Forthcoming Historical Novels for 2025

The Historical Novel Society lists mainstream and small press titles for historical novels set in eras from ancient times to the mid-1970s. Details are based on publishers’ descriptions and are compiled by Fiona Sheppard (US, CAN, UK, ANZ).

Other than short excerpts, please link to this page rather than copying the entries – thank you!

See our guide to forthcoming historical novels for 2024 for previous releases.

For children’s titles, see our guides to children’s and YA historical novels out in 2025 and in 2024.

THIS IS A WORK IN PROGRESS. Please visit us again soon!

Last update: May 31, 2024

January 2025

Isa Arsén, The Unbecoming of Margaret Wolf, Putnam (mid-century novel about two Shakespearean actors during one summer that will drive them closer or rip them apart)

Lauralee Bliss, When the Avalanche Roared, Barbour (one of six stories about historic disasters which transformed landscapes and lives)

Costanza Casati, Babylonia, Sourcebooks Landmark (novel based on a legend which tells of an orphan born into a life of toil and anonymity who rises from nothing to rule kingdoms and command armies)

Fiona Davis, The Stolen Queen, Dutton (novel transports readers from New York City’s most glamorous party to the labyrinth streets of Cairo and back. Set in Egypt, 1936 and NYC, 1978)

Alex Hay, The Queen of Fives, Graydon House (novel set against the most magnificent wedding of the season, as a mysterious heiress sets her sights on London’s most illustrious family)

Kirsten Sundberg Lunstrum, Elita, TriQuarterly (winter 1951; a child development specialist travels to Elita in the Puget Sound where guards of the penitentiary have discovered an animal-like adolescent living outside the prison walls)

Tarris Marie, Empress Creed, Black Odyssey Media (romantic drama set amidst the glitz and grit of 1930’s Chicago, where post-Depression hardship and Jim Crow injustice still rule)

Katherine Mezzacappa, The Ballad of Mary Kearney, Addison & Highsmith (set in County Down, Dublin, and London, story told through letters, diaries, testimonies, and trial proceedings, gives voice to Ireland’s tumultuous history)

Stacy Lynn Miller, The Songbird, Severn River (novel of espionage, love, and betrayal in WWII Brazil)

Kate Mosse, The Map of Bones, Macmillan (dual timeline conclusion to The Joubert Family Chronicles, set in southern Africa in 1688 and 1862)

Elaine Neil Orr, Dancing Woman, Blair (portrait of a young female artist, torn between two men and two cultures, struggling to find her passion and her purpose in the 1960s)

Tom Ross, Miss Abracadabra, Deep Vellum Publishing (tells a story of intergenerational change and conflict in a Black American family in the pre-Civil Rights era)

A. L. Sowards, Beyond the Crescent Sky, Shadow Mountain (1383; as the Ottoman Empire extends its grip into the Balkans, events force Ivan and Helena to choose between loyalty or following their hearts)

Dana Stabenow, Abduction of a Slave, Aries (historical mystery in the Eye of Isis series set in Ancient Egypt during Cleopatra’s reign)

Lucy Steeds, The Artist, John Murray (Provence, 1920; an aspiring journalist believes he will make his name by interviewing artist Edouard Tartuffe, while his niece Ettie has spent years cultivating her secrets)

Karen Tuft, Lady Anna’s Favor, Shadow Mountain (London, England, 1814; Lady Anna Clifton will stop at nothing to find her missing brother)

Susan C. Wilson, Helen’s Judgment, Neem Tree Press (first-person retelling that redefines the story of Greek mythology’s Helen of Troy)

Jane Yang, The Lotus Shoes, Park Row/Harper Canada/Sphere (set in 1800s; focuses on an enslaved maid and her wealthy mistress as they survive the restrictions placed on them as women)

Ellen Yardley, Eleanor and the Cold War, Kensington (1950s Cold War historical mystery debut featuring the former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt’s indispensable assistant)

February 2025

H.W. “Buzz” Bernard, Where the Dawn Comes Up Like Thunder, Severn River (amidst the turmoil of World War II, a daring Army Air Forces aviator is swept into an odyssey that will carry him to the far corners of the earth)

Jessica Bull, The Foreign Princess, Union Square (a witty murder mystery featuring Jane Austen as an intrepid sleuth— second installment in the Miss Austen Investigates series set in 1797)

Roger Celestin, The Delicate Beast, Bellevue Literary Press (a novel of a life lived in the shadow of history, portraying the pernicious legacy of political violence)

Lesley Eames, A Foundling at the Wartime Bookshop, Penguin (fifth in the WWII saga series)

Erin Crosby Eckstine, Junie, Ballantine (a young girl faces a life-altering decision, navigating love, friendship, and her sister’s ghost as the Civil War looms)

Linda Epstein, Ally Malinenko, Liz Parker, The Other March Sisters, Kensington (reimagining of Little Women in which Jo’s sisters grapple with societal strictures, queer love, motherhood, chronic illness, artistic ambition, and more)

Stephen Greco, The Last American Heiresses, John Scognamiglio (draws readers into the lives of legendary heiresses Doris Duke and Barbara Hutton and the public rivalry that defined them)

India Hayford, The Song of the Blue Bottle Tree, John Scognamiglio (set in rural Arkansas in 1967, Southern novel draws readers into a visceral tale of secrets, desperate choices, and belonging)

Alyssa Maxwell, Two Weddings and a Murder, Kensington (June 1922; as Lady Phoebe and her betrothed say their vows of holy matrimony, a killer has vowed unholy vengeance on the town’s chief inspector)

Patrice McDonough, A Slash of Emerald, Kensington (Victorian-set mystery series where medical examiner Julia Lewis, and her partner, DI Richard Tennant, investigate a string of murders. Julia Lewis series book two)

Lars Mytting, The Night of the Scourge, The Overlook Press (family drama set in WWII–era Norway)

Frances Quinn, The Lost Passenger, Simon & Schuster UK (1912; uplifting story about grabbing your chances with both hands, and being brave enough to find out who you really are)

Samuel M. Sargeant, Faith of Their Fathers, Neem Tree Press (historical thriller set in 11th-century Medieval Iceland)

Olivia Wolfgang-Smith, Mutual Interest, Bloomsbury (novel about three queer people united by marriage, love, and their budding business empire in turn-of-the-twentieth-century New York City)

March 2025

Guy Jenkin, Murder Most Foul, Legend Press (dark, witty murder mystery set in 1593 with amateur sleuths Will Shakespeare and Chris Marlowe’s sister, Ann)

Mary Monroe, Bent But Not Broken, Dafina (Depression-era Alabama novel tells of a mistreated wife who finally finds the love she’s longed for—only to be plunged into deceit, betrayal, and murder)

Erica Ruth Neubauer, Homicide in the Indian Hills, Kensington (American newlywed Jane Wunderly learns that tigers aren’t the only dangers lurking in 1920s India)

Natasha Pulley, The Hymn to Dionysus, Bloomsbury (reimagining of the story of Dionysus, Greek God of ecstasy and madness, revelry and ruin)

Vanessa Riley, A Wager at Midnight, Zebra (romance in which a duke has made a wager to find husbands for the love-of-his-life’s two sisters, in order to have a second chance with her)

Caroline Scott, Greenfields, S&S UK (when Robert Bardsley arrives at Greenfields in spring, 1933, it is home to a collective of writers, artists, and musicians, until the cracks start to show)

Bridget Walsh, The Spirit Guide, Gallic (1879, London; scriptwriter Minnie Ward and ex-police officer Albert Easterbrook are drawn into a world of celebrities, ghosts and questionable cults)

April 2025

Colleen Cambridge, A Fashionably French Murder, Kensington (1950; American expat Tabitha Knight has found a new life in postwar Paris, along with a delightful friend in aspiring chef Julia Child)

Sandra Dallas, Tough Luck, St. Martin’s (in this homage to True Grit, a young woman makes a perilous journey west in 1863 in search of her gold-mining father)

Sabrina Jeffries, Hazardous to a Duke’s Heart, Kensington (romance with a once-exiled patriot who returns home to a changed world. Lords of Hazard series)

Rachel Rueckert, The Determined, Kensington (set during the Golden Age of Pirates, based on the real experiences of Anne Bonny and Mary Read, who dared to subvert the rules and roles assigned to women of their time)

Shaina Steinberg, An Unquiet Peace, Kensington (novel following Paper Moon takes place in October 1948 around the Berlin Airlift)

Emily Sullivan, A Death on Corfu, Kensington (full description forthcoming)

May 2025

Lila Cain, The Blackbirds of St Giles, Dafina (1782 London; Daniel & his sister Pearl escape a sugar plantation and arrive in London where they are callously tricked into the underworld labyrinth of the rookeries of St Giles)

Patricia Falvey, The Famine Orphans, Kensington (full description forthcoming)

Amanda Flower, Not They Who Soar, Kensington (while Wilbur and Orville Wright’s flying machine has taken off and made history, their equally brilliant sister, Katharine, is on the ground, solving murders)

Jack Ford, Beyond This Place of Wrath and Tears, Kensington (dual timeline novel of Lee Carson, the heroic yet elusive female journalist who defied convention and danger to report from the front lines of WWII)

Jenny Holiday, Manic Pixie Dream Earl, Kensington (Regency romance – full description forthcoming)

Felicity York, The Quiet Wife, HarperNorth (1867; based on a true story; tale of a woman reinventing herself, while embarking on a forbidden love affair with American artist James Whistler)