

Listen to Tiya Miles on the podcast.

Loot by Tania James

Loot by Tania James

A spellbinding historical novel set in eighteenth-century India, England, and France, about a young man’s dream of leaving a mark on the world.

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Loot is one of the books selected for The 2023 Summer Reading Guide.

The Spectacular by Fiona Davis

The Spectacular by Fiona Davis

New York Times bestselling author Fiona Davis transports us back to 1950s Manhattan and glamorous Radio City Music Hall in her thrilling new novel about a talented young Rockette and a mysterious bomber terrorizing New York City.

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The Brightest Star by Gail Tsukiyama

The Brightest Star by Gail Tsukiyama

The beloved bestselling author of The Color of Air, Women of the Silk, and The Samurai’s Garden returns with this magnificent historical novel based on the life of the luminous, groundbreaking actress Anna May Wong—the first and only Asian American woman to gain movie stardom in the early days of Hollywood.

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The Romantic by William Boyd

The Romantic by William Boyd

From the award-winning, internationally best-selling author, a romp of a novel, at once intimate and panoramic, about the adventures and misadventures of a nineteenth-century everyman.

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Beyond the Door of No Return by David Diop, Translated by Sam Taylor

Beyond the Door of No Return by David Diop, Translated by Sam Taylor

Told in stories from the perspective of a French botanist in Senegal who becomes obsessed with finding a woman sold into slavery and escaped.

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Beyond the Door of No Return is one of the books selected in The 2023 Fall Reading Guide.

Queen Hereafter by Isabelle Schuler

Queen Hereafter by Isabelle Schuler

A suspenseful, sweeping historical epic for readers of Natalie Haynes and Madeline Miller, which boldly reimagines the origin story of the woman who inspired one of Shakespeare’s most iconic characters, Lady Macbeth.

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The House of Doors by Tan Twan Eng

The House of Doors by Tan Twan Eng

From the bestselling, Booker Prize-shortlisted author of The Garden of Evening Mists, a spellbinding novel about love and betrayal, colonialism and revolution, storytelling and redemption.

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Let Us Descend by Jesmyn Ward

Let Us Descend by Jesmyn Ward

From Jesmyn Ward—the two-time National Book Award winner, youngest winner of the Library of Congress Prize for Fiction, and MacArthur Fellow—comes a haunting masterpiece, sure to be an instant classic, about an enslaved girl in the years before the Civil War.

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Let Us Descend is one of the books selected in The 2023 Fall Reading Guide.

Let Us Descend was also an Oprah’s Book Club selection.

Above the Salt by Katherine Vaz

Above the Salt by Katherine Vaz

An irresistible and sweeping love story that follows two Portuguese refugees who flee religious violence and reignite their budding romance in Civil-War America.

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Above the Salt is one of the books selected in The 2023 Fall Reading Guide.

The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon

The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon

From the New York Times bestselling author of I Was Anastasia and Code Name Hélène comes a gripping historical mystery inspired by the life and diary of Martha Ballard, a renowned 18th-century midwife who investigates a shocking murder that unhinges her small community.

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The Frozen River is one of the books in The 2024 Winter Reading Guide.

The Frozen River is one the Good Morning America (GMA) Book Club selections.

What do you think about this list of best historical fiction books of 2023?

Have you read any books from this list?  What are your favorite 2023 historical fiction books?  What 2023 historical fiction books would you add to the list?  Let’s talk about all things historical fiction in the comments below.

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