Summer is here and that means longer days stretching out into beautiful evenings (we hope!). For me that sounds like the perfect reading paradise! If your reading list is a little lackluster this summer or, if you are like me, are simply looking for a new historical fiction title to add to your summer reading list, here are a few of my favorite historical fiction reads that I have recently enjoyed.
The Last Train to Key West by Chanel Cleeton
If you read Ms. Cleeton’s other books you won’t be disappointed by this one either! Instead of Cuba, this historical fiction story is set in the Florida Keys right before a catastrophic hurricane that hit the Keys during Labor Day weekend of 1935.
This story follows three women, each from different walks of life. Helen, a Keys native, is in the late stages of pregnancy and has been married to an abusive husband for nine years. With the baby’s arrival so close at hand, Helen feels a strong desire to protect her baby and escape the abuse—but is now the right time?
Next we meet Elizabeth, the spoiled daughter of one of New York’s social elite but since the crash her family has fallen from the high-up social circles of the day. With Elizabeth’s father and brother gone, and her mother mentally unwell, it falls to Elizabeth to fix the family’s financial situation which includes debts to one of New York’s most notorious men. Trying to find a different option than the one readily in front of her, Elizabeth goes to the Keys to find the only person she has left—her older half-brother. If she can find him, he may be able to save her—but will she be able to find him?
Then there is Mirta, a Cuba native, who finds herself quickly married off to an American man who has many secrets. Mirta is trying to navigate what a marriage with this man will look like—will it look like her parents’ marriage or will it be different? And what of all his secrets? Is Mirta supposed to live in the dark her whole life or is it possible to have a marriage of equals with this man?
The Indigo Girl by Natasha Boyd
This book was so well done! Indigo Girl is the true story of Eliza Lucas, a 16 year old girl left to run her father’s three plantations in South Carolina in 1739. The family’s finances are not looking good, her father has borrowed against their land to advance his military career, leaving Eliza with a mess on her hands. She needs to find a cash crop quickly or risk losing her family’s land—and her freedom when she is forced to wed to relieve the family’s financial burdens.
Growing up in Antigua, Eliza has seen the process of indigo making and knows it to be a very tricky process, but it could be just what she needs to save herself and her family. Will she be able to pull it off in time? Fans of America’s First Daughter and My Dear Hamilton will love this historical fiction work .
Rebel Spy by Veronica Rossi
This story kicks off in Grand Bahama where the main character, Frannie Tasker, has grown up. She has been living there under the hand of her cruel stepfather, and has been dreaming of a chance to escape. Then one night the opportunity comes in the form of a shipwreck and a stolen identity. Before Frannie can second-guess herself she goes for it, escaping to America.
Never one to simply sit around, Frannie, now known as Emmiline Coats, soon covertly joins the Rebels’ side as a spy for Washington. Based on the little known facts of the true lady agent in the Culper spy ring, who was known as 355, this book takes a rather imaginative look at the possible identity of Agent 355. You will learn the events of the Revolution that Agent 355 is credited with stopping—events that if they had gone differently could have changed the outcome of the war.
The Rose Code by Kate Quinn
I read The Alice Network and really was not impressed, therefore I was unsure about picking up The Rose Code, but I am so happy I did! This piece of World War 2 historical fiction rotates between three friends who were all working on different aspects of the operation to break the Enigma. We meet Mab, who is a firebrand and has secrets she desperately wants to keep hidden. We meet Beth, a mousy little thing, who is used to living under her mother’s thumb but who has an incredible mind. Lastly, we meet Osla who is sick of being treated like a silly debutante and wants to use her language skills to help her country.
The story opens with Beth in a mental institution. How did someone like her end up in a place like that? And worse, what if she can’t escape before an experimental procedure is done on her brain? The story alternates between that point and five years earlier when they are working day in and day out to break the code in order to beat the Nazi’s and every decoded message could mean life and death to thousands of people.
Summer of ‘69 by Elin Hilderbrand
I talked at length about this book last year (see the full post here) but here is a quick overview of this historical fiction novel. This is a story set in Nantucket in the turbulent year of 1969. Ms. Hilderbrand does a great job of bringing the sights and sounds of Nantucket to life so that you can just about feel the sand under your feet! This story rotates between the four women of the family. I connected quite quickly to each of the characters in this book, and the struggles each of them face—unlike some books where I feel like I am just getting immersed in one person’s world when the narrator changes. Mrs. Levin struggles with the worry of a mother as her son is overseas fighting in Vietnam. Blair, the eldest daughter, is pregnant and struggling with loneliness as she must remain close to home this summer when usually she is at the seashore. Kirby, the middle daughter, is swept up in the civil rights and women’s rights protests of the day, which brings her close to some events that occur at the end of summer—an event we have come to know as Chappaquiddick. Last but not least, we meet Jesse, the youngest of the family who feels very much lost in the shuffle in light of everything her siblings have going on. Follow the Levin family on a summer that they, and America at large, will not soon forget.