My Favourite Historical Novels

As part of The Painted Girls blog tour, today I'm featuring my favourite historical fiction books.

It was really, really hard to narrow it down to just 5. As you are about to see, I cheated...just a little. (Note: All of the links below will take you to my reviews of these books.)

Until a few years ago, I didn't read any historical fiction. Because I hated (I mean seriously hated) history in high school all those many years ago, I thought I wouldn't like reading about it. However, reading historical fiction isn't at all like learning history is school. You don't to remember all those dates or "old guys". Now, I really enjoy reading about lots of different time periods and count historical fiction as one of my favourite genres to read.

One of the first historical fiction novels I read was The Soul Catcher by Michael White. It's set just before the American Civil War and is about slaves, who escaped, and the soul catchers, who are hired to apprehend them. I was so surprised how much I enjoyed it. To this day I still recommend it because it broadened my reading horizons and introduced me to historical fiction.

So, here, in no particular order, are the other historical fiction books I'd recommend:

The Day the Falls Stood Still by Cathy Buchanan (Her current book, The Painted Girls also belongs in this list. However, since I just wrote about it yesterday, I figured I'd feature some other historical fiction books that I really enjoyed.)

The Secret Keeper by Kate Morton (Kate has written many good books. If you go to this page on my blog and scroll down to Morton, you can see all of my reviews for her books that I've read.)

The Birth House by Ami Mckay (She also wrote The Virgin Cure, which is just as wonderful)

The Book of Unholy Mischief by Elle Newmark (I'd also recommend Elle's other book, The Sandalwood Tree.)

The Legacy by Katherine Webb (She's also written The Unseen, which is also terrific. )

So that's my list. I could go on and on there's so much really good historical fiction out there.

Oh, wait! Here are a few more authors to check out:
Lawrence Hill (The Book of Negroes and Any Known Blood)
Philippa Gregory (The Red Queen)
Roma Tearne (Mosquito and Bone China)
Anna Godbersen (The Luxe series)
Beth Powning (The Sea Captain's Wife)
Robin Oliveira (My Name is Mary Sutter)

Ok. I know I've missed a few, but I think I'll stop there...for real this time.  Enjoy!