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2,887 reviews & 68 feature articles are currently online.

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Words Spoken True

Ann H. Gabhart

Adriane is a woman born ahead of her time, lacking the desire to be socially acceptable in her prim and proper society. Instead, she finds herself intrigued by…

Jane Austen Stole My Boyfriend

Cora Harrison

This lively story, based loosely on 15-year-old Jane Austen’s visit to her Leigh-Perrot relations in Bath in 1791, tells of Jane and her 17-year-old cousin Jenny’s adventures there,…

Lady Amelia’s Mess and a Half

Samantha Grace

In this Regency novel, the widowed Lady Amelia Audley returns to London after a two-year absence. She is accompanied by her trusted and loyal friend, Lady Bianca Kennell,…

Gathering of Waters

Bernice L. McFadden

We often imagine what it would be like if a place could talk, be a witness to historical events. Bernice McFadden accomplishes this fantasy with the personification of…

The Secret Children

Alison McQueen

1925. When James MacDonald, a lonely Scots tea planter in Assam, took a beautiful Indian girl as a concubine, he did not foresee two daughters, accidents of his…

Love’s Sacred Song

Mesu Andrews

King David, renowned Israeli king, is lying on his deathbed, comforted by Abishag, the woman taken from the Northern Tribe of Shunem to be his bride but kept…

A Lady Cyclist’s Guide to Kashgar

Suzanne Joinson

In 1923, Evangeline English is stagnating in gray, sedentary Dorset. When her sister Lizzie joins Millicent Frost, a charismatic missionary, in a venture to the Far East, Evangeline…

Slant of Light

Steve Wiegenstein

Just before the Civil War, Turner, a writer and lecturer, founds Daybreak, a Utopian community, in the Missouri Ozarks. He, his wife Charlotte, and Cabot, an abolitionist, are…

City of Fortune: How Venice Ruled the…

Roger Crowley

Crowley relies heavily on primary sources as he recounts Venice’s economic rise from the time of the Fourth Crusade to its decline in the early years of the…

The First Crusade

Peter Frankopan

Pope Urban’s 1095 clarion call to Western Christendom to re-take Jerusalem from the Turks is the background for many historical novels. In this fascinating book, Peter Frankopan examines…

China’s Wings: War Intrigue Romance…

Gregory Crouch

In 1929, inspired by Charles Lindbergh, William Bond decided to get into aviation. Bond began on a construction job outside of Baltimore with the Curtiss-Wright Company. Though the…

True Sisters

Sandra Dallas

The year is 1856, and it is already July when a determined group of Mormon Saints begins a journey from Iowa to Utah on foot, all their worldly…

Gilded Lives Fatal Voyage: The…

Hugh Brewster

The Titanic has captured popular imagination for the last hundred years, and for good reason — it’s a tale of hubris and heroism, of lives saved and even…

The Flowers of War

Geling Yan, Nicky Harman (trans.)

In 1937, the Japanese capture Nanking, China. An expatriate American priest, Father Engelmann, hopes his church will be respected as a safe, neutral zone. He gives sanctuary to…

Mariana

Susanna Kearsley

For fans of time travel and reincarnation-themed historical fiction, this 1993 Catherine Cookson Fiction Award winner will be excitedly welcomed back as a Sourcebooks re-release. Julia Beckett has…

Next review

Contents Andrew Miller’s Pure: the Historical Novel as ‘time outside time’ Lucinda Byatt discovers that Pure is not so much about history as the erasing of history Richard Lee picks 3 lines that demonstrate why Pure is a ‘literary’ novel, not just ‘good writing’ Andrew…

HNS Guide: Ancient Rome

This is way too big a subject for one guide, and will no doubt get divided into many subsections in due course. In addition we have reviews tagged here, and our browse buttons allow you to explore by century or genre if you wish. Ancient…

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What is the HNS?

We are a literary society devoted to promoting the enjoyment of historical fiction. We are based in the USA and the UK but we welcome members (who can be readers or writers) from all round the world. Through our print magazines, conferences, website, social media and through the dynamism of our membership we help bring the excitement of these novels to the widest audience. Find out about joining us here.

Historical Novel Society