Historical Fiction Book Reviews

Two lost souls in search of timeless answers leave all they have known behind in Harvest Moon, Book 4 in Jenny Knipfer’s immersive and emotional By the Light of the Moon series.

The dual stories of Maang-ikwe and Niin-mawin show their vastly different experiences as indigenous people, but as their lives entangle, their natural alliance emerges. While navigating the perils of new social situations and cities, they both struggle to find a genuine balance between where they came from and who they are becoming.

Supported brilliantly by strong secondary characters and foils that leap off the page, rather than […]

America’s old scars and the fresh wounds of emotional turmoil are on full display in Sorrow Ledge, a visceral and beautifully penned novel by author Kenneth Arbogast. Set more than a century ago, in those fragile decades following the Civil War, this character-driven drama centers on an eclectic and unexpected collision of worlds – old enemies with persistent grudges, new allies, and a bleak landscape at a far edge of the world.

Ben and his wife Rebecca live on an isolated island off the coast of Maine, satisfied in their insular world after Ben’s bloody descent into the Southern […]

Author Greg Wyss expertly transports readers to the chaotic 70s with remarkable ease and charm in When Life Was Like a Cucumber. Following Jeffrey Hesse’s fiery split from his wife, this is a hilariously unpredictable story of his self-exploration, healing, liberation, and growth.

For those who lived through the 1960s and 70s, this book is a nostalgic plunge that practically exudes the whiff of patchouli, illicit substances, and motor oil. Couched in the tumultuous Watergate era, there is an unmistakable weight to this story as well, giving the book a relatability for modern readers who may have not lived […]