Historical Fiction Book Reviews

Peeking into the past can provide valuable insight about the present, even if the two time periods and places seem like very different worlds. In Widow Walk by Gar LaSalle, readers are transported into the lives of bold settlers in the Pacific Northwest, determined survivors in the wilderness, who must face seemingly endless trials in their bid to make that land a home.

The brilliant component of this novel is that it doesn’t come across as distant historical fiction for the sake of escapism or novelty – it is packed with timeless life experiences, existential crises, and subjects of sovereignty […]

Partially based on real history, The Final Departure by Epp Marsh III tells an alternate history where Marcus Garvey’s Greater Liberia Act is put into widespread effect. In 1929, Civil Rights pioneer Marcus Garvey strikes a devil’s bargain with the Ku Klux Klan to turn the United States into an all-white nation. Congress enacts the Greater Liberia Act, arranging passage for every black American to Africa, while leaving unprotected any black citizen who choose to stay behind.

The novel tells the story of Ruth Gaines who remains in the U.S. with her true love Lance Wainwright, the eldest son of […]